Can the Timberwolves Make the NBA Finals? | The Ryen Russillo Podcast

Can the Timberwolves Make the NBA Finals? | The Ryen Russillo Podcast

Feels like every show we’re just kind of updating different things that we like from teams in the west and Minnesota’s win against the Clippers earlier this week was super impressive and we’re going to bring on a guy that I’ve been a big fan of I’ve read him for a long time

He’s covered the Timberwolves for 20 years it’s John krinski uh and also part of the television package it’s one of my favorite television broadcasts with Jim Pete obviously going back years and and Mike now with the team so thanks for doing this man how are you I’m doing

Great Ryan i’ I’ve told you before I’m huge fan of the pod huge fan of you and Cudi and Kyle and everything you do so uh thanks for having me man let’s have some fun so yeah Kyle loves the Timberwolves as you know so okay here’s here’s the thing about Minnesota’s

Basketball team and I can see this as it plays out and again social media isn’t always the best indicator of how everybody feels but it’s a team that last year you’re like oh okay you know and with the ant stuff kind of early through his career I’m like wait a

Minute like I want to watch him more than maybe anybody in the league not name je Curry um no expectations last year you get off to this incredible start all the defensive numbers are off the charts everybody that was mad that they were getting criticized with the gobear trade is now saying like

Everything’s perfect everything works out and then I don’t like necessarily using the term of the goalpost moving because that makes it seem like it’s some invented thing that’s unfair I think the reality is is when you have this kind of record you have some of the

Stats that they have as deep as the top of the West is now we change a conversation about whether or not this team can actually win championship and any hesitation with that is met as if you’re somehow doubting them and I’m tough it’s tough for me when it’s new

Especially in basketball it’s tough for me to assume that it’s going to work out over the course of four Series so you’re with them every day you’ve been with this franchise a really long time so the long intro is basically to set up the question of who is this team man it’s a

Great question we’ve been trying to figure it out the whole season right um they for the first two months of the year you said this team absolutely absolutely can get to the finals can even maybe win the finals with the right matchup the way they play defense with

How connected they were then they got into January and it was a swoon and you were starting to see some of the fourth quarter numbers all of these turnovers and mistakes that they were making and it was starting to kind of dampen a little bit of the expectation and the

Spirit around the team and Ryan man uh Minnesota Timberwolves fans Minnesota sports fans in general are always waiting for the other shoot a drop and and okay when is the gut Punch coming and so when you saw them lose leads against Chicago against San Antonio against Charlotte now you were starting

To wonder a little bit more is this team legitimate I think they’ve stabilized themselves now over the last couple of weeks and I do think right now looking at what they have talent-wise in the starting five and the way they play defense I think if they get the right

Matchups they can go to the Western conf Conference Finals maybe even deeper but they can also if they get the wrong matchup lose in the first round I mean that’s just the way that this team is right now and they have a lot of work to do offensively but um but overall when

If you ask Chris Finch and Tim Connelly at the start of the Season hey you’re going to be in first place going into the All-Star break and you’re coaching the Western Conference All Stars they’d take that every every step of the way okay so what’s a good matchup for him in

The playoffs like do you have I mean watching your team every night gives you a complete different level of understanding of who they are or who they aren’t and as much as I watch them because I love ants so much I don’t pretend to know every single Nuance with

Them and whenever I’ll look at like season series stuff I mean it gets harder and harder going like oh hey we’ll look at they have a three in one record against them so it’s a good match up it’s like okay now I got to go back and double check who played or who

Didn’t play you know the Clippers were full strength essentially except for zubach in the first matchup so you look at some of those numbers that I spent time on in the open and you’re like okay maybe is that a good match up for a Clippers team that’s looked like the

Best team in the NBA now for two months so can you give us like do you have an assessment of who you think hey this is a good matchup for them in the playoffs this is a bad matchup yeah uh I’m I’m mean maybe the minority I like the

Matchup against the Clippers because the Clippers have a bunch of guys that like to play isolation halfcourt offense and I am telling you man you line up Anthony Edwards Jaden McDaniels Nel Alexander Walker against perimeter guys in the half court in isolation and they want to

