How the Minnesota Timberwolves Completed the Hardest Rebuild in NBA History

How the Minnesota Timberwolves Completed the Hardest Rebuild in NBA History

the Minnesota Timberwolves a team established in the 1989 off season joining the Miami Heat in the NBA is a franchise with very little success historically but when they drafted High School standout Kevin Garnett their trajectory as a franchise changed almost overnight a one time MVP 10 time Allstar a eight time all NBA player and an eight time all defensive member as a timberwolf but even in its time in Minnesota the Wolves had only made it to one Western Conference Finals it been first round outs in every year before that so after three years of no playoff appearances and kg being north of 30 the t- Wolves had to make a very hard decision that kg didn’t even want having to trade what some would call one of the best power forwards in NBA history to the Boston Celtics on July 31st 2007 and despite the huge haul they received back from the Celtics the many years of tanking and the many early first round picks used the timber wolves have only made it to the playoffs four times created only two homegrown Allstars and have been nine separate coaches but as we all know the Timber woles Just created their second best record in franchise history and have a new franchise leader and Anthony Edwards who become the new version of kg for the franchise but how did it take 17 seasons of Agony 17 seasons of pain and 17 seasons of draft bust alongside of 17 seasons of Mitch management to even get to where we are now well that would be the topic of today’s Deep dive to find out just how the Minnesota Timberwolves took 17 Seasons to truly rebuild after the Kevin Garnet era and while you might know the basics I am here to truly go into the many and numerous bad moves that created this longtime drought so with that being said if you want to see more videos like this be sure to like the video as we are now officially on the road to 100,000 subscribers so be sure to subscribe to be a part of that and to cast more videos but as usual this be a long one but you already know who it is R 2 in the stitch up the left it’s over it’s over ladies and gentlemen in the 2004 postseason the Minnesota Timberwolves were on top of the NBA with a 58 in 24 record while also making the Western Conference finals and had the potential to stay there for a couple more years but the downfall of the t- wolves from this point was very much a sharp decline in the worst way possible going from a 58 and 24 record to starting your next season 25 and 26 is not the type of way You’ like to see a Western Conference Finals revenge tour go but there was dysfunction from all over the roster that caused these lack of wins whether it was the contract disputes from Sam Cassel Latrell fre well and we all know what he thinks about money and Troy Hudson but what came more surprising was the fact that after the this bad start Flip Saunders would be fired after coaching the Timberwolves for eight straight playoff appearances and 4 50 win Seasons but this start was probably the nail in the coffin as he could never lead them all the way to the NBA finals and winning it and as we all know the coaches will always be the scapegoat when the team doesn’t meet expectations but after this season you see the foundation of this used to be consistent team leave piece by piece Sam Cassell will be traded to the Clippers Wally zerak will be traded to the Celtics and LR spro will retire at the end of the season and you want to know why for the people that don’t know why because the threeyear 21 million doll extension he was offered was considered quote unquote not enough to feed my family with that he learned what his true value was around the league and didn’t get another contract after that and soon retired after all of this in One Singular season so after that the Wolves were on top of the NBA with 58 wins then they are immediately in a rebuild era only one season after probably the biggest franchise shift in NBA history so what now well after two years of mediocre play in the west and kg turning 30 years old the t- Wolves knew what they had to do either ride kg into the sunset pause as Minnesota’s golden child or trade him to a team for assets and completely start all over but the thing was kg was never going to ask for a trade and was content in his situation he wanted to stay in Minnesota and wanted to end his career in Minnesota but after some convincing he was willing to be traded but he had some very strict demands and the only demand was is that he didn’t want to be traded to anywhere he didn’t choose and the only place he wanted to go was with the Phoenix Sons and Steve Nash a good friend of his from the 1996 draft and in the NBA itself however the Minnesota Timberwolves wanted Amari STM in return and that was not going to happen then you also had to go to state Warriors but they needed a third team to be included and that never worked out but the reason he could demand where he wanted to go was the fact that he could opt out of his upcoming player option making the deal not worth it to any team that he did not want to be a part of but the team that GM Kevin mccale was interested in taking was the offer that kg hated the most and that was ending up in Boston Massachusetts with the Celtics so with the rest of the NBA not able to make a deal but the Celtics who had one that they couldn’t ref was on the table the operation shifted to getting kg to Simply change his mind because his promise not to opt into his player option made him absolutely untradeable unless he favored where he end up but after some convincing the trade was allowed to happen by Garnett’s discretion on July 31st 2007 where he was traded for Ryan Gomes Gerald Green Theo Ratliff Sebastian tare Al Jefferson and two 2009 first round picks one owned by the Celtics and the other owned by themselves because if you remember that Wall-E trade I mentioned earlier they traded their original 2009 pick in that trade and got it back in the Kevin Garnett trade I seriously have never seen that been done before anyways the Minnesota Timberwolves are now in a new era and in this new era they are looking for their next Kevin Garnett to lead them for many years but what they never knew was it would take them almost 20 years to find that person and bring them back to the spot that kg took them in 2004 and then they brought it on to themselves every step of the way and now our Story begins the 2007 off season kg was traded and it was time for a new era of Minnesota Timberwolves basketball and the wolves have plenty of draft Capital young players and aspirations to get back where they used to be as fast as possible but Foundation to start things off kind of suck honestly because first off their newest rookie in the 2007 draft class with the seventh pick ended up being well with the seventh pick in the 2007 NBA draft the Minnesota Timberwolves select Cory Brewer from the University of Florida the two-time national champion of the Florida Gators Corey Brewer at Florida he was a junior who had proven himself as a compet wing with real defensive abilities and was able to Showcase his growth as a score but even the NBA scouting World knew the two-time champ wouldn’t have the biggest Applause from fans since his potential isn’t the highest at the NBA level could he be an impact player at the next level with time for sure but considering the very much topheavy 2007 draft class the timber woles probably did as good as they could do with this pick because Joe Kim Noah who was also right there and was picked two selections later was staring at them in the face as they needed a new big man but considering how big of an impact that 2007 Florida Gator team had together no one player really stood out and I’m sure that they pick Brewer due to his play on that legendary team and how they can plug him in instantly on the perimeter but outside of the draft they are now met with a team full of young players and one of them had to work out Ryan gone showcased himself to be a decent score to starting role with the Celtics last year averaging 12 points per game but as a 25-year-old third-year player he might safe to say’s potential is already at his Apex unless a miracle happens Gerald Green is coming in as an exciting and highflying score who needs to find his way around the league as one of the last players to ever be drafted straight at a high school Theo Ratliff and Sebastian tail farare were mainly traded for salary filler and lastly Big Al Jefferson the most intriguing player that the Timberwolves wanted the most in his third year in the NBA and getting his first look as a starter Al Jefferson looked to be an up and coming big man in the league averaging 16 Points 11 rebounds and a block and a half per game so while everybody else in this trade can be rather Expendable in the right situation Al Jefferson is the player the Timberwolves are most expecting to work out and to be a part of their future as a 22-year-old player with more time to develop his game and as the summer went by they made one more key move to even give the more future draft Capital which came on October 24th 2007 where they traded Mark blunt and Ricky Davis to Miami heat for Mike Doak Wayne Simeon and Antonio Antoine Walker not Antonio walker and a future 2009 first round pick from the Denver Nuggets in an effort to get away from Antoine Walker’s $8 million contract to clear up cat space the Wolves will willing to hold on to him for a price of a first round pick which the heat were happy to give up as it wasn’t their own and while I won’t tell you what this pick becomes just know it was a very important move that could change their future for sure but now we start off the 2008 season with the timber wolves and their new roster and it’s ugly one for sure with a day one starting lineup of Ryan Gomes Theo Ratliff Rashad mccant Sebastian Telfair and Big Al Jefferson but it was meant to be ugly because the Timberwolves won all of their future picks and they were looking to lose as many games as possible to get a future legend in the draft while also seeing if a young player can break out and be a part of this future but by the All-Star break there wouldn’t be any standouts except one Big Al Jefferson found himself to be the best player on the NBA team and absolutely took advantage of this opportunity in Minnesota replacing tg’s productivity averaging a career high 21 points per game 11 rebounds and a block and a half after a couple years out of high school to get his body acclimated to the NBA game and getting his chance with the Celtics last year the now 23-year-old Jefferson is now a quality big man that can really lead a team to wins problem is he’s playing at an All-Star level but not too many people on his team are even halfway decent Ryan gones as predicted stay a solid score in his starting role and mad MCC as his sixthman was crazy enough his second leading scorer on the team this is how bad of a team we’re dealing with here but the rest of the team not to many bright spots at all but with the youngest team in the NBA losing the way they are one of them unfortunately wanted out and it was Gerald Green who was requesting a trade out of Minnesota due to his lack of playing time but if you ask why he didn’t play GM Kevin mccale had a really short explanation for that saying quote he was probably just the farthest away from Readiness to play in NBA games end quote the early stages of Gerald Green’s NBA career was highlighted by his immaturity his raw Game and his lack of coachability which made him an easy target to trade away as pel didn’t view him as a true loss on the team which got him traded on February 21st 2008 to the Houston Rockets for Kirk Sneider in a 2010 second round pick but as the rest of the season carries on the losses would continue to pile up day by day week by week and month by month and their chances at the number one overall pick would get bigger and bigger as they ended the Season 22 and 60 the third worst in the NBA and ranked in the bottom three in the NBA in offensive and defensive rating and as I mentioned earlier the only real bright spots on the team was the rise of Al Jefferson who ended the year fourth in the most improved player ballot but you also got it here that during the same year he earned the player of the week award for the Western Conference on the week of January 27th where he led the Timberwolves to a 31 record while averaging 33 points and 15 rebounds a night and also earning his career high during that week scoring 40 points on the then New Jersey Nets and it was a very efficient 40 points 13 to 21 from the field and 14- 17 from the free throw line I say it once again Al Jefferson was the prize that the Timberwolves wanted from the Celtics and he is far more than what they expected for him to be now they just need a team to put around him or need to draft someone better to create a duo with him but around the team you have some real regrets Cory Brewer in his rookie season was one of the worst starters in the NBA if not the worst scoring Five Points not and shooting under 40% from the field this while his other teammates and Al Horford and Joe Kim Noah from college are enjoying successful rookie campaigns individually he was considered the worst out of the three and the scouts who said this were only proven right and as a 22-year-old rookie this isn’t a good look at all and while the other other pieces of the kg trade where as expected the final stab to the heart was seeing kg wi his first championship in the 2008 finals after many years of trying to do so in Minnesota getting it in his first try in Boston and of course insert the anything is possible so while kg is enjoying his most important season of his career the team he just got traded from is now in the dumps trying to figure all out once again but as the season ends the timber get the third pick and not being screwed from the 9 to1 Jump the Chicago Bulls made cough cough the NBA draft is rigged cough the Timberwolves have a real chance at choosing a real game changer for their franchise with the highest pick they’ve had since their Infamous kg pick in 1996 rolling into the 208 NBA draft the Timberwolves are the most fortunate that the first class of their official rebuild is considered one of the best ones coming into it and while they won’t be getting the dazzling Derrick Rose and the Memphis Tigers some say it’s the unanimous first overall pick the blessing of having a top three pick in an NBA draft class should never be taken for granted because they can take other freshman phenoms all with varying abilities and potential whether that is OJ mayo or Michael Beasley two of the best freshman the NCAA has ever seen or even the UCL Duo of Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook who showed they can be future NBA te cornerstones the timber wolves have a very big decision to make despite the fact that some say you literally cannot go wrong with any of the top five in that position in any order but as Derrick Rose and Michael B Easley Beasley go one and two in the NBA draft the timber wolves went ahead and put in their pick of who they wanted to be the future of Minnesota basketball with the third pick in the 2008 NBA draft the Minnesota Timberwolves select OJ mayo from the University of Southern [Applause] California enton janthony Mayo yes that is his real name AKA OJ mayo top player of the 2007 High School class and it turned into a top three freshman campaign in 2008 and the third overall pick of the 2008 NBA draft class the term NBA ready are usually not thrown at College freshman but the ruling for high schoolers not to be able to transition to the NBA immediately was in place and some would even say he could be a top three pick out of high school in the 2007 class averaging 20 points per game shooting 40% from three and showing every scoring skill possible in his one year at USC made it clear that he could transition to the NBA and the Timberwolves were more than happy to have him with Jefferson and and being the future of the Timberwolves both big time scorers who can have their way with any defense without breaking the sweat but it doesn’t end there as the Timberwolves offices were cooking all night in that draft for their second pick in the second round they picked up a center for Montenegro Nam n Cola Pekovic with their 31st pick and finally with the 34th pick soon after drafting Mario chers the NCAA Champion point guard from Kansas to potentially be their starting point guard alongside OJ and why NOA will be a draft in stash as he finishes his contract overseas Mario was good and ready to show the NBA what he can do the timber wolves had a vision with their draft picks and made the most out of it getting one of the best freshman in the NCAA one of the best guards in the NCAA and a center who be a strong P presence just like Big Al in a few years but while Minnesota fans were happy with the night they just had and imagining just how beautiful this young Duo of OJ and Al Jefferson could be they’d be soon having to hold on to that thought because soon after the draft the timber wolves will trade OJ mayo and Mario chers to separate teams for OJ he’d be sent alongside Greg Buckner Mario jarck and Antonio Antoine Walker keep messing up his name to the Memphis Grizzlies for Mike Miller Brian Cardinal Jason Collins and the fifth pick of the 2008 draft class and Pack 12 rival to OJ Kevin Love according to this ESPN quote wol GM Kevin mcale was infatuated with love but felt the team had to select mayo and use him to acire require more assets love a fundamentally sound post player should mess well with the timber woles buddy star Al Jefferson so it might be safe to say that OJ was only used as a trade piece originally to get the player he truly wanted the 6’1 260lb big Kevin Love they also get rid of the bad contracts of nla and Antoine while getting the veteran Sharpshooter Mike Miller to serve as de as Memphis was more than willing to do anything to get OJ so they can create a Duo of Mike Conley and OJ mayo for their own future so both teams get what they want one a future duo in the paint and the other on the perimeter but for the other trade Mario will be sent to the Miami Heats for two second round picks for a team who is obviously rebuilding and retaining as many picks as possible that is a Surefire deal that they can’t refuse for potentially getting someone better in the future in the second round a very wild draft day for the Wolves for sure but as some of us may know one that was very much worth it but we’ll get into that eventually but with a very quiet off season the 2009 NBA season is here and they are ready to lose more games most importantly though they are ready to see what the duo of Al Jefferson and Kevin Love can do together to add another chapter of what could be the stars of the Minnesota Timberwolves but in the first 19 games things were looking as expected a 4 and 15 start with a lot of L’s but GM Kevin mcel saw this as a bad thing that he and get this fire coach Randy Whitman for for himself to become the new coach of the team did GM fired the coach to then sign himself as the next coach I don’t know if that’s ever happened before but this is certainly an interesting thing to do as you give up your own spot to be able to control the team as you see fit to control them on the court and with zero experience as a head coach outside of an 0405 campaign where he went 19 and 12 this once again him including himself in the team Affairs for the better at least what some people would think is the better funny enough though in a Twist of cruel fate Kevin mcale would actually be the coach of the month in the Western Conference in January with a record of 10 and4 in that month so it showed that this team could be something they just needed to be put in the right direction with the right coach plugged in with the right philosophy but even with this positive run going on for Minnesota one major injury would pop up in February that would stopped the streak because on February 8 2009 the game versus the New Orleans Hornets Al Jeff would tear his ACL and be considered out for the season it was a season where he improved even more as a scorer a career high 23 points per game and looking like a true star big man in this league so hopefully this injury is just a bump in the road and he can get back into things next year all in all things relatively stayed the same for the Timberwolves as they finished the season after their great January 1 8 and 29 and end of the season overall 24 and 58 but while the record says they got a long ways to go there are the usual bright spots despite the major injury Al Jefferson solidified himself as a star in the league and with his minor hiccup in his career he could still stay that way as he’s getting healed and obviously not needing to be rushed back in this team that is absolutely needing a rebuild and as predicted from the minds of Kevin mcale Kevin Love was his advertised in the NBA averaging a clean 11 points and nine rebounds a game all the tools are there for Kevin Love To Succeed in the NBA but Kevin mcale wasn’t about playing big minutes as most Old School coaches do with their rookies so he could have legitimately averaged a strong double double if he was a day one starter and that was certainly shown in the Rookie of the Year ballot where he played six behind other players who got more minutes and opportunities he never even started alongside Al Jefferson the thought to be the future Duo and only got starting minutes once he was injured consistently and with no other real bright spots to Timberwolves go back to the drawing board and go into the 2009 draft where they are loaded with picks they have their own at the six pick the Celtics pick at 28 and the Nuggets pick at 18 but if you wanted to see what then interm GM David Khan was cooking he was ready to go all in in the 2009 draft class and found the perfect victim to take advantage of the Washington Wizards in the lottery got hit with some of that Lottery curs Juju originally going from the second best odds and dropping to the fifth but the Wizards at the time were expecting to go in win now mode with then Allstar Gilbert arena is coming back from injury and new coach Flip Saunders welcome back coming into town so in a stroke of Genius KH worked to trade to get that fifth pick for only the prices of get this Randy Foy and Mike Miller two veteran guards for a top five pick and possibly one of the best draft classes ever of course I mentioning that in retrospect but still hearing how and why the Wolves got that pick makes the wizards look super sad in their efforts of being relevant in a championship discussion and just to remind you all uh in that next season Arenas only lasted 32 games the trade was definitely not worth it but they did get John Wall in the next draft so you win some you lose some but this trade is known as one of the biggest deals in history for the value given up so now it is time for the temple wolves to make a splash with two top 10 picks two more later first round picks and two mid second round picks they have six picks to use in this class and only one of them if not two just needs to work out this is potentially the most important day in temp’s history yes even bigger than getting kg potentially as it’ll really solidify what could be one of the best GM jobs and tank jobs of all time if they pick the right players and end up profiting from those picks in the future I said this in the last section but the 2009 NBA draft is possibly the biggest day in Minnesota timber wolves history with four first round picks at their disposal the wolves have a huge chance to quite literally shift the entire trajectory of their future in One Singular night nowadays we see teams like the rockets and Thunder with the ridiculous amount of picks in today’s NBA drafts and get bangers in the draft due to it and having four of them is nothing to scoff at as you don’t see that every day but again with the fifth and sixth 18th and 28th picks if one of them works out that’s a road to Greatness if two of them works out that’s an automatic ticket to becoming a contender in a few years so all Minnesota has to do is just make sure that they get some type of productivity from one of these four picks so all of Minnesota is looking with eagerness to see what they do with those picks in particular sucks they wouldn’t be able to get a top three pick because they missed out on the Oklahoma Phenom Blake Griffin Arizona bucket getter James Harden and Memphis Tiger Tyreek Evans but let’s not act like you don’t get Legends outside of the top three anyways with the fifth and six pick they still got s like Davids and Stephen Curry USC’s demaro Rosen High School standout Brandon Jennings and many others but actually to one of these prospects that could have been a timberwolf they absolutely rejected coming to any workouts and didn’t want to be a part of their franchise in any way that person was Stephen Curry while researching this video I found a 2017 article from the GM at the time David KH that claims that Dell Curry didn’t want Steph playing in Minnesota and that he doubled down in every way possible denying all workouts and interviews with the Timberwolves and as a funny tidbit in this article Dell Curry was most adamant about Steph not playing in quote unquote Minnesota winners so with Stephen Curry one of the best guards in the NCAA off the draft board because well he’s been forced off of