NOBODY Saw This Coming…

NOBODY Saw This Coming…

The Minnesota Timberwolves are the surprise story of the NBA this season a team that we had some expectations for but certainly didn’t think would be a contender and as of right now they’re one of the best teams in the Western Conference and a legitimate Contender to

Win the NBA title and the reason all of this is so surprising is that Minnesota made their big move they made the move that they thought was going to turn them into the team that they are now but they did that two years ago and then last

Year they were a 42- win team and at no point did they really look like a contender in the team that they tried to build just never came together now In fairness to that team last year Rudy gobear Carl Anthony tal those guys really didn’t play together a ton cap

Missed a ton of time with injuries and there were good pieces on the roster but it was just a very up and down season and this version of the team that we are seeing this year this was the reason that they made the gobear trade I was

Critical of the trade at the time I still think there are things you can kind of poke holes in but you cannot argue with the results of this season and the vision they had for the team coming true this year that Vision begins in the front court with the combination

Of Carl Anthony towns and Rudy go be the franchise believed in the idea of cat as a complimentary big alongside go bear a role that he played at times in college in his one season at Kentucky where as a prospect he was seen as kind of like a

Do everything big a guy that could do a lot of stuff for you could shoot could create a little bit in the post um could defend pretty well and at the NBA level he became this big time scorer and the shooter but he still has that skill set

And they believed in his ability to play alongside Rudy goar in the front court and to kind of zag a little bit everybody was going smaller everybody was going towards these really skilled perimeter players and Minnesota decided that a bigger front Court was a big Advantage for them and then of course

Rudy goar the guy that they brought in is the combo there in the front court with cat and building a great defense around goar was always part of the plan and that’s come to fruition this season goar since he became the guy that he has

Now been he basically is a top 10 a top 12 defense in and of himself whenever he is out there they’re a great defensive team no matter what team that he’s on and that was something that Minnesota was counting on but the thing that really really changed everything for

Minnesota this year and last year is that Anthony Edwards has taken a jump and a leap towards being you know a top 10 player across the entire NBA and as interesting as this team now is as cool as it is to see kind of the results of the Rudy goar trade turnaround this

Season compared to last year and as well I would argue as those two guys actually have fit in the front Court together none of it matters they’re not nearly as competitive if Anthony Edwards doesn’t make the leap that he has he’s an incredible individual scorer he’s

Getting much better as a passer and as a facilitator and the defensive stuff all these numbers all these metrics that point to Ina as not only the best defense in the League this year but a historically good defense over the past 10 seasons when you compare this year to

Other teams a lot of that stuff yes you have to go with the size that they have and Rudy go in the front court but Anthony Edwards guards really well as well and having someone that has that kind of a two-way impact is incredibly incredibly important for a team that

Sees themselves as title contenders at the moment and again the interesting part of this is that it did come as a surprise coming into the season I have a video going back to the beginning of the year saying I think that Minnesota could actually be a really good team just

Depending on how the front court stuff works out and we saw how well they played in the postseason once they got everybody healthy despite not winning a playoff series and I kind of had expectations for them but I didn’t expect them to actually immediately and fully establish themselves as one of the

Best teams in the conference and if you had to ask me right now if Minnesota is a contender to make the finals and win the title I think they absolutely are I still have concerns about them as a team but it’s crazy how much things have

Turned around and in terms of the gobear trade itself one of the criticisms that I had of the deal was not only the value and the compensation the Minnesota was sending back but also this idea that goar was starting to slip a little bit as he got older he’s still very very

Good very impactful defensive player but some of the advanced numbers some of the eye test stuff had really started to fall off um that has turned around this year R goar has been awesome once again and again the fit alongside Colonel Anthony towns in the front court has

Worked even better than I ever thought that it would and as we go now into the postseason it’s a really interesting team to keep an eye on as well because they’re in theory they’re kind of matchup dependent right like it depends on who they match up against in the

Postseason but also some of the best teams in the conference like the Nuggets they play really well against those teams and so Minnesota is absolutely going to be a scary postseason team having said all those things I have two big concerns with Minnesota first and foremost Carl Anthony TS in the