Sink their teeth into them and so I I really like the styles of play in in that series for the Timberwolves and just the way that they can get after all of those great Clipper uh scores and and really put them on lockdown I like them against Oklahoma City um I just think

That there’s going to be too much size for the for the Thunder I think it would be a great series six or seven games but I think over the Long Haul of a series the size of the Timberwolves would wear Oklahoma City down and they would be

Okay in that matchup Denver I know everyone said hey they played him really tough last year and I I I think they do defend joic and and and use Rudy on Aaron Gordon um to roam as well as any team in the league so I think it would

Be a good series I don’t I don’t think I can pick them against the Nuggets right now but I like that matchup the one that I really don’t like Ryan is New Orleans New Orleans for whatever reason just really gives these guys a hard time Brandon Ingram is not bothered by Jade

McDaniels Zion Williams looks like Zion Williamson looks like Charles Barkley when he plays against the wolves and so that’s one of those matchups that is I think scary for the Wolves but a lot of the ones near the top of the West I think that as long as they’re healthy as

Long as Mike connley is rested and ready I I I think they they favor they match up favorably were they mocking the Clippers I saw the story and I mentioned it a bit in my open too was was there anything real to that or was was it just

Something that I don’t know one guy on the team said and nobody really car it it was a little half-hearted Ryan um but it it it had history behind it um in the first game of the season that the that the uh that the Wolves played the

Clippers uh Rudy goar airball a free throw and um and the whole Clipper bench could be seen laughing like uncontrollably Westbrook was really they they they had a fan that was kind of uh filming Westbrook during that’s while Rudy was higging he was turning his head

Away and and kind of mocking uh Rudy that way and then um the the Wolves did not take kindly to that Rudy goar did not take kindly to that and so this last game in La there was a report uh that that someone heard a few wolves saying

These guys are old ant during the first game against Kawhi Leonard almost you know him an old man a little bit and it was kind of a playful jab but I think there was something behind it these guys have now gotten to a point where they

Don’t like when other teams make fun of Rudy goar he’s their guy now and and so they are pretty United and they do believe that they are younger and that um the Clippers are too old to keep up with them and so yeah I think there’s some real trash talking going on there

Anthony Edwards kind of usually leads the way in that regard the goar 180 is is pretty incredible I still don’t like the trade because of the assets um and at the time you didn’t really know what you were getting with goar CU I think there was an argument to be said that it

Was going in the wrong direction and he was expensive and you have the lack of flexibility moving forward on the finances for Minnesota so I think there’s a lot of parts in that but when you’re just looking at the player and who they are right now it’s really

Worked out and if you go back to not even a year ago he’s punching Kyle Anderson in April and the thing I saw is it felt like people were on Kyle’s side and not on Rudy side and I kept thinking like I don’t think the Utah guys loved

Him you know I don’t think he and Donovan Mitchell loved it he wants to touch the ball more Mitchell was just over it at some point and now you have winning solves a lot of things John as we know but how did this turn into something where it feels like this team

Now has his back in a way they didn’t before yeah it from last season the frustration the tension was palpable around the team and it wasn’t that they hated Rudy goar it wasn’t that you know they they just didn’t get along with him but bringing Rudy goar into a new

Situation when he was used to having everything surround him and being built for him in Utah uh was an adjustment for everyone involved and it was very unconventional what they were trying to do with goar and towns in the front Court the first couple of months of the

Season Ryan last year um it was a real grind and the offense was T difficult transition defense was slow and plotting and Rudy had come off of you know International play going into last season and he was a little banged up and so he did not play well he was not

Moving the same way that he did in Utah the turnovers and things are always going to be there but it was an ugly game to watch and I think that there were players that looked around and said we gave up all of this for for this guy and he’s not the defensive Mastermind

That that he has been purported to be and also on offense he’s been you know a real tough watch in terms of catching the ball in terms of converting at the rim and all of those things and so they struggled they went through it and and they were being asked to do something

That most teams were not used to playing and and I think that talking to Mike Conley about it about both with his time in with Rudy and Utah and then now here in Minnesota he said that it takes a full year for a team to figure out how

To play with Rudy gobear and Rudy has talked about it as well the adjustment of leaving the one place he had ever been in Utah in the NBA uh having an entire organization built around him to having to assimilate to a new uh new setting with established players here