it who will be their first pick of the 2009 NBA draft with the fifth pick in the 2009 NBA draft the Minnesota timber select Ricky Rubio of elmas New Spain and juventud balona Ricky Rubio one of the youngest stars in the European circuit and some say is the most NBA ready player in the class at only 18 years of age and as it was common knowledge he’s been playing professionally since he was 14 at 14 for me I was having a hard time in high school geometry and playing on my freshman basketball team in high school Ricky was already a professional and playing against the Euro League’s best Allen out there it’s safe to say that David Khan has huge expectations of this Euro league product getting a true point guard who can improve even more with time in the NBA so with that pick established they have a second one to use they already are set with their bigs and now have a point guard of the future so this would obviously be a perfect opportunity to get a wing to even out their lineup of all young players or even a shooting guard and with them getting the next pick right after the fifth the Timberwolves fandom will still on their heels to see what player will be drafted here’s the commissioner David CERN with the sixth pick in the 2009 NBA draft the Minnesota Timberwolves select Johnny Flynn from Syracuse University so we go from one point guard to another point guard the six pick of the 2009 NBA draft after already drafting Ricky Rubio is Johnny Flynn from Syracuse and what makes things even more interesting is the fact that Johnny is even smaller than Ricky possibly one of the more head-scratching decisions ever made in the NBA draft wellever but they made their decision and I unfortunately had to talk about it Johnny at s was a star in the Big East and was already a high school All-American so it was safe to say his production going into college was expected to become a star but for him to be drafted at this position and alongside another point guard is quite confusing for everyone watching so instead of just speculating let’s read why David Khan made this happen according to Khan he wanted quote a back court of the future that included two versatile athletes who could rotate between point guard and shooting guard and an up Up Tempo system and he also drafted him due to the rebuilding team was more than just one or two players away from being competitive so he took what he viewed as the two best players available regardless of position so what I’m hearing is Khan is drafting the best player available at least to what he thinks it is and he sees these two working it out together in a rather interesting system rather than it becoming a competition between the two players now I have zero experience in coaching in any manner outside of a uh Powderpuff football Hut coaching job in high school don’t ask me how that turned out but two undersized point guards in your back court doesn’t sound very appealing defensively and historically doesn’t really work out and with one of them not being the best offensive product coming in and the other one needing to see if he will even translate well to the NBA as a 6-foot even guard this has big time potential to blow up in their face and become a very horrible night for Timberwolves fans to remember M but again they have two more first round picks to use and only one of them needs to work out out of the four with their 18th pick they drafted another point guard this time NCAA champion from North Carolina Ty Lawson but thankfully he be traded that night to the Denver Nuggets for an unprotected 2010 first round pick which is weird because I guess you could say that the Wolves didn’t see anyone worth drafting if they only traded Lawson for a singular first round pick and and finally with their 28th pick the Timberwolves drafted another UNC National Champion Wayne Ellington the Sharpshooter with the pick they got from the Boston Celtics trade for Al Jefferson so with four first round picks they drafted three guards and the tallest one out of them is 6’4 and traded the other one for another pick next year what was supposed to be the biggest night of their franchisees live is probably one of the worst nights to ever remember if you are a fan of the Minnesota Timberwolves because there’s a lot that can go wrong here you can aim the countless amount of players they missed out on but we can all agree on the fact that if it wasn’t for Dale Curry’s tampering Stephen Curry would be a Minnesota Timberwolf because there are many reports about The Wolves wanting him for a workout and the likes in the draft process but instead they got the infamous night where they potentially win 04 in the first round of an NBA draft and after a very slow off season with their main pickups being Ryan Holland shout out to Ryan Holland and Ramon there is one problem for the Timberwolves before the season starts and it is the decision of Ricky Rubio who is originally going to come straight to the NBA and at the last minute decided to stay in Europe for an additional two seasons Rubio’s excuse is that he wanted to be better prepared for the NBA with a two-year stint in Spain but there was also talks that Rubio didn’t want to give up the money he had in Europe and the potential 8 million doll buyout Clause that he would have to cough out his own money for to be able to become an NBA player and the funny thing is the NBA due to their rules can only compensate for $500,000 of it daily reminder that this sport is a business at the end of the day and Ricky Rubio wanted his money but going into the 2010 NBA season they were without Ricky Rubio and now without a coach as Kevin mccale was let go of his coaching duties during the summer his replacement would be Clark Kent himself Kurt Rambis who was an assistant coach with the Lakers before this and David Khan made this hire himself knew to Kurt’s background and Player Development and knew that this era of the team was still very much deep in the tank so Kurt Ramis was going to be here to see the youth development turn into something and he was promised to be here long term but let’s just see how long that lasts but it’s crazy to imagine that this next season where there’s a little bit more optimism with Kevin Love’s second season Al Jefferson backham injury and now the new rookies on the team looking to make this team better starts off even worse than last year they win their first game with the season against the New Jersey Nets in their home opener but after that you can just tell it was going to be another long season a 23o loss to Portland a 41-point loss to the Golden State Warriors 23-point loss to the tra Blazers again another 28 point loss to the tra Blazers and a 25o loss to the Phoenix Suns they went on a huge 13 game losing streak since the first win of the season and it never looked better since then but this season you see Kurt Rambis run the this team a little bit differently because in the last few seasons it’s been all about Al Jefferson and training him to be a number one option this year though Kurt Ramis is all about spreading the love all over the court and scoring all over the team so Al Jefferson numbers would go down drastically as you would see him and Kevin Love scored 17 points tonight Johnny Flynn scoring 13 points tonight in his rooky season Cory Brewer is finally learning his way around the NBA and he scoring 13 points tonight and starter Ryan Gomes is scoring 10 points himself but still for for some odd reason you still saw the lack of Al Jefferson and Kevin Love starting in the front court but the L’s were plentiful and their season was worse than last year in fact being worse is an understatement because the Wolves were the second worst team in the NBA with a 15 and 67 record their second worst record in franchise history was it expected well I’ll let you decide because for them to lose nine more games than the year before is kind of wild to think about but was there any bright spots on the team well Johnny Flynn looked pretty solid for a small point guard becoming a full-time starter as a day one rookie you’re averaging 13 points and four assists a game it’s definitely nothing to scoff at and his scoring efficiency can’t be improved on season by season Kevin Love with more minutes Contin to show his impact on the court and he’s even widening his range to three-point line this year and his 11 rebounds per game in under 30 minutes play showed a pretty valuable skill that he has at the NBA level especially when Kevin Love is in his second season was first in the NBA an offensive rebounding percentage getting 14.5% of all offensive rebounding opportunities and Al Jefferson is doing his usual Al Jefferson thing in the paint averaging 17 points and nine rebounds but considering how Kurt Rambis wanted that offense to be ran he probably won’t be touching the 20 point per game range again unless something changes and again Cory Brewer is showing up to be a pretty good defender in the league and a competive scorer in his role so there are pieces but you would like to see one of those pieces take a jump somewhere and the wolves have a huge opportunity to add another piece with the second best odds with the number one pick in the 2010 NBA draft however the goddess of the lottery did not look down on the Wolves pretty well as the Wolves went from the second best odds to earning the fourth pick in the 2010 draft and remember how I talk about the Wizards training that fifth pick last year well they jump from the fifth pick in the lottery to the first overall pick the draft lottery is not fun at all but again let’s not act like the Timberwolves can’t pick up someone good with the fourth pick of an NBA draft so now we’re back at the same spot as last year the Wolves can pick up another solid piece or even potentially a star in this draft class if they choose correctly they even own the 16th pick and the 23rd pick for extra measure but it is truly up to the scouts and the GM to make the right decision to put this franchise looking for a new hope to put them over the edge eventually so out of the few drafts we’ve covered so far there is arguably only one player who is worked out or shown potential of working out that one person being Kevin Love however we’re still waiting for a breakout Year from him for sure but going into the 2010 NBA draft the t- wolves have their third straight top five pick to use and by NBA standards the Wolves should be in great position in their future if they have been in the top five in the draft for this long however their time in the draft only became harder due to the fact that the 2010 class was not the most highly rated by Scouts due to the lack of young young talent and unless your name is the unanimous first overall pick John Wall none of these other guys are a guarantee to work out so the Wolves got to try that much harder just to get a productive pick while some people think the art of the draft is easy it’s really not but the crazy thing is draft boards all over the Internet had one person consistently going to Minnesota and it was for a good reason and as the 2010 draft was rolling through in the top three teams chose their Pi that one person everyone expected to go to Minnesota absolutely came true with the fourth pick in the 2010 NBA draft the Minnesota Timberwolves select Wesley Johnson of ser [Applause] [Music] University remember how I said John Wall to the Wizards was basically unanimous well Wesley Johnson to the Timberwolves was thought to be a match made in heaven and be exactly what the te- Wolves needed at Syracuse as a transfer from Iowa State Wesley Johnson’s sudden Improvement was seen as surprise to everyone at Iowa State he was inefficient scorer but with his frame he has a lot of potential to be a big time scorer and in his junior year at Syracuse he finally met that leading Syracuse to a 30 and5 record and a sweet 16 run but his stats is what got Scouts really going 16 points eight rebounds two Steals and two blocks a game this is not something that you would see at the NCA level and Scouts had him continuing to build upon that as a 6′ s wing with a staggering 7′ one Wings span and with Cory Brewer showing himself to be most likely a role player in his NBA career Wesley could come in and be a potential score that the Timberwolves needed desperately again a match made in draft heaven but while I’m here to talk about Wesley being the chosen one for the Timberwolves what we actually got to talk about are the other two first round picks they had for them and unfortunately they were traded once again Trevor Booker and Luke babbett were chosen at both 16 and 23 but we’re soon traded for Marto Webster as they also traded away Ryan Gomes to get him so say goodbye to one of the only solid perimeter scores they had on the team and for Luke babbett he was traded for draft and stash player nman beinia and Lazar Hayward why would they do this couldn’t tell you as I couldn’t find any info on it but to trade away three first round picks and two drafts while you’re still tanking as a team is crazy work if you ask me because you just never know who will work out in this league but as the Timberwolves walk out of the draft victorious in their minds Wesley Johnson and toe they would have a pretty interesting summer to deal with at ahead of these next season first a big time surprise the Minnesota Timberwolves would trade big man out Jefferson on July 12th 2010 to the shock of everyone he will be traded to the Utah Jazz for 2011 and 2012 first- round pick alongside Costa kufos but the question still remain why in the world would they ever trade Al Jefferson according to David Khan Al Jefferson was phased out of the rebuild with him about to turn 26 and wanted to take to advantage of his Value Plus the Jazz were looking for a new player to P alongside All-Star Darren Williams after Carlos Boozer with the Chicago and was more than willing to cough up some assets for the big man overall Al Jefferson loved this time in Minnesota and appreciated everything as the trade was seen as a mutual benefit for both the player and the team the t- Wolves took full advantage of its value and got back even more picks for the future while Al Jefferson can play for a winning team in Utah but even more interesting to add Kurt Rambis and David Khan wanted a faster Tempo team like I mentioned a season ago when they drafted Johnny Flynn and Ricky Rubio and Al Jefferson just didn’t fit the M they wanted as you can imagine just look at this big so this gives them even more room to make this system in their eyes that would make this team even better in the future but while Minnesota fans were mourning the loss of an Allstar level player that they seen grow up in front of them the t- Wolves were about to come into a new era as the day before the Tim wolves would only have to trade two second round picks to trade for the second pick of the 2008 NBA draft Michael Beasley this trade was mainly done so easy for only two reasons first one being the future arrival of LeBron James and Chris Boston Miami Heat and the heat needed to open up cat space to make those future deals work and while Beasley was shown to be talented and translated his game to the NBA level his Antics and immaturity off the court in the league made him that much less valuable but David was willing to give The Talented Beasley a chance to try and mature in the NBA so the Wolves got him on a Mega Discount two future second round picks but can you blame them LeBron James and Chris Bosch was coming to town and I doubt they were even worried about what they can get back for him if they had a future alltime Trio coming in instead in two days the Timberwolves once again transformed this team into something completely new but this time fitting the system that David Khan and Kurt Rambis wanted faster sleeker and thinner unless you’re Kevin Love however a core member of this new game plan would be missing during this season that person being Johnny Flynn the all rookie second team member would actually get a slight surgery during the end of the season last year that was supposed to handle a hip injury he sustained last year but after re-aggravating that same hip in the summer he would end up missing substantial time during the beginning of this next season luckily they sign veteran Luke Ridin hour but it’s still a bad blow to the roster and again their young core becomes even weaker but in the beginning of the Season you would see more of the same issues the timber wolves just couldn’t win games but they finally had a huge surprise take form their pick in the 2008 class finally becomes a full-time starter and makes the absolute most of being the main scorer Kevin Love started the 2011 season on a absolute tear because in their 10th game of the season Kevin Love and the Wolves went against the New York Knicks and Caleb scored 31 points while grabbing 31 rebounds a franchise record and the first 3030 game in 28 years it took the timber wolves long enough but finally their first pick of this rebuild is finally able to do what their former GM and Kevin mccale knew he could do and dominate the paint and these efforts would only continue as the season developed 32 and 22 against the Spurs 21 and 22 the next game against the Warriors 29 and 19 and a 34-point blowout against the Cleveland Cavaliers in another 2020 game against the Thunder all of this before the 9th of December but his real Breakout game would happen only 10 games later on December 18th where they would go against the nuggets and he would score a career-high 43 points while going five of five from three and grabbing 17 boards yes it did come out a loss but the Timberwolves front office knew that the pick they made a few years ago was more than worth it especially seeing how OJ mayo most likely peaked in his rookie season at least when you look at his numbers but another pleasant surprise is just how another move they made worked out in Michael Beasley who is turning his new situation into a scoring Showcase in Miami he was under the shadow of dwade who single-handedly took over most of the scoring and ball handling duties but in Minnesota he and Caleb are a Duo and he’s showing that his hype at Kansas State Wasn’t For Nothing by Christmas UC see Beasley eclipsed as a 20 point per game score and shooting over 40% from three making him and CB a 20 point per game scoring Duo yes while the team is continuously losing night after night at least you knew you were looking at the future of the Timberwolves by February though there would be some real Milestone step for the Wolves first on February 8 2011 Kevin Love would break Kevin Garnett’s double double streak earning 37 double doubles in a row almost every record you can think of is owned by the big ticket so to break one of them is a huge accomplishment and to add on to that Kevin Love will be acknowledged as an Allstar for the 20 All-Star game and you guessed it being the first one since kg since 2007 at this point you can imagine that the front office thinks that they finally found their new hkg the person meant to take them to the promised land one day the team is still at work in progress but they can truly say that they have their Cornerstone to work this team around honestly it didn’t take them long but things could have been a whole lot better and you know exactly what I mean by that but one more development would hit the Timberwolves hard and that’s deteriorating health of Johnny Flynn who came back from surgery but the coaching staff and management all around can see that his game is a lot weaker than it was pre-injury according to coach Kurt Rambis quote in my opinion Flynn came back way too soon I could see that he wasn’t ready to explode off that leg he hadn’t fully recovered from it management was pushing him to come back to start playing I didn’t think he was ready to play the surgeon felt like he had recovered from his surgery and was ready to play but was just watching him out there he wasn’t able to do the things he was able to do prior to the surgery I didn’t think he was ready to play and as a result he didn’t play anywhere near his level that he ended his first season with he lost a lot of confidence fans were booing him and we weren’t playing well as a team for my athletes out there I’m sure I don’t have to mention the total injuries put on you both physically and especially mentally to truly not be yourself after an injury like that and then for your fans to boo at you for it is an absolutely terrible thing but Johnny’s role would be diminished due to this injury and his deteriorating Health as he was mainly a bench player playing a role and finally one more last update at the trade deadline the Minnesota timber decided to make a move or at least be a part of a move the viral Carmelo Anthony to New York move I won’t go over that entire thing in fact I’ll just tell you to watch my Carmelo video I made on it last year where I go into full dep about that but the Minnesota Timberwolves were in it and traded away their lottery pick in 2007 Cory Brewer and Co to kufos to get back Anthony Randolph and Eddie Curry why well due to this thing called the internet I really couldn’t tell you because they soon waved Curry and ate up his cap where he was making $1 million That season but with this trade they lose a valuable role player who they raised to be a good 3 and D wing and considering all they got back was basically nothing I just don’t see how this was allowed to happen and for the final update this season Kevin Love is further etched into history as he breaks a longstanding record on March 7th 2011 Kevin Love recorded his 53rd straight double double breaking the previous record of 52 earned by Moses Malone one of the best bigs of all time that’s some pretty good company to be associated with in your resume but while the individual success was there Kevin Love and the Wolves still struggled to be a decent NBA team ending their year 1765 a two game difference from the year before sure you had K LOVE be the best rebounder in the NBA with 15 boards a night the most since Dwight Howard’s 14 in 2008 but when you give up the most points per night there isn’t much winning you can do sure Kevin Love and Beasley average 20 points per game as a Duo but when you give up the most turnovers in the NBA per game there isn’t much winning you can do to add on to their problems though the Wolves were bottom 10 in field goal percentage and assists allowed the most threes in the NBA and were even top three in opponent free throw rate and probably the biggest slap to the face is the bust of a first season their fourth overall pick was and Wesley Johnson who was a primary starter in his rookie season but he looked completely lost in his rookie season only being able to score nine points a night but on a terrible 39% from the field granted his scoring numbers were probably Capp due to Beasley and love but it wasn’t a great first impression at all considering how much hope the GMS had for him to produce immediately in some way as a older rookie the problems were everywhere for this team and it needed a potential overhaul at the head coaching side to change it but with this 17-65 record the tber WLS would own the worst record in the NBA which means they are in Prime position to get the Duke Blue Devil Kyrie Irving with the first overall pick but again uh the NBA is completely rigged as the keland Cavaliers will jump from the eighth spot to the first spot to get the first overall pick and the Wolves will be moved back to the second pick which isn’t bad at all the 2011 Draft has a lot of great names to choose but while you’re missing the best product out there there is no reason why you can’t get the second best option whoever David Khan thinks that person is the timber wols have found their future and Michael Beasley and Kevin Love but now it’s time to add on to it in the 2012 NBA draft because this team could eventually go somewhere so adding as much help as possible is for sure the number one priority in this next draft the 2011 off season going into the next stage of this rebuild this means the Timberwolves are trying to either patch up their issues or just straight up be better but what’s better than having the second overall pick in the 2011 Draft class and having the ability to straight up booler your roster with Talent of young players and what’s better the Timberwolves have two first round picks to work with to make this happen they own their own at the second spot and the jazzes at the 20th spot but we still have to talk about how we’ seen this team with hard even with four of them so is there any real optimism they can do well with just two well when you’re the owner of the second pick you are thought to make something happened but the problem was there was no clear number two in this NBA draft class or at least from the aspect of will this player do well in the NBA automatically some reporters claim that the 2011 Draft class is one of the worst in modern history coming up which is crazy and retrospect but in the now this was a highly credited opinion from scouts all over the league so so as Kyrie Irving goes first overall to the Cleveland Cavaliers the Minnesota timber have a lot of question marks to choose from no one is an automatic or as talented as Kyrie and we already know David Khan is all about drafting the best available person so who does he think is the second best player in the 2011 NBA draft with the second pick in the 2011 NBA draft the Minnesota Timberwolves select Derek Williams from the University of Ariz Derek Williams the sophomore