Postseason in big games makes me nervous we have too many examples in the past of this guy making strange decisions getting into foul trouble getting in his own head and just having really poor postseason performances and I’m just a little bit nervous about that for a team

That I’m talking about as a team that could possibly make the fin for one of their better guys to be someone that I don’t fully trust in the postseason that’s a concern for me 100% and Carl Anthony SS is extremely talented and the rest of the roster is very good but it

Is a concern the other part of this as well is that they are very reliant on those three guys ant cat and goar and staggering those big minutes in the front Court they’re very riing on those three players McDaniels has been fine but not as good offensively this year as

I would have hoped and then the rest the roster is solid it’s fine I really like Nas Reed Off the Bench but in terms of like their core group of guys they’re incredibly reliant on Rudy goar’s had issues in the postseason in the past and Carl Anthony Talons who’s had issues in

The postseason in the past and Anthony Edwards who is an extremely young player and so when you look at some of these teams that we’re going to be looking at trying to push for the title this year amongst those teams Minnesota has the least amount of of kind of not even like

Postseason experience but like big game experience things you can point to and say I’m really confident in this group of guys that they can get it done but on paper right now just based off the regular season numbers and the metrics there’s no reason to believe that

Minnesota can’t make a push for the title season and that is an incredible turnaround from a deal that I honestly thought was a complete disaster for them at the time that they made it I didn’t understand the fit of Carl Anthony sounds and Rudy goar in the front Court

I didn’t understand the value they were trading away in exchange for goar and I didn’t understand that if goar was actually going to be as valuable for them as they believed that it would be but absolutely 100% I was wrong and this V this version of the team is the vision

They had for the team when they made the go bear trade and it’s really really cool when you see that kind of stuff turn around and get figured out after what was just like a worst case scenario season for them last year and my other favorite thing too about Minnesota is

They just play different like a lot of times when you’re watching games on a night toight bases in the NBA a lot of teams look the same there’s a lot of ball screen stuff and then they kick it out and they shoot threes they drive to

The rim Minnesota is just a little bit different they do attack sometimes in post ups with Carl Anthony towns they have these two bigs that sometimes it gets a little clunky in the front court but a lot of times their size just completely overwhelms teams as well and

They they just have this really interesting play style that isn’t necessarily as a aesthetically pleasing as like you know some of the Nuggets games or something but they’re just a little bit different and I hope that them being different is a positive for them in the postseason and I hope that

They figure out a way to make a run because I want this team to continue in this version of itself if they have a PO postseason performance if they lose in the first round for whatever reason I could see a scenario in which they break this down and they trade gobear and they

Try and get some stuff um there’s constantly Carl Anthony towns possible trade rumors there’s there’s constantly connections of him to like the Knicks or the Nets and all these different things now obviously any postseason performance doesn’t necessar neily guarantee that anything is going to change in Minnesota

But it’s clear that this is Anthony edwards’ team moving forward and if there need to be changes within the roster to build a contending team around him as he ideally ascends into one of the best players in a league over the next couple of Seasons then those are

Changes that Minnesota is probably going to be willing to make and I’m getting ahead of myself thinking about their postseason performance thinking about possible changes to the roster really this video should be about being excited about a team that has figured it out a lot of times when you make a move that

Doesn’t look good ini or don’t you know after the first year or two it doesn’t look good we never really fully give it a chance to get figured out and to to fully acclimate to a new situation and I’m glad that Minnesota is able to figure it out this

Year because one it creates an even more interesting Western Conference picture they’re a team that matches up particularly well with some of the better teams in the conference but also I don’t really want disaster scenarios I don’t want a team to give up a ton of

Stuff for Rudy go bear and then him be terrible this kind of scenario was always more fun and it’s really really been a nice story this season I hope this group sticks together I really app appreciate um kind of the difference that this group brings to the table I

Really appreciate Carl Anthony Town’s willingness to become a complimentary piece alongside of Anthony Edwards and I cannot wait to see what Minnesota looks like in the postseason this year

The Minnesota Timberwolves have been the surprise story of the 2024 NBA season, and look like a legit contender.

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