That weren’t going to just bend over backward and change everything that they were going to do for him I think that was an adjustment for Rudy and there were times last season where he was a little on the stubborn side about what he wanted to do defensively needing the

Ball offensively all of those things and the numbers really supported it he was not the impact player that uh that he was used to being in Utah and I think all of that kind of bubbled to the surface with tension and you saw it with that Kyle Anderson confrontation right

Before the playoffs flash forward to this season Ryan um I think there’s been a little humility that has been involved with Rudy he went into the summer knowing that everyone thought that he was washed up and everyone thought that he was not worth this huge price that

The Timberwolves paid for him and he got himself in fantastic shape he came into Camp healthy and he came into Camp willing to compromise a little bit on some of the principles that had always been important to him defensively and offensively and so once the Timberwolves

Saw him give a little ground I think they were willing to give a little bit of ground too and now he is back to being an absolute monster defensively and dominating that way and so now there’s just more respect also that has been one over you know within this team

They see how impactful he is game in and game out they see how much they’re winning and that has helped a lot of the you know thaw a lot of the ice that was there last season and it’s a whole different environment towns and goar get along great ant has really kind of

Accepted him and and is now becoming one of his biggest cheerleaders and I just think everyone has relaxed a little bit and so um theyve found a way to meet more in the middle rather than kind of dig in their heels and want to do things their way specifically it’s made a huge

Difference yeah when he is rolling I mean the thing about Rudy that I’ve always been incredibly impressed with um because you know everybody wants to touch the ball and it’s just not going to work with today’s game and I would also argue there’s probably too many

Times where he gets the ball where I’m like what what happened there but but he moves so much for a center the amount of times he will come out screen rescreen he will come way out to the ball and he’ll roll you know like he he

Stays as active as a big guy as there is in the league without any of the rewards and you know I’m not saying he completely abandoned that last year but when you’re not having fun you don’t think anybody likes you and all that kind of stuff like you’re just you’re a

Little less likely to run out to 30 feet to set a screen in the third quarter of a game when you’re tired when you’re like this isn’t Fun and no one likes me so it’s it’s been cool to see because I think it kind of starts with ant which

Is where I want to go here we could talk about the moves how Unstoppable he can get at times the first quarter last night against Portland he gets his 40 you know I even wrote it down at three something minutes left they’re up like 19 and he’s getting in a full defensive

Stance against the ball handler and I’m like what is and that’s just all of these things that I love about him and I think Beyond his game or matching his game because it’s probably better to say it that way is his personality that you come in and I’m sure cat was wasn’t like

Wait now I’m deferring to this guy like look at my resume or at least my numbers and you know same thing with Rudy and of course Mike I think is just really good at any of this kind of stuff and I think you know Jaden probably would like to

Take a few more shots but ant has to balance not only what the team needs from him from a statistical standpoint but what the team needs from him to be the face of this franchise it’s such a young age for a team that has like real expectations that’s very hard to do and

The fact that he’s pulling this off I think is as impressive as anything we’ve seen in the League this year it’s it’s such a delicate balance and you hit it Ryan I mean we have seen it not work when Jimmy Butler came in and was supposed to share the spotlight and be

Co-stars with Carl Anthony towns that did not work at all the two personalities didn’t work um Jimmy wanted to do things his way Carl wanted to do things his way and it just totally imploded um but the emotional intelligence that Anthony Edwards has is really off the charts Ryan um the way

That he makes everyone feel like they are the most important person in that locker room while he knows he’s the most important person in that locker room has changed everything for the Timberwolves I mean this I can’t tell you how many times we heard over the last couple of

Years whose team is it is it Carl’s team is it aunt’s team like and and that kind of conversation can be really divisive and it can really get into the heads of certain players who pay attention to that sort of thing but uh Anthony Edwards has done such a good job of

Making Carl making Rudy making everyone feel like hey I have your back you are important he always deflects questions about himself publicly toward the other teammates you know we’ll ask him about hey you scored 40 tonight well yeah nikil Alexander Walker was the player of