from Arizona who in some draft boards Scouts thought he even toppled Kyrie Irving who only played 11 games due to a lower body injury but Derek played an entire season and looked like one of the best players in college basketball in his sophomore season he dominated the NCAA ranks as a 6’8 235 lb forward and looked like a god amongst men 19 points and eight rebounds a game while shooting nearly 60% from the field and remember he is only 6’8 and showing a serviceable jump shot shooting a three-pointer a night at a decent rate Scouts raved his NBA ready body where he can come in and automatically give you production in a similar manner he did in college some even say he was like a smaller Blake Griffin with a better jump shot very high praise to be compared to a player of that caliber but while the cheering was loud the questions came up up and there were plenty of them yes Derek did play a lot of forward in the NCAA but in the NBA where does he fit especially on his own team with Kevin Love and Michael Beasley playing the three and four spots is there any room for Derek on this team is he an automatic to be playing over the upcoming secondy year player Wesley Johnson logically speaking this can turn into a nightmare because how do you expect this rookie to work out if you have your front Court already established and unless you’re going to put Caleb at the center spot bad idea by the way that move was just going to be another one of David Khan’s blunders in the draft going for talent and not for fit there are other guys he could have looked for but again considering how badly rated this draft was coming in I kind of can’t blame him to an extent but overall this draft night was hectic for the Bulls they went ahead and drafted Lithuanian big man dontis Monti unes with the 20th pick however don’t get too attached to him because he in the 20096 overall pick Johnny Flynn will be shipped off on draft night to the Houston Rockets yep it’s time to talk about one of the most major L’s that the timber wolves took in the draft because we already had Cory Brewer being traded and now the pick they had two years later is gone as Flynn who has struggled to even play and stay healthy is being shipped only after two short seasons in Minnesota one that showed potential and the other one a complete downfall in another 365 days span can we really say that Johnny Flynn was going to work out in the league well the injury and his mentality says no but if things were different you just truly never know especially after his first season where he did show promise but he and dontis will be traded to the rockets for a package of Brad Miller Chandler Parsons Nicole amirk and a 2013 first round pick but don’t even get too attached to them because Chandler would be traded back to Houston and Mir will be traded to the Bulls both for cash considerations and since they won’t be mentioned again the Wolves could have used the talents of both of these guys if they stayed on the same path they did in the league well except Chandler Parson’s injury history but we don’t talk about that so overall all they obtained from this draft was a big risk in Derek Williams at least considering how their team is made up and a lot of draft assets from trade but as we all know from the duration of this timeline David Khan is known for making trades for draft assets and he’s been very heavy about them but the only thing about that is barely any of them have worked out outside of Kevin Love from the OJ ma trade and Michael Beasley from the trade last offseason for simply two second round picks but another thing the Timberwolves have done a lot in this timeline is changing coaches because on July 12th 2011 the Wolves would fire Kurt Rambis after two seasons with the wolves in a combined record of 32 and 132 a wild ass record for a coach but this two-year tenure of Kurt rampus came with a lot of drama between himself and David Khan mainly from the aspect of differences of how the team should be ran and other things I won’t mention the details are all over the place but just know that Kurt Ramis was the most professional man on the planet on his way out and the way he handled things after knowing he might not return as the coach next season but let’s lighten up this mood with good news Ricky Rubio their other pick in 2009 is finally coming in to be with the team after his 2-year stint in Europe but in Europe where he was saying that he was going to improve for the NBA his numbers didn’t insist that much and he was hovering around the same numbers he had before he got drafted in his defense the Euro league and the NBA are completely different products but at their bare minimum his scoring ability is called into question before he even stepped onto an NBA court and for the last development we have our next coach of the Timberwolves this time no more risk with new Talent this time they play it safe with Rick Adelman the former coach of the Houston Rockets with Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady and with 16 separate playoff appearances he knows a thing or two about making the postseason and coaching compet teams and with K Love’s amazing season from the year before he has a piece already known that can win this team games he just got to worry about the rest of the roster and making the team around Kevin Love halfway decent but with the upcoming NBA lockout it would be kind of hard having no team activities happen during the lockout and even worse David Khan gave Michael Beasley a chance to show growth and maturity in Minnesota and during the lockout he would get caught speeding on the highway while also having weed in his car but due to the lockout happening he would not be punished by by the NBA but a few months later he’d be headlined for getting an altercation at Expedition game in dykman at New York and another month later he’d be the face of a scandal involving his Old aou Coach giving him and his family presence and money in exchange of becoming his future agent when he makes it big but when he did become Michael Beasley’s agent Beasley would never pay said Old Coach so it became a lawsuit battle between two parties a lot of mess at the end of the day for Michael Beasley to become a part of but finally on December 26th 202 12 the NBA lockout season began and it was time to get back to normal Klo is ready to continue his start in the NBA especially as he finished 16th in ESPN’s top players list from the year before Ricky Rubio is ready to be a part of the NBA and the Wolves as a franchise point guard and Derek Williams is ready to see if he can fit in and show why he was worthy of being picked second in the draft and as I mentioned with the new coaching arrival of Rick Adelman the timber wolves actually started halfway through the season 17 and 17 and at one point was as high as the KN seed in the Western Conference it was all highlighted by as you can guess Kevin Love who was continuing his r on the NBA averaging a career-high 26 points per game which ranked him fourth in the NBA and was second in rebounds with 13 of night certainly one of the most dominant players in the league that year he even showed elements of a clutch Gene making a game-winning shot on January 20th against the Los Angeles Clippers because of course he had to do it on my favorite team there only lead the Timberwolves tonight was at two to nothing trying to win it here love got it oh my oh my oh my is that great basketball or what what a great win for Minnesota but this truly wasn’t led by his play alone the rookie season of a 21-year-old rookie Rubio who already was a top five playmaker in the NBA averaging eight assists ton night and even getting a career-high 14 in his eighth game of his career the move made by David Khan was a good one off the bat but his main weaknesses from the Euro league was still showing in the NBA being a below average if not just plain bad scorer in general but as a playmaker and even as Defender he’s already playing like a 10-year veteran in his role and for another nice surprise the second round pick of the 2009 draft nicoa Pekovic is showing why he was drafted in the first place becoming a starter with the team and a force of nature in the paint alongside Kevin Love and easy target for assist for Ricky Rubio averaging a second team best 14 points per game this team had death and weapons all over and the strategy of Rick Adelman made the Timberwolves look like a team on the rise but it wasn’t all Perfection around the team first you had the contract disputes of Kevin Love who wanted to obtain a Max rookie extension to solidify himself as the designated player of the Timberwolves but David Khan was not having it for some reason I seriously don’t see who else would have that label but just know it got so bad that khanan literally bursted in the locker room once with a contract in hand that served as an ultimatum to Kevin Love And while love didn’t accept this deal eventually him and Khan came to an agreement which came to a contract deal of 4 years and $62 million with the fourth year being a player option as you can imagine love was not a fan of this deal but if he felt a certain way he could always leave in the 2015 free agency class as a unrestricted free agent the other problem though Michael Beasley the one’s 20 Point per game score for the Wolves is now a bench player after sustaining a early foot injury in the season he will be demoted to be a primary player off the bench for Luke Rau as the shooting guard and moving up Wesley Johnson to the small forward spot and it just seemed like Beasley could never work his way back up to the starting lineup after that injury that only took him out for seven measley games but it was safe to say that coach Adelman just went with what was working WIS wise despite that though the Wolves were competitive somewhat and in the wild Western Conference it was a great start to Rick adan’s tenure as the coach come February though once again Kevin Love will be recognized as an All-Star member of the Western Conference for his more than dominant play for the season so far but I think his true highlight of the weekend was the fact that he as a big man beat Kevin Durant in the 2012 Three-Point Shootout beating the likes of Mario chers James Jones Anthony Morrow KD and Ryan Anderson okay it wasn’t the most star studied event ever but Kevin Love’s name only became that much larger around the league due to his performance as a player as a rebounding machine as a shooter and as the leader of the Timberwolves things after the All-Star break would start to slow down though Ricky Rubio would sustain an AC and LCL tear running into Kobe Bryant on March the 9th and as a major contributor to the Timberwolves early success you’d start to see the decline of the Wolves Nights by night and these losses reminded the fandom of last year where they looked like they didn’t even know how to play basketball from the All-Star break to the end of the season the Wolves went 9 and 23 and dropped off offensively big time being a beneficiary of Ricky Rubio’s passing Kevin Love tried his best to carry this team though especially where he went toe-to-toe with the eventual final representatives in the west the OKC Thunder going to a double overtime battle scoring a career high 51 points against them but K LOVE just can’t do it all by himself at the end of the season though he was very vocal about his frustrations about making the playoffs and ending the year 26 and 40 and while this was the best record they had since the 0607 season that is very sad to say it was nowhere near close to making the postseason so now the pressure is on the Timberwolves front office because K LOVE can get tired of this and leave using that player option that David Khan gave him early in the year and he is a top player in the league or at least getting there wasting potential like that is a bad look almost in the same way kg’s time was waiting in Minnesota to some people the NBA fandel but let’s look around the team we already spoke about the falloff of Michael Beasley talent wise who is now going to be a free agent an unrestricted free agent at that so what about the other Wing guys who could potentially replace his productivity well Wesley Johnson to continues to be disappointing even as a starter for the second season in a row somewhat confirming people’s thoughts that he just can’t translate to the NBA game but now we have another interesting young player doing the same and Derek Williams all of his tools that was being praised in College are not translating well in the NBA his body isn’t taking the interior defenses of the NBA well at all and his ability to increase his range to the three-point line is a joke shooting in the 20s three-point percentage wise now can he figure it out some way in the NBA sure but does he have a lot to work on only averaging eight points per game in his rookie season yes only the patience of the Timberwolves can save him and Wesley however long that’ll last but even with all the negativity around the team there is still something to celebrate Kevin Love made the Ba’s all NBA second team at the forward spot a huge accomplishment and Accolade for his career and as you can imagine being the first t- wolf since Kevin Garnett to be a part of that legendary Club this only confirms more that CB is a household name and has a lot to offer to this team he just needs help and desperately and joining him in the postseason award race is Ricky Rubio who made the all rookie first team and was the runner up in the Rookie of the Year race losing to Kyrie Irving and by a landslide by the way but as a fun fact fact did you know that Ean Shumpert kawi Leonard and Kenneth fared all earned first place votes but Ricky got zero just something to think about and yes drik Williams was on the all rookie second team also but anyways as the season ends there are a lot of things to build on you have Kevin Love who’s easily a franchise guy for them and Ricky who is already a top playmaker in the NBA but the team around him needs a lot of development to take this team anywhere near the postseason especially in the 2010 era of the Western Conference but but in this off season they wouldn’t get much help adding new Young talent because they traded their 2012 pick which placed 10th in the class to the Clippers in 2005 in a future pick trade by the way so the only pick they do have is a 18th pick from the Jazz in the Al Jefferson trade which also got traded to the Houston Rockets for a thirdy year Chase Budinger Yes you heard that right Chase Budinger got traded for the 18th pick in the 2012 NBA draft why because he played under Alderman in Houston and he was a suggestion from the coach himself as he was thought to be a player he can improve into a good player eventually just listen to this quote from ESPN Chase was an integral part of our team in Houston my last two years as a coach there adman said he will help our perimeter game with his athleticism and shooting ability Chase’s game has improved in each of his three seasons in the NBA and we look forward to that continuing here in Minnesota hopefully so with no draft picks and a lot of questions around the roster what fate does this Timberwolves team have because the questions around this roster are plentiful will this off season be treated as important by the front office who is going to improve in this offseason will David Khan make a move worthy of sparking a light in this team and will another year of Kevin Love’s play be wasted guess we’ll just have to see just like I mentioned last season one of the next steps in the rebuild is getting more talent to surround your young stars with in this case you have to Center peace with Kevin Love and with this team full of young players and a lot of them not working out what David Khan and coach adaman decided to do was go fully into trying to win by any means necessary it’s a rash decision but if you have all your draft picks that aren’t working in one way or another then it is time to let them walk or rot on the bench in this case Wesley Johnson wouldn’t be brought back on his rookie team option after is more than disappointing two seasons with the timber wolves and was traded to the Phoenix Suns Michael Beasley who at this point is a draft pick for the wolves getting him at his age was let go himself and wasn’t given a chance with another extension and the 2009 late first round pick Wayne Ellington will be traded during the summer for defensive Wing Dante Cunningham the youth movement is pretty much no more in Minnesota as it was time to actually compete for a playoff spot was it a foolproof plan not by any means but it’s better than repeating the same game every year where one or two guys are good and none of the young guys that you drafted are doing anything that would suggest there is going to be a future come up to replace some youth on the team and remember this is Minnesota we’re talking about so it isn’t a Prime Time free agan destination shout out to anyone who lives in Minnesota in the slightest but the Timberwolf sign Russian point guard Alexis fed who at this point had zero NBA experience it wasn’t even a draft pick by anyone in the past he was just straight up brought in from his overseas team but to continue they also signed NBA veteran Andre kolinko AK-47 and lastly as a surprise to everyone what was left of Brandon Roy in 2013 who at this point was coming at of retirement to play after receiving many treatments for his needs and it was a fully expected fact that he was going to be a starter for this team day one for a fullon Resurgence of his career so if he could be brought on to be something strong as an offensive force that he used to be and amazing value with this 2year and10 million deal then it is a win for the Timberwolves and remember this team still had Luke R an hour the reliable veteran point guard nicoa Pekovic who is ready to level up some more JJ barer was off the bench for support and of course the duo of Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio not the greatest Duo ever but it’s something that the front office believes is enough to make at least a playoff appearance and ESPN themselves certainly did believe in them somewhat because ESP PM had them ranked as the 14th best team in the league in their season previews which has to mean something but the 2013 season for the Wolves had to be possibly the most depressing for fans out there because there were news that they were in for the worst reasons over and over again first off Kevin Love would even be with the team at the beginning of the Season due to Breaking parts of his fingers during a morning workout in the summer and when he came back only 10 games into the season you can tell he was struggling big time losing all of his shooting stroke and consistency in his game and while he strove to play to the best of his abilities he would eventually be sat out for the rest of the season to get well needed surgery on that hand and to show you how rough those 18 games were for him he averaged a modest 18 points in his usual 14 rebounds a game but he shot the three ball at a 21% clip because again broken hand and shot overall from the field at a 35% clip there has been injuries all over this team during this timeline altogether but for it to happen to Kevin love is an absolute nightmare scenario for the Timberwolves but the injury bug was spread all around Brandon Roy a day one starter with the wolves look absolutely nothing like he did when he was an All-Star and a top guard candidate in the league in his first game you see he tried to bring back his old self shooting 44 from the field trying to be the leader that he once was but after only five games yes five games in the regular season Brandon Rory would receive yet another major injury and be sat out for the entire season but just like that the wolves are without their two best and expected scores on their team leaving the duties to well anyone who can pull it off I guess Ricky Rubio would also be out the first 20 games himself so but you could tell that due to these injuries the season was doomed from the start by the allstar break they were 19 and 31 with barely any positives in sight and the only way the Wolves be able to win these games was through the power of teamwork owning six players who score over double diges Night by night with Nia Pekovic being their main score with 16 points a night this team also had an above average defense which is what the front office tried to give the team after having a bottom range one last year and the additions of Cunningham and AK-47 was a good one then we add the fact that Ricky Rubio finished second in the NBA that year in steals averaging 2.4 a game you can see how Minnesota at least stayed somewhat competitive they passed the ball around to get points through the passing of Ricky Rubio’s 7 assist T night and defended as best as they could to keep the games in range but without the star power of Kevin Love they didn’t have someone who can carry them when it was absolutely needed at the end of the season though there was yet another positive that looked like a gleaming Ray of Hope the Timberwolves approved once again on their record with a 31 and 51 record the best record in this video and a five game increase from the year before and this was without Kevin Love for basically the entire season so that’s got to show that this team can do something with a star player on that team for sure and with the absolute great coaching of Rick Adelman but K LOVE after the season was done once again complaining to the front office about the lack of power on this team and the amount of losing and the fact that they never made the playoffs since he’s been there and due to that on May 2nd 2013 David KH will be fired from his GM duties effective immediately a lot of timberwol fans to this day blame a lot of the early 2010 failures on David himself and regarded him as one of the worst GMS of all time we can go down the list of how many times he has whiffed majorly whether it was the 2009 draft where he missed out on multiple NBA talent for what he believe were the best available players AKA Johnny Flynn Ricky Rubio and you can repeat that same exact Logic for every draft he took AP part of his constant need of trading assets to get more draft Capital even though he would then use that draft Capital to draft absolutely no hits his entire time in office and even his player relationship skills were not the best so it was good Ren to him for a new person to be at that seat this time being the return of beloved Timberwolves icon Flip Saunders who is now serving as the GM of the team and while this was his first time in a position like this it is up to him to now make the decisions to get this team right on track this time around and looking around the team was there much to see in the eyes of improvement maybe the fact that Derek Williams improved on his numbers from the year before I guess but other than that this team is as stagnant as As It Ever Was and what’s worse we got another dud in the draft this time even worse than the 2011 Draft class according to experts and the Timberwolves were blessed or cursed I guess to have two picks in the first round of the 2013 class their own at the ninth pick and the 26th pick from the Rockets originally the Grizzlies so now in this new era with Flip Saunders back at the helm and an already experienced coach who has shown his worth and improved the timber wolves record two seasons in a row is this the combo the Timberwolves have been waiting for to finally make some noise in the western conference with the return of Flip Saunders the franchise where he started his coaching career in the NBA with it is his job now to turn them back into the perennial playoff team he coached back in the 90s and 2000s as the team’s general manager but considering how much of a mess David Khan created it is his job first of all to fix what David Khan has done but there’s one thing that flip could take advantage of and that was the use of the ninth pick in the 2013 NBA draft and the later pick he got last year only problem is the 2013 NBA class was garbage I won’t go into what people said about this class in particular because if you’ve been around the NBA for a bit you just know what the talking points were and you just knew how bad things can get for those who don’t just imagine a draft class where nland noell was considered to be the number one pick of an NBA dra draft so I guess it was up to them now to try and just make the most out of it or maybe even trade that pick for another investment in a future class but after eight picks of more than interesting people the Wolves were on the board and it was time for them to make a decision you know what I won’t even try to play around with this terrible draft class this doesn’t deserve me showing who they actually got because the Timberwolves drafted nay Smith Award winner Trey Burke from Michigan the sophomore is one of the few underclassman ever to earn that award historically and with his array of shot creation skills and playmaking skills he is what some people would see as a future scoring guard in the NBA but just like many of guards out there his main hit to his stock was the fact that he was listed at 6 foot even and due to that having big time questions of his use defensively and his ability to translate his scoring ability at the NBA level now uh where have I heard that before but anyways don’t get too attached to him because Flip Saunders was already cooking in his role as the GM and