The game you know and it’s that kind of a thing and so he does not give any impression that he is trying to take this team over and I think that towns has really appreciated that goar has appreciated that you cannot get mad at the guy like he he is like this just

Super Charming very genuine young dude from Atlanta that that just disarms everyone with his sense of humor and and with his approach and and people just laugh and chuckle um all the time and he just bring puts everyone at ease that way Carl Anthony towns told us a a

A story a little while ago where um they’re in the you’re they’re in a in a tight game at Halftime they hadn’t played well um you know Finch got into them a little bit and they’re walking out to the court and trying to figure out what what they have to do and and

Aunt just looks at Carl and says hey Cat why do they call you you big purr and and Carl just looks at him and just like starts laughing like that’s the kind of like energy that he brings to the table and and and it’s just like nothing is

Too big for him and and he also he wants to take on the world but he wants everyone to do it with them and that’s that’s been a a hugely impactful leadership quality for a 22y old kid any other great ant stories getting to know

Him all right what you got this this is my favorite one so we you know we see all of the funny stuff and we see all of the the the stuff on the court that is jaw-dropping and all of those things and and anyone can see those things but to

Me when I started to understand that Anthony Edwards might be different as a player that might actually be a player capable of putting an entire franchise on his shoulders and carrying them farther than anyone ever thought possible was his rookie season it’s the covid year all of the uh interviews are

Done via zoom and all of those things uh you later in the year the the wolves are in Miami and um Edwards was not around for the Jimmy Butler stuff he was not around for the soap opera and all of those things but he had gotten to know

Carl for for a lot of that season uh so the wolves go down to Miami and they lose to the heat at the end of that game Carl and Jimmy Butler are going at it verbally and and Jimmy’s really getting into Carl you know you’re a loser you’re

This and that and Carl is is is going right back at him um and you could see it on the TV screen it was it was very palpable everyone knew this was going on so at the in the postgame Zoom session Carl Anthony towns and and and ant sit

Down together to do it and um if you know Carl at all and you watched him navigate that Jimmy Butler mess when it was happening what Carl wanted to do was stay out of it publicly at all he was not going to engage in the back and

Forth he does not want to be sort of in the middle of those soap operas and and kind of see his name in you know in those kinds of Articles and things like that he just doesn’t like that part of it it’s not it’s not in him he wants to

Avoid it he wants to rise above it all those things um so I asked Carl hey hey Carl can you take us through what happened with Jimmy at the end of the game and Aunt is sitting right there he’s 19 years old at this time 19 and he

Steps in and says they’re just grown men dog this is just two grown men going at it it’s no big deal and I just I followed up and said yeah and I’m just trying to figure out everyone’s under trying to understand it and he squashed it right there and then and so he

Understood in that moment the history between Jimmy and Cat he also understood that cat does not want to engage publicly in these things and so he’s like I’m taking the bullet for him and you could see how much Carl appreciated that in the moment um and and it was

Such a high emotional IQ type of moment for him and I looked at it and said okay like this kid is is on a different level that way and for a young guy to understand it and and to really step forward and take it and just diffuse the

Whole situation I said there’s a real chance for this guy every time I I look at cat’s numbers I go you should love this player and I don’t uh I look at some of the drives and then I’ll look at the points per possession on drives and I go pretty good

Number wow like there just seems to be this disconnect that I have where I go what I see and then what I look up after are two different things and and I feel like I don’t know maybe I’m being unfair maybe you know I’d like to think

I can trust trust my eyes enough at this point sell so sell me on cat yeah I would say this um you know look one thing that we’ve discovered through nine years now is he’s not the number one overall pick that can just buy himself take over games and win games

And win playoff series like that’s not who he is yeah he’s not on the LeBron level that way not doing things that way but I do think that for those who don’t see him every day I think there has been sort of an unfairness in the way that he

Is viewed because um the amount of turnover and turmoil that he’s been through in Minnesota has been real I mean you’re talking about I think the the number is seven head coaches and five general managers in his nine Seasons um and and you know Untold number of teammates come through that

Have not been very good and not have been around him every time he has a a talented team around him they go to the playoffs now he hasn’t had success yet but uh in the playoffs but this looks like maybe the team that can break through he’s hyper efficient offensively

I do think he has done a very good job this season of acclimating to a new position to a new star that has come in and essentially taken his spot at Center and how many all-nba level players would step aside willingly and allow that to happen and just also be the guy who

Passes Rudy gobear the ball more than anyone else um so he’s a he’s a good teammate that way uh he he now over the last couple of weeks we have seen him up his three-point volume which has helped the offense quite a bit and I think that

He’s always just been a player who wanted a group to stick together stay together and be together for several years and he has never had that stability and so if he can be in an environment with Chris Finch as a head coach with ant as his running mate um

And keep that group together for three four years I think you’re going to see a different Carl Anthony towns and we’ve started to see that this year he’s playing better defense than he ever has before and doing it at the four um he is looking for others and getting others

Involved and he’s still remaining really efficient he’s not perfect uh he has he he gets too many offensive fouls he turns the ball over too often in some High leverage situations we see him get excited and and and have difficult nights um but I think overall um he is a

Much better player than than he’s gotten credit for over the years just because of all the turmoil around him has made it difficult for him to realize the full Carl Anthony towns I’m a huge fan of of Tim connley and and Matt Lloyd and Finch and in this group that’s together uh obviously

Viously know how I feel about ant and look you know what Alexander Walker has meant in spots what Nas Reed is meant and even though I think Jaden’s offense can drive me a little crazy um and some of the offensive numbers they’re late in the fourth quarter of the efficiency’s 27th in

Clutch it’s better it’s 19th you know the great thing about the Clippers game is it didn’t get into clutch time you know it right it just didn’t matter so it still concerns me but I think I mean this is what what you want to hear when you think you’re competing for a

Championship but I think the win in all this in the year one of of this version of this team with these kinds of conversations the fact that this is where we’re at with this team if they don’t win it it’s like okay but you’ve elevated into that now look the playoffs

If it ends up being disappointing the people are going say oh they were frauds and all the stuff that goes with all that kind of so there there’s a moment here already that’s happening that I feel like is a win for a franchise that hasn’t been in this neighborhood for a a

Really long time and that’s why I think everybody should feel really great but not necessarily content I’ll end with this do you actually think they can beat anybody and and win an NBA championship this year um I I do and that sounds just mindblowing for me to say given the 20

Years that I’ve covered this team and all of the dysfunction uh that has happened with them but I I I do think that one of the their their fault right now I believe especially offensively are addressable they turn the ball over too much um you know they they the shot

Selection later in games ball movement it gets really stagnant I think over these last 30 games that they play they can get better not maybe top five in in in the league and offense but I think they can creep up into the upper half of the NBA in offensive efficiency which

When you couple it with the defense that they play I think that’s a good recipe I also just look at they’re starting five and I just see a team that very rarely is going to go into a series or um even a nightly matchup where they have a

Talent deficit I think that you know they just have a really good mix of high-end talent that fits that is starting to figure out how to fit together offensively and if they address some of their offensive issues and clean those things up then yes they can absolutely

Win against any team that they play in the playoffs and go to the championship can they win that who knows but um just to say those words Ryan um in these parts is completely mindblowing now it is also a team that could lose in the first round like that is that is where

They are at right now and because of the lack of success that they have had over the long term they don’t get the benefit of the doubt you can’t just say oh yeah everything’s going to be fine they’re going to figure it out they have to

Actually show it but this is the first team that I’ve covered that I believe actually has that potential and it wouldn’t it wouldn’t stun me to see them playing Boston in the finals in June which is again like a it it it reality is distorted it seems

Like when you when you when you put Timberwolves and finals in a sentence together I loved what I saw from him on Monday I’ve Loved what I’ve seen from Aunt throughout I love the defense and you can tell this team really likes uh likes each other a lot uh John awesome

Job ready for years you can read his stuff the athletic John Kinski covering the Timberwolves now for two decades thanks for the time this morning

Ryen Russillo is joined by Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic to discuss the Minnesota Timberwolves, their potential to make a deep playoff run this season, and how the various stars of the team, from Rudy Gobert to Karl-Anthony Towns to Anthony Edwards, have contributed to the Timberwolves’ success.

Check out the Bill Simmons YouTube channel: youtube.com/billsimmons

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