taking advantage of a team who wanted him desperately that team being once again the Utah Jazz who was stuck at the 14th pick and wanted to move up and they were more than willing to make a move with the Timberwolves to get who they thought was the best player in the class and with the price that flip was asking for getting two of the Jazz’s first round picks in the 2013 draft first the 14th pick in shabaz Muhammad the top ranked High School recruit in the 2012 class and UCLA freshman standout who averaged 17 points per game but due to his little injuries here and there and his very much unorthodox game he fell despite his more than good freshman year and for his other prize Gori Jang the 21st pick and NCAA champion from last year he’s mainly just your run-of- the-middle defensive center with very little offensive game but he was a willing passer and a strong finisher alongside a 7 fo3 wingspan and has a lot of upside as a lock down paint Defender I’d argue that’s a pretty good trade if either those two guys work out or they both become productive members of a future core the Timberwolves would also draft Andre Roberson at the 23rd pick but he was traded very quickly himself to the Golden State Warriors for a 2014 second round pick and cash consideration so basically nothing uh I’m not a big fan when teams do that and the draft is now over and done with some would argue that Timberwolves were a top five team in that draft garnering two guys who at time could be decent or at least be quality role players on their team and considering how all around confusing this draft class was that’s honestly not a bad payout if you ask me but this team still has a lot of ways to go to appease Kevin Love’s wishes of becoming a playoff team so flip sers gets right to work in this off season to get Kevin Love his best teammate of his career so far because if you look closely at the Western Conference there was a certain dispute happening in Oklahoma City that Saunders took advantage of just like what James hard and Kevin Martin was coming up on a contract year and Sam pry had no money to give him or at least as much as he wanted after ending the year fourth place on the Sixth Man of the Year ballot so Saunders saw an opportunity and went to prey to make a trade to clear the Thunder from losing out on him for nothing in a sign and trade deal Kmart signed a deal for 4 years and $27 million and was being traded to the Timberwolves but it also came with them having to give up veteran Luke rid an hour to the Milwaukee Bucks alongside a second round pick to get the deal done via reports Luke was a favor to coach Adelman but he described this move as quote sometimes you have to give up things you don’t really want to but you have to look at where you want to go at the end knowing it was a very worthy sacrifice for the future of the Timberwolves Ambitions the summer didn’t end there though there’s a lot more that the team had to do to go on and get this team ready for a potential playoff run getting Ronnie Turf in free agency bringing back Cory Brewer after his time in Dallas won a championship and now with Kmart a former 20o per game score on the team playing alongside one of the best Playmakers in the NBA and Kevin Love ready for his comeback season will this finally be the year that timberwolves make the playoffs for the first time since 200 and four well in the Western Conference where the a seed won 45 games last year there was a clear challenge the wolves have to face to even expect being close to being a playoff team and with a day one starting lineup with Rickie Rubio Kevin Martin Cory Brewer Kevin Love and Nia Pekovic name wise that isn’t that bad of a starting unit especially if Kmart can get back to where he was as a Sacramento King and with a s and4 start the Wolves were on their way to exceeding expectations and making the playoffs finally but the reason I stopped there was because flip sa was going to have to make one more move one more tiny itty bitty change to this roster because it’s time to talk about the second pick of the 2011 NBA draft Derek Williams throughout his last two years Williams has enjoyed a very big role on the team and trying to find his place in the league as a rebuilding Timberwolves team was using him all they could but in this season so far he has seen his minutes decrease Big Time dropping from 25 at night to now a sporadic 12 a night and according to ESPN Rick Adelman talked about the situation saying quote I just didn’t foresee Derek being able to play much and with Derek being more than frustrated with this Change Flip Saunders decided to trade him to the sac Kings another tanking team looking for youth for the services of Luke Rasha and b a defensive veteran who can play his role way better than Derek but now once again we got to talk about just how bad of a job David Khan did in retrospect with his draft picking logic and now his last ever first round pick he drafted is out in only two years joining Wesley Johnson and Johnny Flynn but at least he got Kevin Love for the old coaching Kevin mcale otherwise this could have been an even worse drafting resume if OJ mayo was on the team and played the same way while not working out at all but again this team can now focus on winning games with drik Williams out of the locker room but the only problem was the Timberwolves were the epitome of inconsistent some stretches you see a winning team and some a big losing streak by the time the All-Star break came up the Wolves were still not where they wanted to be with a 25 and 28 record and it was because the Wolves one of the most polarizing teams teams in the NBA the Wolves owned a top five Pace in the NBA and scored the third most points per game in the league and this was headlined by the second time Allstar Kevin Love who was scoring 26 points per game and being a top scoring candidate in the league and with that top five Pace you see Ricky Rubio be top five in assist getting a per night and also the second leading scorer Kevin Martin having his Resurgence in the league as a reliable scorer behind Kevin Love scoring 19 point tonight but I think the most surprising aspect of this team was the fact that the second round pick Nia Pekovic joined in this offensive dominance scoring nearly 18 points tonight however was an inconsistent part of this team due to injuries and Cory Brewer himself scoring 12 point tonight and almost averaging two steals a game alongside that being the best version of what people expected he was going to be after he got drafted seventh overall in 2007 but why in the world was this team under 500 after speaking about all of these positives the team pulled off it’s because inside the three-point line this team couldn’t defend a traffic cone allowing teams to shoot a near League High 51% from the two-point area a tragedy of a stat for a team trying to make a playoff run but even with that you see a new side of Kevin Love this year because Kevin Love would become a playmaker who is now averaging a career-high four assists per game and earning his first triple double against the Nuggets right after the All-Star break he also break another temp’s record in March will become the franchise leader in three-pointers made in the season passing Rashad MC 142 and lastly he become the first ever player to score 2,000 points grab 900 rebounds and get 103p pointers in a season but did it translate to wins though that is the main question during the allar break the Timberwolves would sit at 25 and 28 after the allar break they would finish their season 15 and 14 the Timberwolves simply couldn’t create a run towards the playoffs staying back and forth in their efforts of becoming mid because they end the season 40 and 42 but I think the most depressing part about all of this is the fact that the timber wolves possibly never stood a chance in the first place because as I mentioned earlier the Western Conference was wild at the time with teams even with great records out of the playoffs just like this year with the Golden State Warriors winning 45 games but being the temp seed this time around though the 40 and 42 Timberwolves were the 10 seed and the nine seated suns were 48 and 34 for a 48 and 34 team didn’t make the playoffs and in this year’s Western Conference seven of the eight teams had a 50 win record the Timberwolves simply never stood a chance you truly had to be a top tier team in this era to even scratch the playoffs in the Western Conference and the Wolves were just not in that realm yet and with that 20 and 42 record it does show progress once again being the best record they had since 2005 the Timberwolves were punching up their weight class just trying to make the playoffs and while Kevin Love would once again make the all NBA second Team Real questions had to be asked about if there were any hope with the Timol becoming a playoff team and what was needing to be done well they had to figure something out because Rick adaman after 23 seasons of coaching in the NBA will retire on April 21st 2014 he was definitely the second best coach the wolves have ever had which just makes these questions for their future even more critical because a back coach or even a mid coach can set this team back even further so how will the Timberwolves go into next season Kevin loves fre agency status is pending and he could choose to leave at the end of the season if he wanted to because of course David KH just has to have his grubby fingers all over every situation the timber wolves now need a new coach and unless things massively improve the Wolves won’t be in the playoffs realistically for a long time which does mean that this next off season will be pretty important and some key decisions need to be made so going into the 2014 off season the air around the franchise was of major concern you find out that even your best your absolute best can’t even give you a bottom tier playoff spot bare minimum due to an overly competitive Western Conference the best coach you’ve ever had since forever is now retiring and due to taking that leap of faith and going for a playoff spot the Young Talent on the team is absolutely limited the Timberwolves have put themselves in the worst spot to be as an NBA franchise and that’s the middle of the road not bad enough to Garner a top pick due to being an above aage talent and owning Kevin Love as their best player and not good enough to compete for a championship and even a playoff spot due to the landscape of the Western Conference at the time so what will Flip Saunders do to even help this in another very important summer for the team well first after Rick adaman retired he put himself back in the head coaching spot a move that the fans love which means at least from that aspect of the team things are going to stay absolutely fine and this also means that he is both the GM and the coach aka the president of basketball operations but with that power he has he’ll be able to go under making this team in His image well enough to go back to the playoffs for the first time since 2005 well first he had to act as the GM because the Timberwolves are in Big Time trouble the ghost of David KH would come back to haunt the Timberwolves once again because due to his awful negotiation skills with Kevin Love during his extension talks KB has huge leverage as a player and decided enough is enough there is a huge rumor that CB is not going to accept his player option and the next Summer’s off season which means he is basically asking out via trade a huge blow to the likes of the Timberwolves phantom for sure as their most successful player since kg but arguably is a sigh of relief Kevin Love wanted to win and the Timberwolves couldn’t provide so he asked to be out and has been frustrated for a long time with that in mind but this also serves as good news because Kevin Love can be traded for a big time package to help their future and allow them to tank in Freedom once again before the draft even started though there were trade offers from everywhere all with different implications for the Wolves future you had the Nuggets offer when they give up Kenneth fed Wilson Chandler and the 11th pick of the draft for Kevin Love and Kevin Martin but that fell short due to the uncertainty of Love wanting to stay in Denver the Boston Celtics was also a destination for love himself preferred but the Wolves were asking for two first round picks they had in the draft which were at six and 17 while also getting Jeff Green and either Jared Sullinger or Kelly oen so that’s a hefty Hefty offer for the Celtics weren’t very keen with lastly and the most appealing offer to them at the time according to sources was the Golden State Warriors they wanted former All-Star David Lee probably for cat filler and other players and Harrison Barnes and Klay Thompson alongside a future first round pick the warriors were open to the offer but safe to say that the Warriors had a long period of thinking it over before even wanting to pull the trigger but as the days went by the NBA draft came through and with a tank being in the Futures the 2014 draft was going to be used to get another future Talent 13 picks later the Wolves went ahead and made their choice in a very highly rated draft class with the 13th pick in a 2014 NBA Draft the Minnesota Timberwolves select Zack LaVine from UCLA after many years of running either a small back court or running a very interesting choice at shooting guard the Timberwolves have finally found their potential shooting guard of the future and UCLA product Zack LaVine I don’t know why they’ve been drafting so many people from UCLA but anyways despite being made mainly a six-man for the Bruins he was a big- time scorer with a lot of upside due to his athleticism and general shot creation skills and while this pick is mainly due to his upside the vision is there and the Wolves were willing to invest and when you consider their future situation all they will have is time to let him learn in the NBA but wait the trade talks for Kevin Love are heating up once again why because Miami hedo LeBron James was deciding that he was going to go back and sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the front office there was trying to get him help ASAP and why not try to knock on the doors of the Timberwolves when Kevin Love is right there for the taking the Timberwolves were down to play ball but they wanted one man in particular to be a part of this trade package top pick of the 2014 NBA Draft class Andrew Wiggins and it only made sense they gave you the future of their franchise for a player that will obviously make the Cavaliers a top Trio in the NBA with LeBron and Kyrie Irving as you expect the Cavs didn’t want to do that at first but after two months of negotiations the deal of the summer finally went through hey everyone fasil here with you inside The sportset Newsroom it appears a lock that the Cleveland Cavaliers will add love to their club and that Andrew Wiggins will start his NBA career north of the 44th parallel according to multiple reports the Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves have agreed on a deal that will send Allstar Kevin Love to Cleveland in exchange for both first overall pick Canadians Wiggins and Anthony Bennett as well as a protector the 2015 first rounder now this hasn’t been the worst offseason for the Cleveland Cavaliers they added LeBron James we know they signed Kyrie Irving to a longterm deal and now they snatch love from a hopeless place in mini the Wolves of course haven’t made the playoffs in the last 10 seasons the three-time NBA All-Star love led the league with 65 double doubles last season and bolsters what should have been an already great offense and it appears he’ll stay longterm as well one of the big factors of an agreement was that love would sign an extension he is expected to Ink a 5year 12 $ million deal once the trade becomes official that can’t happen until August 23rd after the 30-day rookie trade freeze expires on Wiggins August 23rd 2014 Kevin Love will be traded for Andrew Wiggins Anthony Bennett and a protected 2015 first round pick from the Cavaliers the NBA World thought the Timberwolves were robbed in that trade but the sole fact that all they got for an all NBA worthy Talent was a busted Anthony Bennett a protected first round pick and the first overall pick of the class Andrew Wiggins Kevin Love made it very very clear to the Minnesota Timberwolves and to everybody involved that he was not going to sign with anyone after this upcoming season but Cleveland so essentially it was a foro conclusion that today’s events that have been reported was going to come down we understand it I still find it unacceptable on the part of Minnesota and as fond as I am of flip Saunders I’m very fond of Flip Saunders uh dro the ball on this there’s no other way to slice it they can sit there and they can come back and and they can re engage in revisionist history all they want to but in the end Anthony Bennett Andrew Wiggins and a protected 2015 first round pick is not good enough for Kevin Love when you had the opportunity before LeBron James announced that he was going to Cleveland even though he W he knew beforehand he was going that’s why Dion waiter said that he called he got a call from LeBron James prior to his announcement you knew what time it is the bottom line is if you are the Minnesota Timberwolves you had an opportunity to get Harrison bonds David Lee and Klay Thompson from the Golden State Warriors Andrew Wiggins unless he becomes a super star in conjunction with Anthony Bennett does not measure up to what Golden State had to offer Minnesota dropped the ball plain and simp but the reason they took this trade Des spite of that was because Andrew Wiggins has alltime potential according to Scouts and the NBA World better than the combination of clay Harrison Barnes and David Lee had to offer as the top recruit in his high school class he was thought to be one of the most complete players in the high school ranks since LeBron James himself was in high school and was giving Kobe Bryant comparisons and we went to Kansas to talks about him shined even more and more as he dominated the college game making every game look so easy and effortless with all of this hype it made wiggin seem like a shoe in to at least be an all NBA worthy Talent with time and someone who can lead this franchise in a few years the same way Kevin Love did in the past but doing this is basically what made it look like a one for one deal for Kevin Love and baking on Wiggins to produce was thought to be the most riskiest trade they could ever do and and could potentially be an alltime worthy bad trade in retrospect if everything falls apart from it and I think it’s also necessary to add that this trade was a three team deal where the Wolves also obtained thus John from the 76ers while giving up Alexis fed and luk rashaw and b m so they did get another young player in that trade to add to the youth but anyways they had what they thought was the next Kobe Bryant on their hands and if a young scoring guard in Zack LaVine would a work out alongside him this Duo could be doing a lot in years come with this the Timberwolves can rest and start their second tank in this video led by Andrew Wiggins who is going to be the future of this franchise again with time and while they still had Ricky Rubio who’s 24 shabaz muhamad at 22 and I guess Anthony Bennett the time this young team had to see if they can grow was massive now finally the 2015 season this team can start with zero expectations they can lose in peace in Minnesota fans can watch over the progression of Andrew Wiggins to see if he was actually worth the Caleb trade and to see if this kid can actually become the modern version of Kobe Bean Bryant well in the first few months of the Andrew Wiggins experience he held the usual standard of a first overall pick winning two straight rookie of the month Awards but in his first few months in the league he would struggle to an extent averaging 13 points per game and barely shooting over 40% from the field but when you’re playing in the Western Conference and most of all the offense runs around you there is only a few handful of rookies historically who can take that and strive as a underdeveloped rookie and when you look at the fact that Ricky Rubio would get a horrible ankle sprain early in the season and Nia Pekovic would even struggle with his own ankle issues it would only make Andrew jobs that much harder on an already tanking team in the background though flip saes was having a fire sale trading away players to get more draft capital in the future and also using the value of his already established vets to get what he wants first on December 19th 2014 Cory Brewer will be traded again this time to the Houston Rockets for two second round picks while also getting sophomore undrafted player Troy Daniels let me also add that Cory Brewer being sent to the Houston Rockets also created the 3-2 comeback the Rockets had in that year’s playoffs so I am sure the Rockets appreciated that trade anyways Flip Saunders will continue his trades in February 1st on the night trading a future 2018 first round pick to the Hawks for Michigan State product Adrien Payne straight up a weird move for sure but I couldn’t find any information for why he do this probably banking on some potential he saw but he only played three games in the NBA so far in his rookie career and mostly was in the G league on the same day he would also make a trade with the Hornets getting rid of Troy Daniels Mo Williams and cash for Gary Neil in a 2019 second round pick and lastly the trade of the season for the team because on February 19th 2015 the timber wolves were trade 2009 lottery pick thus young to the Brooklyn Nets for a then 38-year-old Kevin Garnett a well-received reunion for the goat of the franchise who has been gone for 8 years ever since the beginning of this timeline video was it worth giving up such a versatile player in fadus well we’re not going to talk about that because kg is back and that’s all that matters to timber wolves fans but looking back at this team in general they were doing what was expecting and that was losing at the All-Star break they sat at an abysmal 11- 42 the worst record in the NBA but with the caveat that the Wolves had their own pick of the future outside of 2018 and the Wolves were happy to know that the 2015 NBA draft class has some bangers in the top three that they were almost guaranteed to have as of right now though Andrew Wiggins is improving as the season goes on and learning the NBA day by day is increasing his averages in January alone he averaged 20 points per game and shot 47% from the field a clear Improvement to where was originally showing huge potential playing this way only 3 months into his NBA career and as he win another two rookie of the month awards that year you wouldn’t be surprised to know that Andrew Wiggins won the Rookie of the award in the 2015 season in near unanimous fashion as the Wolves predicted this 19-year-old rookie upside was through the roof and could even be more valuable than what Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes could provide as young players it might take a few seasons but Captain Canada Andrew Wiggins could really be the future of the wolves and make that trade that we talked about earlier very much worth it but speaking of that how are the rest of the young courp doing well Anthony Bennett looked as bad as he did in Cleveland and wasn’t treated as a priority at all on this team shabaz had injury issues and only played 38 games and Ricky Rubio was injured for over half of the season and has not been improving for as long as he’s been in Minnesota but at least Zack LaVine transitioned the same Showtime Talent at UCLA to the NBA starting in 40 games to the wolves and looking pretty solid averaging 10 points per game he’s Rough Around the Edges but if he can work on the shot creation skills more and more and become more efficient he’ll be dangerous in the league at the end of the day though the Wolves owned a 16 and66 record and it was the worst in the NBA at the complete bottom of the standings but this team has some real problems with Andrew Wiggins and Zack LaVine having potential as a highflying Duo who can create their own shots and they’ll get some major help as they keep the number one overall pick with a 25% chance and that means for the first time since 1996 the Minnesota Timberwolves would own the first overall pick that’s major for the city of Minnesota as the 2015 class has a legit person at the number one spot on draft boards and it was theirs to take and raise so after struggling to make the playoffs with K LOVE for a few years the Timberwolves risk the tank and it absolutely works out immediately and it turned into getting the number one overall pick will this one-year turnaround be exactly what the Wolves needed to put them right back on track and becoming a future Powerhouse in the NBA again well with this number one overall pick unless they mess this up somehow the answer has to be yes it’s funny to think that the Timberwolves in this year now have access to the number one overall picks in the last three drafts first in 2013 and Anthony Ben and even if his quality of play is more of a g- leager and of course the second the projected Prodigy and anrew Wiggins who finished his rookie season with high regard and hoping he can Compound on it going into next season but now the timber woles this time around can choose the first overall pick of the 2015 class and in 99% of the draft boards there is one clear number one option and he himself is thought to be dominant in his own right and could be a future all NBA love player first pick in the 2015 NBA draft the Minnesota Timberwolves select Carl Anthony town from the University of Kentucky Carl Anthony towns Jr his story sounds like just like any player of his thought to be caliber top five recruit in the 2014 high school class a part of the legendary blue blood program in Kentucky one of the leaders of one of the best teams in Kentucky history going 34 and0 in the regular season and making it all the way to the final four with a loss to Frank kaminsky’s team in Wisconsin but the thing about cat despite averaging a modest 10.6 rebounds in two blocks a game was the fact that K Anthony towns had big time potential he just wasn’t able to show it consistently on a very much stacked Kentucky roster at 7 feet and 250 lbs he has the body to dominate anyone in the league day one and already shown he’s a willing Defender with his two .3 blocks a night but what made him so fascinating as a prospect and as a future NBA player was the fact that he can create his own shot his size and his ability to spread the floor with his threo shooting but again he wasn’t able to show much of it at all at Kentucky so while the tape is limited the potential is clearly there and the Timberwolves willing to bank on that over the dominant Duke product jul okaf for who clearly showed what he can do at Duke and D’Angelo Russell one of the nation’s best guards only as a freshman the debate between Jalil okaf for and carity towns was a big thing during the draft but cat clearly had the bigger upside even if his stats in his freshman year didn’t say it Flip Saunders were also grabbing a floor General in the point guard position during the draft trading away three second round picks for the 24th pick in the class tus Jones from duke and Flip Saunders spoke highly of him and wanted to move up to get him originally saying quote we had to do a lot of stuff to get this pick th says what he is he is the lead he’s a winner and he fits into what we’re trying to do with young players High character players that are winners and we targeted him the whole time from 14 up we were workking to try to get him and as one of the best Playmakers in the class and a very smart playmaker at that Jones can be a clear bench replacement for Rubio to come in and provide the same playmaking he does on the court hopefully with better offense though but we don’t talk about that aspect of Rubio but the thoughts around the league was that Wiggins and cat had the potential to be the modern day version of Kobe and Shaq a crazy comparison for sure but that’s just how much hype people had around the do- it all shot creating Wiggins and the potential of a dominant force in the paint with cat it’s funny to think that even in the very early days of NBA YouTu that was even a talking point but for the rest of the summer Flip Saunders went about adding veterans to help around with the development of the team Andre Miller and taan Prince were the main pieces while Kevin Garnett got signed back on a new 2-year six $1 million deal is that a bit much for a near 40-year-old kg I’ll let you be the decider of that but for the final signing they go ahead and signed a European product who they traded for in 2010 and retained the rights for in nman beinia who at this point would be a 27y old rookie but in the Euro league he was the real deal and fit what the timber woles wanted someone who can space out the floor be a willing passer and provide some winning basketball characteristics but lastly and most unfortunately because I do have to talk about this Flip Saunders would step down from his coaching duties and assign Sam Mitchell head coach for the next season due to Saunders having to receive treatment for Hoskins lymphoma a type of cancer in his lymph system and while I don’t like talking about these subjects he would end up passing away a month later on October 25th to the same condition the alltime winning his coach for the Timberwolves and the man who set this basketball team back in the right path in the 2010s slip Saunders to the this day is considered a legend in the city for all he has done and his contributions will never be forgotten in his 20year NBA career may he forever rest in peace and his replacement though for the time being would be Milt Newton but the role would only be temporary in that GM spot I’m sure and only 3 days later the 2016 season would start and with a new coach at that but this season things would be different and I mean it was more of the same in the losing category but this Timber team was actually fun to watch with a day one starting line of of Ricky Rubio taan prince Andrew Wiggins Kevin Garnett and KY towns this team would actually start the season 8 and8 and it was for a lot of interesting reasons first you had Andrew Wiggins assumed the position of the true first scoring option on the team taking 17 shots a game where he scored 21 points a game to start the season second almost immediately carony towns would show his real game that he wasn’t able to do at Kentucky given the second op option role on the team this would be shown as soon as his second game of his career where he would score 28 points grab 14 rebounds and block four shots against the Denver Nuggets alongside the fact the Wolves also had scores and Zack LaVine and shabas Muhammad Off the Bench getting buckets and Ricky Rubio starting off strong playmaking wise now while this team would come back to earth as the season went by the Wolves would remain a very fun team to watch despite the elv they’ rack up and as the season went by the thoughts about Andrew Wiggins and Cat being a few future Duo of the league became stronger and stronger Carl Anthony towns will go about winning four straight Western Conference rookie of the month awards from January to March and it was deservingly so owning monster averages in his rookie season with 18 points 10 rebounds and a block and a half per game that isn’t normal rookie numbers that’s numbers of a budding Allstar ready to break out if not All-Star numbers depending on who you ask his NBA ready body came in super useful in the league being able to body whoever he wanted on day one of him being in the league and is showed on the stat sheet his best game would come in February 10 2016 where he would get the Toronto Raptors hell scoring a career-high 35 points with 11 rebounds and also blocking three shots his ability to come in and already be a menace in the NBA made the Kevin Love try that much more worth it as it turned into the duo of cat and Wiggins in the future speaking of which Wiggins would also improve himself in his improved role scoring a career-high 20 points per game and it may have have only been a minimal increase but to average 20 points in the NBA is hard enough to do on a 9 basis in any fashion especially as he would improve his shooting splits and efficiency if ever slightly it’s funny though seeing how cat’s rookie season almost overshadowed the progression of Andrew Wiggins because in the 2016 season cat would end up being top 20 in scoring top 10 in rebounds and even top 10 in blocks per game and he actually did something Wiggins is yet to do and that is when a player of the week nod as a rookie which he did on April 11th one of the last weeks in the NBA season helping the wolves go 3-1 in that span and averaging 19 points and nine rebounds a game and as a tiny little cherry on top he’d even win the skills competition during the All-Star break this rookie season is absolutely everything the Wolves wanted from cat and more but things are even looking more promising as you look down the roster Zack LaVine will become one of the most efficient bench scorers in the NBA averaging 14 points per game and shooting nearly 40% from three an absolute transformation from the year before and if he can snag that starting shooting guard spot the Wolves can cause some real issues to the league in a few years and yes I did forget to mention the fact that he won the dunk contest last year totally went over my head but he’d start in the weekend’s event this year again getting MVP honors in the rising stars game and winning the 2016 Dunk Contest again becom the fourth ever player to win it back to back and giving us one of the best performance and dunk cont contest history against Aaron Gordon Ricky Rubio would end the year top five in steals and assist once for again and shabaz muhamd would show promise Off the Bench scoring another 10 points per game this team had potential all around and it is up to them to either meet it or the franchise to help them and putting them in the right place to make the team even better at the end of the season the Wolves will end up going 29 to 53 a 13 game increase from the year before and while they’re still losing a lot of games you can’t be totally upset when you know there are two players and poti even three that can lead this franchise for years to come management also thought the same way because their next coach for the future has been chosen it was another coach with experience in the league and a proven winner on April 20th 2016 the Wolves would hire newly fired coach Tom Tibido who was known for his work with the Chicago Bulls and their success also the downfall of a certain Derek Rose but this ain’t the video for that we’ve seen what happens when this team is coached by someone who knows what they are doing and with Tom’s Knack of creating gritty teams the Wolves can actually start playing like wolves after he’s done training them and eventually turn them back into perennial playoff threats and when you also add the fact that they had a bad record it also means the Timberwolves get to try to add another piece to this complicated puzzle in the 2016 NBA draft another highly rated class and they are awarded with the fifth pick in the draft can the Wolves make another amazing pickup in the draft to add to this young young core of cat Wiggins and LaVine to make themselves a future Championship core under Tibido well we’re just going to have to wait and see who they end up choosing the Minnesota Timberwolves are once again ready to take the next step as a franchise first they got two top tier young players in Andrew Wiggins and carony towns who can be a dynamic duel for years to come and have Limitless potential and secondly they now signed and hired a top tier coach in Tom Tibido who is known as one of the best offensive Minds in the NBA who could potentially even make the young Duo better with his basketball philosophy and now in the 2016 NBA draft the wolves have a top five pick once again in a great class sucks they won’t be able to get the top guys nsu’s Ben Simmons Duke’s Brandon Ingram and California’s Jaylen brown but with a clear top tier of the guys gone they can try and make the most out of getting the second best option in the next tier of players down according to reports the wolves worktown major eyes on the likes of kuy’s Jamal Murray Oklahoma’s buddy heeld and providence’s Chris Dunt all playing the same position the either point guard or shooting guard spot so with that top three in mind who will be trusted with the keys of the backcourt alongside Ricky Rubio in the 2016 NBA draft the Minnesota Timberwolves select Chris Dunn from Providence College when it comes to point guards you usually imagine selling fast sneaky and slithery well with the fifth pick of the 2016 draft it is anything but that Chris Dunn is a physical specimen at the point guard position at 6’4 and 220 lbs Chris has the body of an NFL player and used it to bully and break down Defenders at Providence making everything look so easy add alongside the fact he turned that physicality in becoming a top defender in NCAA ranks and became a two-time big dpy and there is a reason why he went so early in this class in his sen year at Providence he scored 16 points a game garnered two and a half steals a game and even had a knack for playmaking while also being a decent three-point shooter he looked like the real deal and the Wolves willing the bank on the upcoming 22-year old to be able to Compound on that rather than the three-point Marksman and heeld or the dynamic score freshman Jamal Murray but you wouldn’t be surprised to know that Tom Tibido was actually taking the lead for who was going to be chosen as he was given the role of President of basketball operations for the Timberwolves owner Glenn Taylor to create this team in his own image and he viewed dun as the perfect point guard for his system someone who is tough plays defense and has a very high basketball IQ there were plenty of talks about that pick being traded for the Wolves to either move down or try to trade for a star but at the end of the day tibs got what he wanted all along and drafted done but with tyus Jones Ricky Rubio and Chris Dunn all being together on the roster next season there’s going to be a real battle for who becomes the point guard of the future and who gets the point guard minutes in the rotation this upcoming year the rest of the summer would remain kind of quiet though signing veterans like Brandon Rush and Cole Aldridge but before the season would start the 21-year Minnesota Legend Kevin Garnett will retired and be waved on September 24th 2016 he was originally going to play another year but due to NE complications from the year before when he only played 49 games he decided to go on and hang it up and retire but going into the 2017 NBA season were there any hopes for the timber wolves to make a surprise run at a playoff spot probably not but the world was going to have to watch closely to see how much more cat Wiggins and Zack LaVine could improve and with Tom Tibido at the helm you can see this team at least being competitive with him handling the defense and well with an All-Star game record of 22 and 35 at least you can say they were looking better than last year not anywhere near playoff level but Improvement nonetheless and you already knew where those improvements came from Andrew Wiggins and car Anthony towns were an absolute Unstoppable Duo together on the court Andrew we third season he once again eclips his last year scoring average scoring a career-high 23 points per game and have very key games that show that he was capable of being a true star in the league scoring 47 points against the Lakers on November 13th 2016 playing aggressively and even garnering 22 free throw attempts in that round out and while his three-point shot is still a work in progress his ability to drive in and convert in his mid-range game only continues to become an even more lethal part of his game scoring 40 points in more than five games and 30 or more points in 14 games that season and for his second half in carony towns well it’s funny to say that he actually played better than Andrew Wiggins which is crazy to say in only a sophomore year but as Center go he truly show his actual capabilities with the help of Tom Tibido playing him 37 minutes T night which is nearly at the top of the NBA with this trust he averaged a monstrous 25 points 12 rebounds three assists and a block and a half per game while also stretching his game out to the three-point line taking three a game and making 36% of them I hate to say it but in only his second season with this team this has truly became cats Team game by game but once again the progress of crown tal was toppling over Wiggins and it truly did show on the stat sheat but never mind that though this duel was still lethal to together with them both being top 15 in the NBA scoring wise and also as a Duo combining 49 points per game but waight some of you may be asking didn’t you mention how this team could have been a trio with Zack lavine’s progression well Zach himself had an amazing start to the NBA season averaging nearly 20 points per game himself something that historically speaking only a few group of players have ever been able to do as Zach averaged 19 points per game and improveed his shot quality and conversion the only problem there was the fact that on February 4th 20 2017 against Detroit Pistons Zack LaVine would tear his ACL causing his year to end prematurely and causing the Wolves will lose out on a full year of amazing offensive hoops from this lethal Trio the timber wolves have something going on here with this young group all who are under 22 years old by the way and all the Wolves had to do is put the right pieces around them to really be a threat in the ever populated Western Conference which if you think about it is kind of a tough ass considering it’s hard to get players to even come to Minnesota in the first place but speaking of which what about the people already on the team is there any chance of there being some extra homegrown Talent becoming a part of the future themselves Well Ricky Rubio has been in town since 2009 well technically a couple years later if you know what I mean but his game has stayed relatively the same since he’s been on the team with more targets to pass to he is now averaging 9 assists per game for the first time in his career but his offensive game is so limited and he’s never been a consistent threat to score well really ever socks they missed out on a certain Stephen Curry who at this point is a two-time MVP and a champion who they were locked out of getting so many years ago Cori Jang the starting power forward at this point is 27 and a pretty decent rim protector but he’s going to eventually meet his Peak and start regressing soon shabaz muhammd stays a consistent and reliable bench score for the Timberwolves and could stay that way if they decided to keep him and finally for our fifth overall pick of the class Chris Dunn isn’t a major contribut of the rotation at the moment due to Tom tibo’s coaching style so he’s stuck playing under 20 minutes a game and simply doing what he can at that time and trying to get more playing time but Tom drafted him for a reason so his development will be tracked with very close eyes but back to our stars on the team on April 11 2017 carony towns would surprise Kevin Love for the franchise leader in points for a season something that he took to do in his six season kity towns did in his second season season in the NBA if this doesn’t say future of the team then I don’t know what does to you he also become the first player ever Yes you heard me ever to score 2,000 points grab 1,000 rebounds and make 103 pointers in NBA history in a season it’s a blessing to have the first overall pick of the class and for the Wolves to be lucky enough to be a part of the 2015 class and get such a special talent should be absolutely appreciated especially for as fast as cat is progressing and for Andrew Wiggins he continue to stay consistent in his scoring efforts tying the franchise record for most games scoring 20 points in a row continuing to show his talents as a shot Creator once again while the Wolves only went 31 and 51 it’s still an improvement from the year before and their efforts become a playoff team with this Trio of players they absolutely have the blueprint to success they just have to find a way to get better immediately not too hard immediately but just finding the little pieces together that can make this team at least win 45 or more games and make the playoffs and as they already own the 10th best defense in the NBA this year they have to address their still poor 27th ranked defense despite being coached by tibs but hey Zack LaVine will be back next year and the wolves have the seventh pick in this next year’s draft to use to add more Talent however the Wolves were more than willing to trade their pick last year so it wouldn’t be surprising to see GM tibs try and use this pick as bait towards a potential star and level up this team immediately the summer of 2017 will be a very important year to try and level up this team into a perennial playoff threat with Kevin Love The Wolves were never able to give what he wanted in the quest of becoming a champion in the NBA but with cat wigs and Zack LaVine there’s a real potential to actually take that next step as a franchise and in the 2017 draft and while I’d like to talk about who they drafted and what implications would have in the future Tom tippo wasn’t even to try to be suspenseful trading the pick and much more away with the seventh pick of the 2017 NBA draft the Minnesota timber drafted finished big man lri Markin but it wasn’t even their pick it was traded to the Chicago Bulls in a big time move for the t-wolves as they traded for all NBA forward Jimmy Butler if you watched my last video which you should or I will do very horrible things to your morning bll of seral the Bulls were in a very interesting place as a franchise and did didn’t see themselves making a team good enough around Jimmy to warrant keeping him around so they use his value to make a trade to the Timberwolves the package for Jimmy ended up being Chris Dunn the fifth overall pick from last year’s draft lri Markin in from this year’s draft and finally Zack LaVine a true gut punch for timberwol fans out there seeing how this super Dynamic young player with Allstar potential was traded for Jimmy and while sacrifices had to be made and to quote Thanos from Infinity War or a small price to pay for salvation because either the Wolves would have to wait around to see if the trio could work out and handle the other rules on the team as they go or address it immediately to put yourself in the place you’re looking to be and in the case of Jimmy Butler who is turning 28 years old he has plenty of years of basketball left to give so it’s not like it’s a move with very little time to work until later but we’ll talk about that later they have at least another good three to four years or even more as long as he stays in his prime and the other two continue to improve and stay healthy but Tom wasn’t done making moves if Minnesota was going to make a playoff run cat Wiggins and Jimmy are not just good enough together Tom was going to round out the rest of the roster with pieces he seems as worth it but it would come with some very interesting picks and decisions first only a few days later after the Jimmy trade the T wolves would trade the longest tenured player on the team Ricky Rubio to the Utah Jazz for a measley 2018 first round pick while the trade wasn’t very popular with the fans the truth is the Timberwolves were a trying to trade him since last year and we’re very close to trading him for Mike connley B Rubio probably isn’t what you want in a modern day starting point guard if you’re actually trying to make this a finals team if he can be abused for his lack of offensive game and finally see the reason the Wolves didn’t ask for much was due to the fact that Tibido was trying to take advantage of getting rid of his 2-year 29 million deal and letting it be somebody else’s problem because Tom was ready to sign some proven vet to take this team over the top it starts on July 10 2017 where Tims would sign his new starting point guard onetime Allstar Jeff teag after his long career in Atlanta and now recently being traded to the Pacers this would be Jeff’s opportunity to once again play on a contending team and provide his services to the Timberwolves especially since he be paid his most lucrative deal yet for a three-year and 57 million deal to play in Minnesota but on that same day tibs would sign another starter for the team and a former player of his Tosh Gibson and to continue to round out the rest of the team he signed threeyear six-man of the Year winner Jamal Crawford and reine shabaz muhammd in one summer Tom Tibido would transform this team in his own image and create a team worthy of a playoff spot in the very much loaded Western Conference he even showed his appreciation for Wiggins before the season started signing him back on a Max rookie extension worth 5 years and $147 million the expectation was for him to truly be worth that contract for the next 5 years and as he just averaged 23 points per game there is still more room for him to improve and become a winner with Jimmy and Carl Anthony towns and now with the 2018 NBA season beginning this team is totally transformed and completely different from the year before instead of being a young team with aspirations to become better now this is a team with real expect make the playoffs for the first time since 2004 a 14year drought just like the Summer where the Wolves added Kevin Martin to take them over the top Jimmy Butler is meant to do the same thing for this team and with the projected starting lineup of Jeff Teague Jimmy Butler Andrew Wiggins Tosh Gibson and carony towns it was time for the Wolves to March back into the postseason for the first time in a long time was it going to be easy of course not it’s the Western Conference even winning 45 games could mean being out of the playoffs as we saw earlier with Kevin Love so this team may have to perform even Beyond expectations to make a real run and Andrew Wiggins would show himself to be pretty worthy of that contract early in the season against the OKC Thunder where he made a game winner in only the third game of the season and Minnesota has no timeouts so smart play here W spots up for a deep three he’s got it he scores it at the buzzer to give the Timberwolves the Victory and it was safe to say the timber wolves almost all year round were on cloud n at the All-Star break the Wolves were 36 and 25 not the absolute best record in the world but the Timberwolves were clearly a different team from the year before and it all started from the top of the totem pole with Jimmy Butler cat and Andrew Wiggins first with Jimmy Butler he was clearly the leader that t-wolves needed and he truly took the reign of the team averaging 22 points per game a team high and he’d also be doing this while being top five in steals per game too a clear rooll model of what a star is leading your team on both sides of the ball for the younger guys you had cat who easily was keeping up in his role the team and averaging similar numbers to last year outside of the points due to spreading the ball around three Central scores but of course averaging 22 points to 12 rebounds and now being a 40% three-point shooter makes cat easily one of the best big in the NBA at this point in his third season in the league he’s a star in the making and can compete in any Star World whether he’s the first or second option but in every Big Three someone has to take the backup role and that went to Andrew Wiggins or at least he put himself there we’ll get to that claim later though but in this season Andrew Wiggins will see his numbers drop back down to his rooky form it’s crazy though because Wiggins would actually take the most shots per game on the team but converted on less of them and didn’t look the best in games his free throw numbers would also fall down to 76% to a horrible 64% which is a real concern for someone who looked so good last year did he not like how the team was structured was he uncomfortable in his role there’s some type of real issue here that someone’s going to have to answer but as long as this team is winning then it’s really hard to call out the issue here but also at the All-Star break the timber wolves would have two representatives in the game with Jimmy Butler and fourth ever selection and finally Carl Anthony towns getting his first ever selection in the allstar game funny enough though Jimmy Butler would do a rare act and actually skip the allstar game alog together to get ready for the later half of the season but it’s a real achievement to see the timber wolves are back competing in the NBA world with two all stars and a potential third in Wiggins however the Timberwolves would have a major incident that would shift the season just a tiny bit because as Jimmy Butler would skipped the All-Star game he come right back and tear his miniscus against the Houston Rockets on February 23rd 2018 which now means the wolves go back to their 2017 form with cat and Wiggins as the main Duo because that same miniscus air that Jimmy would Place him out indefinitely with no timetable to return and receiving surgery for it and obviously while that’s bad news for the Wolves cat and Wiggins have seen what it is needed to win games and it was up to them to make that final push to the playoffs but the Wolves under cat and Wiggins again would actually stumble without Jimmy Butler ending the season 11- 10 and something even more concerning was the fact that Andrew Wiggins would still falter despite the fact that the team needed him more now than ever during the time Jimmy Butler was injured Andrew Wiggins would only increase his points per game to a lowly 18 points per game while cat would average 25 to make up for Jimmy’s absence due to that and his defense being more than miss the Timberwolves would fumble big time at the end of the year and Jimmy would even have to rush back to help at the very end of the season and with this fumble the Wolves would end the season 47 to 35 a big time improvement from last year with the addition of Jimmy Butler sure but this would also be the best record the Wolves would have since the 2003 04 season where they went 58 and 24 the same year they made it all the way to the Conference Finals now obviously they weren’t going to do all of that and the reason for that was because winning 47 games and being 12 games over 500 the Wolves would end the year as the eighth seed and while you think that’s fine the Western Conference saw a two- game difference from the ninth seed all the way up to the fourth seed this year a crazy time again to be in the Western Conference for sure but that also means that the underwhelming performance of a missing Jimmy Butler Timberwolves only stinged that much more where he was injured the wolves with a fourth seed in the west and had a four game lead on the eighth seed and with that that 11 and 10 ending on the season it almost took them out of the playoffs but they made the playoffs and that’s all that matters so let’s just go on and get away from the negatives just ever so slightly because the Wolves will make the playoffs for the first time in a decade and some change and there will players to award for this season thly Jimmy Butler would earn all NBA 13 honors and all defensive second team honors and next cat with the first time ever would make the all NBA third team on alongside Jimmy Butler they were truly one of the best Duos in the NBA this year and this nomination would only solidify this for the rest of history but I know Jimmy Butler doesn’t care about that he is looking for an NBA championship and due to being the eighth seed it’ll only make that road harder something he for sure doesn’t appreciate from The Young leaders on the team fumbling this so hard where they could have had an easier Road speaking of which their first opponents for this playoff run would unfortunately be the best team in the NBA that year the Houston Rockets led by MVP winner James Harden in his cast of characters again the drop off they had when Jimmy was injured was not appreciated having to face Prime James Harden who is the best scorer that year and also has a team around him ready to shoot the most threes in the NBA That season and for the Timberwolves they were still a bottom five defense in the NBA with Jimmy being one of the true saving Graces as a solo Defender but basketball ball is a team sport and the wolves are completely outmatched in this series due to that can a heel Jimmy Butler even try to compete with the Houston Rockets well game one showed a lot of red flags despite them only losing by three points because James Harden will mark his impact immediately with a dominant 44 points and Clint capella joining in for another 24 himself but where the true issues lied would be from The Big Three who only combined for 39 points together and seeing all NBA members cat gets shut down for only eight points in his NBA playoff debut the only reason they stay competitive was because the combined contributions of Jeff Teague Jamal Crawford and newly signed Derrick Rose who they brought in at the end of the season who scored 16 points himself but this series can’t be won by a near 40-year-old Jamal Crawford and post injury Derrick Rose The Big Three Needs to make something happen or this season could be an absolute waste of everyone’s time and effort and they didn’t do it in game two either getting shut down and only scoring 82 points as t- wolves fans saw the way cat will get shut down again only scoring Five Points seeing Jimmy Butler only take six shots in general and Andrew Wiggins only creating 13 points a combined 29 Points from The Big Three again the Rockets are the best team in basketball with an Unstoppable 3 and D system ran by Mike d22 Perfection but this is just sad these first two games made an absolute mockery of a near 50 win team is the Rockets just this good or are the Wolves just this plain Bad come playoff time Wiggins was already a slight disappointment in the regular season but for cat and Jimmy to be doing this is a total surprise to everyone viewing the series they did surprise the rockets in game three at an onslaught of team basketball with Jeff Teague Jimmy Butler and wigin all scoring over 20 points or more and Cat and D Rose joining in with 17 and 18 a piece to secur the win but wolves were once again embarrassed at home in game four losing by 19 and beaten again for the final time by 18 ending the series and their season for this Timberwolves team this isn’t the way you wanted the Wolves to be beaten especially losing all but one game by double figures but the real story here was how the big three was mostly shut down all series and the fact of how Clint capella was bitching cat the entire series carony towns Jimmy Butler and Wiggins all average 15 points per game in their first playoff series together and it sent a message either the lights were too bright or they were just totally outmatched most fans subscribed to the first opinion and gave slight Grace to wigs and cat but again if the duo of cat and Wiggins could have held the team down when Jimmy was out they could have avoided the rockets and faced a team more equal to their skill level which shows that maybe this team isn’t fully ready to become Prime Time if the young Stars aren’t real leaders yet but you know what what the woles are only one year into this experience Wiggins is secur for four more years cat is about to be paid this off season and Jimmy just need to be secured to keep this team together and to keep competing while it ended on a sour note there is plenty of time to win a championship together and finally give the Minnesota Timberwolves a championship and make Minnesota a city of Champions but what the fans didn’t know is that this summer would unfortunately set the Wolves back back to square one if there’s one thing every MBA team needs to stay afloat throughout the long and gring NBA season is chemistry and cohesion as a unit and the timber rules are about to see that a certain someone was about to turn themselves into the human version of oil and water but after the disappointing loss of the Houston Rockets and also disappointing end to the regular season questions would really start to form about if cat and Andrew Wiggins can actually lead a team without Jimmy Butler last year they looked M it best when it came to creating victories and in their first playoffs it was even worse when they were game planned against day by day rather than how things work in the regular season but if they want to run it back which obviously they can do then how do they fix this issue well is there any way to fix this issue well first they try to somewhat fix their defensive Problem by getting another player that Tom tibo likes an all ACC player Josh aogi with the 20th pick of the 2018 NBA draft he Lov Chris dun’s great and grind mindset alongside this offensive upside that can be tapped into and it was the same for hoki who showed decent three and deep potential in college but with the 20th pick a role player isn’t a bad thing to take if he takes off and becomes good in the future and in free agency it was all about adding more vets to make this system run a lot better under Tom Tibido D Rose earned a one-year trillion deal after his efforts from last season LEL Deng joins back with his old coach for a small deal Anthony toer joins as a three-point specialist and finally KR towns we his rookie extension deal worth 5 years and $158 million absolutely deserved for his all NBA level season last year and his quick development as a top Center candidate in the league the thoughts were that they give it another try considering that the trio had plenty of time to get it done especially creating that cohesion and chemistry I was talking about come training camp but somebody else had different plans ever since the summer there have been Rumblings of Jimmy Butler’s criticism with the team and specifically the work ethic of K towns and Andrew Wiggins and as you can imagine why did he have these grievances well uh here is a quote from Butler himself about the subject I put so much work into this game and I only play to win I don’t play for any individual stats or accolades and at times I get lost in how everybody is not built the same way I’m built sometimes I look around and I don’t understand how or why you all don’t love to get better the same way as I I do he knows that cat and wigs are Ultra talented but also believes that they can be so much better if they train similar to him because remember this is the same person who came from nothing in his early life played at a community college went to Marquette was a late first round pick with no guaranteed work his way all the way up in a brutal Tom Tibido system became an Allstar and then the franchise player for the Bulls that isn’t easy to do but for wigs and Cat who had it all and then some Jimmy thinks that they are just going with the emotions and he about that so he rejects a 4year $110 million extension in July but also requested a Max of 5 years and 188 million for him to stay because guess what if Kat and wigs can get the max even though it’s a rookie Max but you get what I mean why does he have to take the high road and take less money despite being the best player on the team last year and after that being with the team all summer he finally went to Tom Tibido on September 19th and asked for a trade the timber wolves are again in another scenario where they must either trade a player or get nothing he probably would have dealt with Kon Wiggins but their personalities just turned him off so badly that he wanton it out after only one season and after no trade happening mainly because there was no guaranteed about him staying long term with whatever team he was traded to he had to stay with the Wolves for the time being but if he was already one foot out of the door then he was going to make his true feelings known and create a very viral story we all think Jimmy about to practice like Jimmy want a new contract Jimmy want a new contract we think Jimmy going to practice Jimmy ain’t practicing Jimmy laying on there getting stretched out getting massage while we running laps we diving for loose balls T said we’re going to scrimmage Jimmy hop up I’m playing T’s hand go crazy I’m talking about this going super crazy he like starters Jeff Jimmy wig Taj cat Jimmy said I ain’t playing with them D Rose was like he was like well Derek you’re in the starting Group D was like all right Jimmy said I’m playing with them he picked the Bad News Bears it was there no offense but everybody in there they wasn’t going to make the team he like I’m playing with them we playing first game jumped the ball he’s like I got cat I was like oh so Jimmy and Cat Ain like each other we throw at the cat first place Jimmy Ste it go down score they go down score like come on cat post the blue ass up man he can’t guard you blah blah blah Jimmy like out of here he trash that steal the ball again they go down score y’all better mother F and pay me I’m like that I’m like he is nuts I’m laughing me and D Rose laughing we in the game we keep thring the cat cat finally scored he’s he too little I’m like yeah cat talk to that mother man he ain’t nothing boy they going this 10 run they dunking hit threes Jimmy ain’t scored at all he just stealing the ball and passing to people getting assist just playing the right way but he like doing everything time run out they win they beat us like 186 right Jimmy going crazy y’all think that team can win without me I’m him pay me pay me mind you he ain’t took off his Jordan warmup yet right he finally takes it off he got the Timberwolf shirt on but he cut the Minnesota out so it just chest he out here with a hole in the middle of his shirt on the middle of his leg so I’m crying now you I’m crying I’m like yo bro crazy but I Ain realize like he just beat us with the D League team G League team he like I just beat them with the G Leaguers this is your starters so now I’m laughing I’m still crying laughing but I’m like hold on he talk about me yeah so I’m mad now to me all of us like n after that like we got to play again so T like NOP second unit you got them they beat the second unit so we turned up we all on Seline yeah hey come on let’s go yeah we talking crazy Jimmy Just Darts to the locker room I’m talking about run fast as hell we beat him we all running lock like Jimmy bring your ass back out we want to play again Jimmy gone Jimmy gone Jimmy at home better than using ESPN or any other type of sords Jeff T keeps it absolutely real Jimmy Butler came in there to make a point the Timberwolves are nothing without Jimmy and he proved it that day but as the season starts Jimmy Butler at least stays with the team and plays with them but let’s not even delay anything and let’s get right to the bottom of this the team was swirled with drama due to what what he did and because of that it just made it that much harder to trade him and on November 12th 2018 it finally happened Jimmy Butler will be traded to the Philadelphia 76ers for Robert Covington Dario sarich and two second round picks just a year and some change ago Jimmy Butler would be traded for two future All Stars in lry and Zack LaVine then after one playoff dud he gets traded for a top quality 3 andd player and a role player this move might as well go down as one of the worst trades of all time when you see see how things turned out from all parties trading away your future for an already established star is something a lot of teams do in history but staying for only one year and trading for scrap shows a lot of negative qualities about your front office and in this case it is the fact that they weren’t trying to see how things are turn out with a lineup of cat Wiggins low and Zach now granted Jimmy would have stayed if a few things were different but it is what the wolves get for trying to fly too close to the Sun or at least in this case fly too close to a potential NBA championship by trading for talent way too early so now it is back to square one in the 2019 NBA season and once again a big mess that shows a lot of harsh truths about this team first Tom timido will be fired at the beginning of the 2019 season with the Wolves going 19 and 21 not a bad record in the slightest and maintaining a somewhat decent standing since Jimmy left but the team was now looking to go in a New Direction and his replacement will be the son of flip s ERS Ryan Saunders who is a longtime assistant coach in the league at this point but without trying to sound rude we all know why he was appointed to interim head coach at the time when tibs was fired secondly the criticism that Jimmy Butler had for Andrew Wiggins were turn into an actual reality because once again as a secondary score or even the main score on the team Wiggins wouldn’t level up at all before Jimmy came he was averaging a career high 23 points per game and now he’s averaging 18 points per game and shooting a career low 41 per from the field an absolute travesty of what was expected from him at one point and showing that Jimmy was right at the end of the day there’s also the final point of Andrew not being worth his contract that he got so like Jimmy said according to Jeff Teague pay me Kony towns would do what he’s usually expected to do averaging 2412 and three and being a second time All-Star but this season would it be much to write home about with a 36 and 46 record and showing more truths about the duo than anything and with that the future of this team being a complete copy of the Kevin Love era potentially has begun too many veterans at this point no young guys who can pop off and no direction in this franchise once again the same way the Kevin Love era ended and now we are back to starting over basically the wolves have the 11th pick in the upcoming draft and a lot of questions that have to be answered because if cat and Wiggins aren’t going to work out then who the hell is going to work out the 2019 NBA draft is known as one of the more underwhelming classes in recent years but at the time he had some relative hype all over for many different reasons with the 11th overall pick the Wolves had a decent chance of picking up on some pretty under the radar Talent at this point you had guys like ky’s Tyler hero or his teammate PJ Washington maybe all big 10 Romeo lford alongside many others but while they picked up NC Star Cameron Johnson the person they really wanted was someone with a lot of risk and someone who jumped off draft boards due to one big moment with the sixth pick in the 2019 NBA draft the Phoenix Suns select Jared Culver from Texas Tech [Applause] University Jared Culver from Texas Tech the man who took the NCAA by storm taking Texas Tech to the national championship game for the first time in school history he was already highlighted during the regular season as a tall guard who bullies his competition while being an All-American as a sophomore but his name only became greater in the NCAA tournament leading his team to the last game of the big dance against Virginia before losing he took that hyp notoriety and created himself into a top 10 pick in the draft and the Timberwolves wanted to tap into the soon to be 20-year-old cover and see what he can do at the next level but what if I told you that cover was shown to be a big time draft red flag some people don’t translate well from the college game to the NBA game and that’s been proven plenty of times throughout NBA history Culver was warned to be one of them mainly because he doesn’t excel at one thing at the NBA level he’s very slow for a guard if he’s expected to St at that position and when he played against expected NBA draft picks he was exposed every time especially in the national champion ship game his fourth pick DeAndre hunter in Virginia where he shot five of 22 from the field and despite the praise in the tournament if you look deeper at his numbers outside of the first two rounds where he went against you know not that good competition when he actually played good competition it just didn’t look well for him but guess what though the Timberwolves actually wanted Darius Garland originally who went one spot ahead and already had a deal made with the Phoenix Suns to get him if he dropped the six but since he went fifth Culver was actually the second best option to new GM Gerson Rosas so I wanted to add that extra context and how he came to be a Minesota Timberwolf in the first place but yes since tibs is gone Rosas is the new GM of the future and Ryan Saunders was given the official head coaching job for the season but if last year was the season when the Wolves found out that Jimmy Butler was right about the team then this year is just busness as usual first P blow of the season is when Carl Anthony towns had his first first ever injury Riddle season during the first few months of the Season cat was once again Unstoppable as a player now understanding what is needed for his team to win due to Andrew wiggin’s lack of stepping up before his first injury he was averaging an amazing 26 points per game in a career high both from there and from his assist getting four a game despite it not coming with many W’s on the team’s Board Cat still shows that he’s the best center in the league or at least trying to be a candidate for that position and even if he can’t forc wins for his team well he was at least going to try to do his best but Wendy went down with his first injury of the year a knee injury that would have sidelined him for 14 games or in real time nearly a month as you imagine without cat the entire team ended up playing badly the Wolves win 8 and 19 but even with cat all you could see them do is lose and at worst have a 13 game losing streak within the season but this season would signify the end of an era that era being the of Andrew Wiggins and Carl Anthony towns I’m going to interrupt you because we have a very big one Adrien rinowski tweeting D’Angelo Russell is going to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Andrew Wiggins wow look at this oh wow we also have a 2121 protected first round pick a 2022 second round pick Warriors will send also Jacob Evans Amari Spellman to the Timberwolves as well Brian so it’s a that’s a huge win for the Wolves because what the Wolves wanted to do the reason this was slowing it down they did not want to give their 2020 first round pick unprotected a couple of days ago that was the kind of deal that that uh that Golden State wanted they willing to take Wiggins but they wanted to be incentivized with multiple picks including this year’s pick which we know is going to be very good for the Wolves to be able to make this deal without having to give up their pick this year is just a tremendous Deal completely energizes that team and really changes their Outlook especially considering they still have other assets that they did from the Robert cumington deal yep after an interesting six years with the Minnesota Timberwolves Andrew Wiggins the first overall pick of the 2014 class will be traded on February 9th 20120 this was the sign that the wolves are ready to throw in a towel and admit de feat splitting up the two and trying again with someone else but why would they ever make this move for only D’Angelo Russell Omari Spelman and Jacob Evans well it was because they had to get something from him the Wolves knew that if the same thing was going to happen over and over and Andrew Wiggins was only going to benefit for being on this team making that big ass contract that he had but not providing the services warranted for it so you rather as well get as much as you can get form as possible which in this case was the person that was drafted right behind behind cat in 2015 D’Angelo Russell you can argue that Russell was the star prize for the wolves and how he was playing and going to stay at the time especially considering he was an Allstar only a year ago and led the net to a playoff birth so this could have been a match made in heaven with cat but that may have also been the reason the Wolves gave up a top three protected pick in next year’s draft for him that details of the move was criticized by everybody because no one thinks DLo is worth the chance at having a top 10 pick in two years but the deal is done and the only way we could see if it was worth it was with time because as the season went by more and more pieces would be traded and the tank would be going at full swing gorgi Jang would be moved to the Grizzlies Robert Covington will move to the Rockets shabaz Napier KB BD up and Noah vonle all players who came from the last off season will be traded to the Denver for a first round pick from the Hawks Jared Vanderbilt Malik Beasley and Juan hernand Gomez all of this in a two-day span so now there is even a new team a young team again ready to do the same as your pass tank for a great player in the draft and see if anyone stands out and can be a part of this future core so at the end of the season the Wolves were probably secretly happy with the results going a horrible 19 and 45 record in the shortened bubble NBA season so you can add that onto the many reasons why this season was a huge match because there is also one more thing to add to that giant list of fuckups and that’s the Timberwolves making the biggest mistake possible with Jered cover almost immediately when you watched him play you can see that he was totally punching up the wrong weight class being in the NBA despite playing to mix a point guard and shooting guard in college now in the NBA with players are much more faster and skilled at the next level Jared was forced to play a new position that being a small forward and as a 65 and not even 200lb Wing he would have a horrible time keeping up in the league due to that and again with no real skill that makes them different from the rest he was shown to be a clear bust in only his first season on the team and the pur they traded to get him cam Johnson was already enjoying his time in Phoenix where he do what he was always known to do in college shoot the ball at a high level so despite not getting much from the Wolves and the cover trade they still got what they wanted in Johnson at the end of the day are using his height and shooting ability ities to help make the Suns make it to the finals in The Following season but enough of that with the third worst record in the entire NBA the Wolves had a huge opportunity to get another top three pick in a class with the consensus top three players were very clear and with the grace of Lady Luck herself the Wolves were able to get the first pick after having the third best odds and saw the Golden State Warriors and Cavs get pushed off so for the first time since getting cat in 2015 the wolves have the first over overall pick for the second time in franchise history so can the Wolves take advantage and bring this rebuild back on track and get the best player in the class well again there is a clear top three and the wolves have the first crack at choosing a player so can the Wolves somehow someway find out who’s the best out of the three I guess that is up to GM Rosas to figure out and the City of Minnesota to eagerly wait who will be potentially the new face of Minnesota basketball once again we meet ourselves at the NBA draft and this time around just like many others that could potentially change the fates of the Timberwolves future with one simple pick despite the many blunders we talked about so far the Timberwolves were still able to get guys like Kevin Love Andrew Wiggins and Cat all from the draft but this time around they get top dibs of who they want to choose once again to pair with a 25-year-old Carl Anthony towns this time in 2020 draft unlike the 2015 draft there’s no clear number one guy according to the consensus the top three was between lamelo ball Anthony Edwards and James wisman all three playing different positions and all three having different potentials for the future for lamelo ball he’s a showstopping point guard with huge potential as a scorer and playmaker while also being a 6’6 tall point guard which makes him a living mismatch for anyone for Anthony Edwards He’s a strong in physical shooting guard who’s able to create any shot he wants and he’s been known as one of the best Prospect ects in his high school class and turned that into a highlight field freshman year at Georgia and lastly James wisman who was also a top high school guy like Edwards but also someone who didn’t have the most tape to look at due to his controversy at Memphis that only allowed him to play three games it was an amazing three games yes but two of those games weren’t even against worthwhile competition so his main concern despite the upside is the fact that there isn’t enough tape on him in the slightest so as the team with the number one overall pick who does the timber roles think is the best best Prospect and the person who they think can lead their franchise for years to come have made a selection and there is the commissioner Adam Silver on his way to the podium with the first pick in the 2020 NBA draft the Minnesota Timberwolves select Anthony Edwards from the University of Georgia so Anthony Edwards with his mother and grandmother with him there is Spirit he knows which hat he can take out of that big box now and it is the one that belongs to the Minnesota timber wol Anthony Edwards someone call him the safest pick out of the three and I completely understood where the wolves are coming from with the selection none of the three players wow you stats wise and Edwards was a part of that same criticism as he truly took the reign of a bad Georgia team scoring 19 points per game but if you watch the games you knew that he was literally taking whatever he wanted and it dropped his field goal percentage down to 40% and his 3point percentage down to 29% on seven attempts a night but the thought for Edwards was obvious the shot selection can be fixed the conversion rate of those interesting shots can be fixed and some of his interesting personality quirks that some people notice can also be worked on I remember his motor at one point in time was called into question in the pre-draft process as he wouldn’t fully utilize the 6’5 and 225 frame to his Advantage especially defensively and I also remember the very much under the radar moment when someone asked how did you get into basketball and he replies I’m still not really into it I love basketball yeah it’s what I do and also saying that he’d rather play in the NFL rather than the NBA I remember when that happened I thought he’d be another Andrew Wiggins who had all the talent in the world but never truly cared to tap into it fully and another widely spread opinion was the fact that he was sabotaging himself to not even be drafted by Minnesota but in this case just like Charles Barkley in the past he was drafted by the PO team he didn’t even want to play for as the Minnesota Timberwolves drafted him with the first overall pick we may never know why he said all that stuff for what he meant by it but the wolves made their pick and it was their job to get the most out of him they would also go on and draft Serbian big man aleski pokeri with the 17th pick in that Atlanta Hawks move we talked about earlier but he served a bigger purpose as he was traded later that night to the OKC Thunder to get the 28th pick jayen McDaniels and also get back Ricky Rubio who will now make his long rated return With The Wolves but as the draft ends the Wolves were considered one of the winners of the draft for their pick and Edwards for his allaround potential and getting McDaniels who can turn as one of the best defenders in the league with his 6′ n height and near 7 foot wingspan as a wing while already having a decent three-point jumper so now the Wolves can focus on their offseason and get away from their near League worst record from last year the rest of the summer itself would stay pretty quiet though as the GM would only sign back Malik Beasley and wo Hern and Gomez to long-term deals however even with the drafting of Edwards there was still a lot of talks about the Timberwolves making a comeback but it wouldn’t be this year because they have plenty of catching up to do and what will make this season a lot more stressful coming up is due to the fact that the pick that they gave the Warriors last year was top three protected so if they didn’t lose enough games or fall into the top three of the lottery somehow the Warriors will get a free pick just for trading away D’Angelo Russell further showing that the Wiggins trade may have just been a fleece so now let’s get into the 2021 season and see what’s in store for the Timberwolves well as you’d expect there would be a lot of losing and a lot of Youth to look over the development of and with a 7 and 24 record to start the year at least you knew that top three pick from the Warriors was as good as theirs but a certain someone wasn’t happy with that result and wanted this team to go in a New Direction because on February 21st 2021 Ryan Saunders would be fired by Gerson Rosas it made perfect sense why you do that in the first place go on and find a decent coach who can actually give you wins even with a bad roster like this and create a new team philosophy with your next head coach before the firing though you had some gems on the team trying to make the remark in the league but just being led by the wrong person of course for example after a good start with the Wolves last season Malik Beasley would show his talents fully this year averaging a career-high 19 points per game and being one of the best Shooters in the league however ever due to a legal issue he had off the court he’d be suspended for 12 games during that year due to his actions and would serve up to 1220 days in jail after the season after pleading guilty to a felony case of threats of violence he had a great thing going but after that 12 game suspension and soon to be left hamstring injury hurting him he would only play 37 games that year car the towns would once again have another great season as per usual but instead of the injury bug he faced a CO bug early in the year but he still showed out after the fact and lastly DLo would face a huge setback this year with a knee injury that would require surgery now making three players who was averaging 19 or more points having injury troubles this year and it would only cause the Wolves to lose more and more so something had to change so on February 22nd the change the t- Bulls wanted finally happened as they hired Chris Finch a longtime assistant in the NBA and now getting his first opportunity as a head coach but he have a lot to work with to make this team turn into anything respectable because as we all know we just know how fast a new coach hiring can turn into a firing in this franchise and really all over the NBA but I think the hiring of Chris Finch would see a big impact immediately as you saw a huge jump in a particular player that player being Anthony Edwards playing alongside Ryan Saunders compared to Chris fch you see a tale of two different players and it was scary just how different a single change can make within the franchise during the first half of the season with Saunders he played like a typical rookie and he looked like he was back in his college form scoring 14 points per game and shooting under 40% while barely converting on over 30% of his threes but with Finch until the end of the season ant would be Unleashed and going from 14 to 23 points per game and as efficiency rise alongside it he looked like a real Allstar in the second half of the season and the potential of what he can do in this league was clear as day and the Dual of frony talent and ant will be showed to be a real thing together as ant scored 42 points and Cat scored 41 together on April 18 20121 becoming the second duo in franchise history to ever score 40 or more points in a game and also at that game become the third youngest player in NBA history to ever score 40 points or more in a game showing that ant has a lot of foundation to work with to be a true threat in this league and of course with a second win the latter half the season he earned second place in the Rookie of the Year race losing to Lamela Ball even though the race was in no way close due to that slow start but at least he be highlighted on the NBA’s all rookie first team but to get the focus off of him for a bit the team itself actually improved as the wolves with Finch finished the year 16- 25 a much better record than what they had with Saunders so the higher ring was praised all over the league and all he needs now is a good team to work with in this season despite ending the year 23 and 49 the Wolves learned a lot about their team they have some young players who can actually serve a foundation on this team’s future Kat and ant were obviously seeing what they can do under fch and there is even more to talk about first you see the play of undrafted free Asian and two-year two-way player Nas Reed actually show some real impact on this team especially as he replaced cat whenever he was injured scoring 11 points Off the Bench blocking a shot a night and showing his potential as a three-point Marksman as another top high school recruit in in his time and after an okay season in LSU he was never drafted in 2019 but trying to bank on his potential as a doit all big man the Timberwolves would pick him up and see what he do in the g-league and have him develop and it only took him one season to impress enough to get his first full contract in the league and now in 2021 he’s shown to be a legit NBA player and a steal for the Minnesota Timberwolves the Wolves would also see players like Jared Vanderbilt and Jay McDaniels immediately showed their defensive potential as players with Jaden almost averaging a steel the block at night as a rookie and Vanderbilt in his first time as a rotational player doing the exact same after being traded from the Denver Nuggets it was an ugly season for them but it showed a lot of potential in many ways especially with Finch showing that he’s capable of actually turning this team into something with his coaching but due to that end of the season where they started 7 to 24 and ended 16 to 25 The Wolves ended the year 23 and 49 in the shorten 2021 season which means the wolves have the sixth best odds at the first pick and with them moving back to seven the Warriors have now snagged the pick away from the wolves from the DLo trade and have officially lost the Andrew Wiggins move in retrospect at least and when you also consider how you know how deep the 2021 classes today then you just know that this move just hits them that much deeper but the Wolves can certainly bounce back from this they just got to either see some development from the team to ignore this loss or make a move that can move this team f further along in this rebuild but with zero picks in the 2021 draft how can the Wolves improve their already decent roster further and how would they look with a full season of Chris Finch at the head with no picks in general in the seventh pick of the draft being taken due to the Andrew wiggin trade a few years ago the Wolves missed out on many great players like Jonathan kaminga fron Vagner alarin sangon and others but if the w schs were going to compound off their little victories and their new coach then they had to at least do something in this off season rather than just rely on just straight progression but while the team on the court would go through changes the team off the court will go through the same because in April the long time owner Glen Taylor would announce that he’d be selling the team to Mark love and Alex Rodriguez over a three-year period where they become the majority owners by 2023 and as you imagine that would mean there’ potentially be a new culture coming the team as the $ 1.5 billion deal will be finalized but back on the court there will be some moves made to make up for the lack of a draft first on April 2nd 2021 Ricky Rubio we traded once again this time for torian Prince and two second round picks it was a nice oneyear reunion that gave him his start in the NBA with the Minnesota Timberwolves but once again he wouldn’t fit the Wolves timeline as he never improved on his offensive game and was coming up on a contract year this season so they traded him for the exact same reason they did a couple years ago so best to give him to a team that valued him for a three and D wing with an obvious role on the team and some second round picks by trade standards Ricky was viewed as the most valuable player in the eyes of the Cavs but Prince was certainly someone the Wolves could definitely use and as their final move of the summer the Wolves will once again wave the white flag and admit defeat over a terrible draft decision that being Jared Culver trading him and wano and Gomez to Memphis for the services of Patrick Beverly Jared was immediately shown to be not of NBA quality in his two seasons in Minnesota and after getting demoted in only his second season his fate was sealed so he could be shipped to a team that could potentially use him again in Memphis for a player they didn’t value and Pat B which you can argue is a steal for the Wolves trading two assets that was maybe already one forna league for a proven vet in Pat Beth but even as Gerson Rosas was making these Banger moves of the Warriors for the Wolves I mean to be better he actually would be fired only a few weeks later due to an ongoing investigation with them having relations with a female staffer within the organization it was deemed consensual according to ESPN but he still be fired on September 22nd 2021 remember kids never dip your pen in Company Inc or end up like him or Oka even if it was consensual so for the upcoming season the Wolves will be without a g M while the intern replacement takes the seat until they find a permanent one but the Wolves will still be enjoying the efforts of Rosas that year as they looked like they were back on track for a potential playoff appearance just like Andrew Wiggins and Cat only a few years ago Anthony Edwards and Cat Synergy together were immediately through the roof in their second season with each other the woods in 2022 had the fastest Pace in the NBA for our team and it created some very fun basketball once again for Minnesota seeing Anthony Edwards and cat form a pretty formidable Duo add alongside the fact that DLo was competed third score for the team nearly averaging 20 points a game and having defensive threats and Vanderbilt Beverly and McDaniels all starting to take care of the primary scores on the other team and to hold the paint down it made the Wolves one of the most improved teams in the NBA and with a near perfect Synergy of offense defense and star Talent the Wolves allowed Kat and ant to focus on offense and getting the team’s wins it didn’t take long for Edwards to really get used to his new role and offensive responsibility scoring 48 points against the Warriors in the 10th game of the season easily making him a upand cominging guard for the league to take notice on and for cat the leader it was business as usual staying the team’s leader on and off the court and flirting with a 50490 season averaging 24 points per game but this team was still the epito of consistently inconsistent in the first half of the season going 31- 28 and having huge slumps and surges from time to time what if they drop six games in a row one month win the next five and then immediately lose another five in a row the wolves are really one of the most polarizing teams in the league that year but despite being three games over 500 at the All-Star game cat would once again be highlighted for his third ever All-Star appearance and also become the first ever Center to win the NBA’s Three-Point Contest beating the likes of Desmond Bane Trey young CJ McCullum Luke Canard Patty Mills for some reason Fred Van vet and Zack LaVine he says to this day that he changed shooting for big men in the NBA and honestly that night he for sure proved that beating some of the best the NBA has to offer and the most efficient the NBA has to offer in the biggest shooting game of the season and I don’t know whether the All-Star break was a well- needed time away from basketball for the Wolves to regroup but the Wolves were an absolute fire after the allar break as the team going 15-8 to end the season giving them a record overall of 46 and 36 one game short of their 47-35 record with Jimmy Butler Only 4 years apart a very quick rebuild for the wolves and once again it starts with them getting the number one overall pick and some pretty key changes to the team whether it was hiring Rose SAU to make moves adding in players like Nas Reed Pat Bev Jayden McDaniels Malik Beasley and others or whatever it may be in the second half of the Season cat and ant would level up their production and make a real playoff push and not giving up their standing as the seventh seed will also trying to push for the sixth seed to avoid the play in but that would unfortunately not be the case because with a clear 4 gain Advantage the Wolves can breathe and accept that they have to face the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA playing game to have the right to face the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round but first K towns want to again be awarded and recognized as part of the all NBA third team because his season once again just like his last all NBA season was dominant being top 15 in points rebounds and blocks that season but now he has to come back to the playoffs and redeem himself for his blunder only four years ago first though the playing game versus the Los Angeles Clippers my favorite team unfortunately however the bad streak of K towns would continue into the postseason fing out in 24 minutes as he only score six points and be a -4 in the Box plus minus stat but that didn’t matter because even if cat wasn’t going to step up the Wolves played like wolves themselves and attacked the Clippers relentlessly making turn over the ball 17 times and making Richie Jackson and Paul George go for a combined 17 of 42 from the field but the Clippers still stayed to float with the league going into the final 5 minutes of the game but that would be erased after dowlo would make a three-pointer putting them up by one and from there DLo and ant would take terms scoring the final 10 of their team’s 12 points in the final minutes of the game to give the timber WS the win and give them the seven seed in that year’s playoffs and even though an and stole the show and covered up cat’s interesting play in a postseason scenario the show was truly occupied by Pat be celebrating in Minnesota creating one of the best NBA memes of all time which I can’t show you the music of because of the copyrighted material but you all know what the song is just hum it in your head or something in this game you truly saw Anthony Edwards was made for prime time scoring 30 points to lead the team alongside D’s 29 to help out both being unguardable to lead the Wolves to their first ever playoff appearance since the infamous Jimmy Butler year but they can’t stay too excited as the Memphis Grizzlies are another young team on the rise who went from a 38 and 34 season to 56 and 36 their best record since 2015 in the grit and grind era it was all being led by all NBA second team member and MIP winner John Morant and his cast of character so it wasn’t going to be an easy series by any means especially since they you know with the seventh seed but you know what I mean but it will be a great test to see where the wolves are at as a team and see where they will stand going into the next season and Beyond in game one you had the timber woles truly show that they are on the same footing off the rip as the Grizzlies especially we consider that both of these teams have very little playoff experience so this two versus 7 matchup will feel more like a four versus five in actuality but in this game you would have the Wolves dominate the grizly so bad that they only had the lead for 32 seconds and the rest they were either tied or losing we also see Anthony Edwards perform at the highest level in his first ever playoff game leading all scores with 36 and see cat and Malik Beasley both getting up 20 points or more each game two would be a switch in narrative seeing the wolves get blown up by 28 due to the offensive fir power the Grizzlies had being a top five offense and also having four players Off the Bench scoring 10 or more points the Wolves would have to deal with this especially seeing that Grizzlies had a top five bench unit scoring wise which can cause huge problems for them if they let run get out of hand game three would show a huge problem that the Wolves would have in this series and that problem was the fact that they would have hot starts and immediately would blow huge leads at the end of the first quarter the score was a nice 39-21 lead a huge start and could already be the end of the game if they manage themselves which they were doing up until the fourth quarter with a huge 83-67 Advantage but somehow someway they put their foot off the gas pedal and allowed a 37 to 12 quarter by the Grizzlies which was led by Brandon Clark of all people scoring 12 of those points and going a perfect 6 ass six from the line the Wolves would blow this lead and lose this game 104 to 95 due to the collapse of the fourth quarter where they shot three of 19 add as a team in an Infamous quarter and would have been a huge game to win at home and take a 2-1 lead in but again young team versus young team like that will probably happen they spin the Block in game four tying the series 22 and being the dominant team again only giving up the lead for 5 minutes in that game so while The Score says they only won by one point the Wolves stay clutch the entire game maintaining the lead for the time and also seeing cat have his best playoff game scoring 33 points and 14 rebounds while bullying his way to the line for 17 free throw attempts which he made 14 of this is the version of cat the Wolves need to win this series and playing this way can get him off of that horrible showing that he had a couple years ago game five though the wolves made the same mistake again this time leading by 11 at the beginning of the fourth quarter they allowed John Morant to score 18 of his 30 points in the fourth and also allow Brandon Clark to stay The X Factor letting him grab seven offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter alone creating so many extra opportunities for the Grizzlies to come back but all was well when Anthony Edwards kept the wolves in the game tying IT 109 to 109 with 3 seconds left off of a three-pointer but in an out of bounds play after the timeout John Morant want against show why he is the most improved player and an all NBA second team member Brooks trigger [Applause] man Brooks toss it Mor drives Mor oh it’s good one second left Anthony Edwards gambled in the clutch and let his team get burned as jaw uses athleticism to escape and drive over jayen McDaniels to win the game the true example of a rookie mistake by not playing defense and go for the stop to go into OT rather than to go for the steal and lose the game having John Morant go 1 V one with a help Defender who was definitely not ready to guard that and once again the Wolves would blow a second half lead and lose the game allowing the Grizzlies to outplay them especially the xfactor Brandon Clark who was killing the wolves on the boards going into game six at home the wolves look to repeat the same success keeping the momentum the entire game and maintaining a 10-point lead going into the fourth quarter but once again light Clockwork the Wolves would collapse into clutch allowing the Grizzlies to score 40 points in the last quarter blowing the lead at the 3-minute Mark to a Desmond Bane 3 and they never look back losing the series 4-2 in front of their own fans in the same way for three games blowing a second half lead and ending the season if you ask me I thought these two teams could have easily gone to seven but the Wolves could have truly had this series won if it wasn’t for the fact that they had all the momentum in three of those four losses having 10o leads at a halftime but blew the leads every single time was there anyone to truly points fingers at for This Disaster well the narratives were all over Chris Finch allowed the momentum ships to get out of hand cat never did enough in the clutch and the team looked helpless to a third-year Brandon Clark who simply just wanted it more and truly was a Tristan Thompson like X Factor for the Grizzlies but there is some good news no matter how you look at it the w are a young team on the rise and a 46 win season in the loaded western conference is nothing to scoff at they can easily run it back next year and try again see the development of ant leveling up coming big as a sophomore in the NBA there could also be some moves to help this team even more but no one knew where it would come from but for now as one of the youngest teams in the NBA the mid starter Timberwolves can sit back knowing that even though they did blow this series this will not be the end of the Minnesota Timberwolves as they used Ed their pain from this series to regroup and try again it is time for the Minnesota Timberwolves to level up once again or at least make a decision on how they want to go about this summer will they just hope for a young roster to improve and see the natural progression or would they Bank on aunt and Cat being the duo to get it done and make a deal for a third star or just something somehow they tried it one time and got burned big time with Jimmy Butler but obviously not to many players have the personality of Jimmy that’ll do what he did the last time but with rosos gone in the GMC open the new star the show in the front office is now Tim Connelly who is the former Denver Nuggets GM and was responsible for creating what the Denver Nuggets are now alongside the man who scouted Nia yic and drafted him in 2014 the Nuggets wanted to retain him as long as possible but the wolves made him an offer that he could not refuse 5 years and $40 million along side part ownership of the team and Equity making him the highest paid executive in the NBA picking up Conelly who is already creating a naturally made championship team in Denver with minimal trades and moves is impressive enough of a resume to make him the man fit to take this franchise over the top and he was ready to do it a second time in Minnesota and he went right to work after being hired in May overseeing the NBA draft process where they had three second round picks in the first and while it wasn’t worth mentioning who they got they would straight their original pick in Jake laravia in a 2023 second round pick to the Memphis Grizzlies for Auburn big man Walker Kesler and Tai Tai Washington a big pickup for them to add more paint protection to a team who really didn’t have a lot of it but it didn’t take long for Tim Connelly to do what all new GMS usually do and make a big time move as soon as they sit in office we have some breaking news though the Utah Jazz they have agreed to trade three-time Defensive Player of the Year how do you say a big perk Rudy who Rudy goar Rudy goar to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a blockbuster deal that will pair him with fellow Allstar big man Carl Anthony towns that’s what sources are telling are Adrien wowski the Timberwolves they send Malik Beasley Patrick Beverly Jared Vanderbilt the number 22 overall pick Walker Kessler four first round picks to the Jazz and now the man who broke the news is joining us himself it’s our senior Insider Adrien WJ narowski WJ let’s just start here what more can can you tell us about how this trade came together yeah Malika these conversations between Utah and Minnesota they’ve been ongoing here for a period of time and uh Utah had talked to several teams on Rudy gobear uh but they kept coming back to their conversations with Tim Connelly the new president in Minnesota he was determined to get Rudy goar pair him with Carl Anthony towns and listen they paid a steep price as you mentioned the four uh first round pick picks plus Walker Kessler who was the 22nd pick in this draft so essentially five picks um and and they were able to keep Jaden mcdels they young uh forward that was an important part of this uh but the chance with this Minnesota team that’s emerging in the west who had to get better defensively they get perhaps the the greatest defensive force in the league and now it allows Carl Anthony towns to play more of the four uh to not have to take on those really difficult defensive assignments and uh for Utah listen this is a team Now with uh who who’ve gathered up six first round picks in the last 24 hours and Rudy goar four years um max money left on his contract you know goes to uh uh Minnesota and now the Jazz their plan is to retool their roster around their All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell the Minnesota Timberwolves make the move of the summer that sends shock waves throughout the league and forever changes how trades are made for Superstars Rudy Gober the three time DPI who was going through a huge team decline in Utah was being shipped out from the Jazz to start over but it came at a huge price for one of the best offensive bigs of all time taking away Malik Beasley Jared vanderbel and Pat beev all very key players of the roster alongside five first round picks including Walker Kessler and all of them unprotected with them at best getting a pick Swap this tra created a RI triple in the NBA space now making it even that much harder to trade for stars as we know later but this isn’t the video for that we’re going to talk about this trade on its own though because at this time it was meant to help the timber wolves level up in many ways first off the Wolves own one of the worst paint defenses in the NBA and cat holding down the center position let teens shoot 54% of their twos on them and also having a big offensive rebounding problem which we saw highlighted the postseason with the Grizzlies Rudy go Bell helps that problem and immediately being one of the best intimidating defensive forces in the paint and of course being one of the best rebounders in the NBA already and as W said In that clip this allows cat to focus more on what he’s best at in the NBA and that’s being an offensive Force now being at the power forward spot we see many players This Modern Age who prefer being at the four than the five and create great results individually for it whether that’s bookie cousins of Sacramento Anthony Davis when he won the championship in LA and now cat will join them as possibly one of the best Forest in the league from an offensive standpoint and creating a twin towers effect in the paint that not too many teams can deal with realistically this automatically creates a very formidable team to deal with and was a vertical move towards the success keeping the lights of ant and Cat adding Rudy and being able to regroup their death with vets in the free agency pool but there were two ways this can end because while this move can keep the wolves in contention for at least another four to five years and the loss of picks won’t hurt them as much if they’re always in the flate first round range or they can make this trade only M much worth it and win a championship because I’ve never seen a scenario where this Duo is so bad that they don’t just make the playoffs outright but if there were scenario where the Wolves gave the Jazz a free lottery pick this trade will be roasted until the end of time as one of the worst ever especially if one of those set picks turns into a star for the Jazz but Tim Connelly had a vision in mind for this team and it was turning the identity around making the Wolves a defensive J or not adding pieces in free agency like KY Anderson Bren Forbes and Austin Rivers immediately adding more defense and three-point shooting but this also means that the offensive responsibility truly does lie in the hands of cat ant and DLo together to score and facilitate while bringing the best out of the others on the team which is definitely another main criticism of this move but all that takes is just a little bit of adjustment but as the 2023 NBA season started the Wolves would start a great lineup of DLo Edwards McDaniels cat and goar this started lineup has the perfect mix of offense defense and star power on both ends but with an underwhelming T and 10 start mainly due to the Growing Pains of a new system the Wolves fandom would face a new tragedy injuries are unfortunately a big part of the Sports World and in a contact sport like basketball the worst type of injuries to get are the ones when no contact was even Afflicted flate into the third quarter cat would fall into the ground trying to run back during a fast break and couldn’t even get up on his own having his team help him and bring him to the locker room the next day the diagnosis was official cat would have a right CF strain and would be out indefinitely with no timetable to return because an injury like that can flare back up without taking the proper precautions and making sure that he is 100% And now that leaves the wolves in a very interesting place and props Anthony Edwards as the sole star of the team a responsibility he was certainly open to but being able to do it successfully is far easier said than done but credit where credit is due the wool stayed above water while cat was out but it was like the same as last year inconsistently consistent they were feeling the loss of cat’s offense for sure but the defense R go be and the new additions would keep teams at Bay and create wins from their defense alone and while cat was gone and truly shined and looked like an Allstar in the NBA leveling up his averages and becoming more of a leader due to this experience and while the Wolves were not the best team out there due to these inconsistencies you knew ant was a star and with another push he could be the leader the Wolves needed to take this team to the top before the All-Star break though the Wolves was still being mid with a 30 and 28 record and in the play and race as the AFC this team just needed another slight change to make things better and Tim Connelly went ahead and did what he thought would make the Wolves better for the future Adrien wowski is with us because we have a trade woe what can you tell us about D’Angelo Russell heading to the Los Angeles Lakers exactly that Malika three team deal that reunites D’Angelo Russell in the Los Angeles Lakers and sends out Russell Westbrook uh that 2027 first round pick uh I’m told it’s protected one through four in that season that’ll go to the Jazz and the Minnesota Timberwolves they’ll acquire Mike Conley Jr from the uh Jazz three second round picks and the Jazz are also sending two more players to the Lakers uh Jared Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley uh you know a massive deal tonight that brings D’Angelo Russell back to the team that drafted him it was definitely an interesting scenario for all three teams in this trade the Lakers wanted Russ gone and wanted more def on LeBron and AD the Jazz wanted more picks and the Timberwolves were in a rough spot despite DLo having his best season scoring the ball and is higher career percentages wise the Wolves saw DLo was on an expiring deal and knew that he either want more money as the third option or leave for nothing so rather than to deal with that they traded him away for the likes of Mike Conley a very steady veteran in the league even in his mid-30s and nille Alexander Walker Mike connley can provide what DLo does on a potentially cheaper deal especially if he sticks around and also serves as a better playmaker and Defender more qualities the Wolves could use but also really testing Anthony Edward to be the main scorer of the team with d loan but before we get to the rest of the season Ant-Man will be recognized for his first ever All-Star appearance in his third season further solidifying his place in the league and his potential in the future as a top 15 scorer guarding the six most steals per game and being top 10 in made threes ant was an easy selection as an Allstar and will be a perennial one for years to come and with more good news on the way the wolves are back and fully healthy with the return of curreny tals on March 22nd and looking like he never left finishing the season off strong with a 6 and three record in his return and that late push was needed as they were able to end the season as the eighth seed over the New Orleans Pelicans due to a tiebreaker ending the year 42 and 40 now listen I know a lot of people are roasting a Rudy gobear trade in the first year barely being over 500 but you got to think deeper than this because a third year Anthony Edwards really kept the t- woods above water until cat came back and they only lost four more games than the a year before that’s major for the future and it shows that this team could truly be better with a bit more time together and of course you know with Better Health but the wolves have a new problem to deal with for the second straight year they have to survive the play in tournament against another Los Angeles team this time the Lakers who finished eight and unlike the Clippers team from last year though the Lakers are fully healthy and now coming in with a better team due to the trade that they made earlier that sent Dow and other assets to LA and again this game was going to determine who face the Memphis Grizzlies which is for sh team the Wolves want to get some revenge on but the Lakers also want that series to see if they can take advantage of a young team with not too much playoff experience but unfortunately sometimes in life some old habits have to die hard once again the Timberwolves had a 13-point leaded halftime off a cat and Mike connley going a perfect N9 to9 for 28 points in the first half and also causing the Lakers to turn over the ball nine times in the first but just like last year the lead would only get decreased little by little especially as LeBron would score 11 points in the third quarter alone and finally at the 202 Mark of the fourth quarter LeBron will make a three to tie the game and the longest part of the game started as the game became z0 in the final two minutes crazy thing is though no one would score for an entire minute and a half with both teams trading misses but as Dennis schroer makes a three with 1 second left on the clock the Lakers victory was as good as theirs until after a great out- of- bounds play after a timeout Mike connley would find himself open and the only thing that kept their playoff hopes alive was a three-pointer over Anthony Davis the shot unfortunately didn’t hit anything near the basket but a foul was given to ad and Conley made all three of his free throws to successfully send the game into overtime as we all know refs make some pretty interesting calls at times and I didn’t even see the foul barely being in his Landing space if even so ad was certainly frustrated as were a lot of people online but overtime came and the Lakers finished the deal off the playmaking of Lebron in the scoring of AD ruy haimura and Dennis schroer which means the Timberwolves blew another 10-point lead after halftime again the main culer for this loss was Anthony Edwards taking a team High 17 shots and only making three of them and going 0 of nine from three but all can be forgiven if they just beat the OKC Thunder the original temp seed to face off against the first seated Denver Nuggets and I won’t even waste your time the Thunder got dog walked as Shay got locked up shooting 5 and 19 and the Timberwolves won by 25 which means the first year of the Rudy ant and Cat Trio has to face off against the best team in the entire NBA the Denver Nuggets and the two-time MVP NCA joic the key match up for this series was how Rudy Gober and carony towns going to deal with yic because the Nuggets went the best defensively so they couldn’t really keep up but if they played their cards right the Timberwolves could be pretty formidable but the Nuggets also have one of the best offensive forces ever and stopping him is the main objective or at least trying to limit him throughout the first three games though it wasn’t looking the best for the Wolves as they were down 03 because while they were focusing hard on yic Jamal Murray was able to run free averaging 27 points a game on near 50 4090 splits while joic was still being joic no matter what they threw at him Anthony Edwards would scored 41 and 36 in Games 2 and three but when yage and Murray are click cing what exactly can you do the Wolves would sneak a win on the nuggets in game four at home and would even avoid a loss with yish scoring 43 points with back in Denver the Nuggets got the job done ending the series 4-1 as Jamal Murray would go for 35 points and despite of the fact that jic with eight of 29 but an L is an l and the Wolves would lose in the first round for the third time in a row and like I said last year the Wolves still can’t be the most upset with themselves this team would be in a much Baner standing the league if it wasn’t for the early injury to cat and with much more time to Jael as a unit because the trio of cat ant and gobear only play 31 games together before this first round series they are truly on the cusp of becoming a contender but need a full season to make it work but the lessons they learned from this season will be remembered going into next year because Anthony Edwards had an entire season to learn how to be a leader for this team with Kat gone and will continue to learn more as he goes into the fever World Cup to continue to learn how to lead a team cat gets an entire summer to heal further and be ready to play alongside Rudy goar and for Rudy uh well he’s Rudy so keep being Rudy all in all the Wolves use this summer as a way to regroup in more ways than one and knowing next season won’t be the same as the 2023 NBA season and now we are in the current day but unlike the last videos I’ve done on some of these franchises long-term issues the wolves are actually on the rise as a team and deserve a full recap for this year as the wolves are back in the 50 win column for the first time since 2004 coming off the loss of the Denver Nuggets and after a single year of the Rudy gobear Project the NBA world was immediately after the Wolves for only achieving a 42 and 40 record after trading their entire future and then some for the three-time dpoy Rudy go bear but when you add the context to the situation that season was just a bump in the road and the full capabilities of the trios wasn’t even fully shown but due to their very tight financial situation with nearly three max players on the team the Wolves couldn’t do much in the aspect of adding talent in the summer but what they did do was try and maximize the talents what they did already have and come back on a Revenge run with their very young team getting better and their veterans coming in ready to assist the team in general coming back you still had Mike Conley an Edwards jayen McDaniels cat and Rudy goar as a starting lineup and still having Nas Reed was slowly becoming one of the better bench options Off the Bench and of course KY Anderson who was already battle tested as a player the rotation and hierarchy was already set so it was all about staying healthy and making things happen coming into the 2024 season the Wolves had a new identity compared to last year that turned into the most successful season in a long time and that was being a defensive first team that focused on suffocating you with their length and an Edwards becoming a better Defender Jaden McDaniels who’s already known as one of the best one-on-one defenders in in the league right now Rudy gobear of course being the anchor of the paint and Off the Bench having the length of the kill Alexander Walker Nas Reed and Kyle Anderson for backup the results spoke for themselves the Timberwolves had a record of 13 and4 in the First full month of the season and were blowing teams out while shutting them down 110 to 89 against the Nuggets 123 to 95 against the Nuggets 122 to 101 against the Pelicans 117 to 100 against the Knicks and 112 to 99 against the next this team would kill you with a bottom five Pace in the NBA making almost every game NBA play off speed and shutting you down making you play at their level and while you’re struggling to score the combo of Anthony Edwards and Cony towns would smoke you with everything they had day in and day out but I think a very important aspect that people forgot about last year was Anthony Edwards learning what it meant to be in the NBA and becoming more of a solo leader having to be without cat for most of the season and truly having to carry the lead and in this season ant took that responsibility of being the main scorer instead of cat and the Wolves were better off for it now averaging a career high 25 points and five assists tonight in his third season this team was totally transformed by their season before and it turned into a strong showing in the early season while never looking back and would also be recognized as one of the best players in the NBA for a Time winning the player of the week award on the week of the 13th November leading the Wolves to a 4-0 record while averaging 31 points six rebounds and six assists a game and showing going off his two-way play with two steals a night this team truly had everything you wanted from a future Championship Contender with two all NBA level players leading the team a top tier defense Shooters everywhere with Mike connley being ranked third in the league and three-point field goal percentage and even a great bench as Nas Reed was balling Off the Bench and showing his progression as a shooter shooting 40% from three on five attempts T night and his strides showing as a paint Defender with this Synergy in very little injury trouble the Wolves would see themselves maintain the first seed in the gon conference for 65 straight days the wolves in their 34 years in the league have only had the first seed for 16 days in total while this team at one point maintained it for two months straight a huge accomplishment for a team who has struggled with so much which obviously you have heard from myself for nearly 3 hours for these efforts and being one of the best teams in the NBA two players will be awarded for their play Anthony Edwards W his second straight All-Star and Cat would also become an Allstar once again and with this 39 and 16 record going into the All-Star breaking as the first seed you just knew the Timberwolves fandom and players were probably thinking that this is it the season was still young though and the Wolves would fumble at times having a 500 start after the All-Star break and it would be a very tight race for the first place spot with the Denver Nuggets and the OKC Thunder two teams they faced off against last year in the postseason but by Year’s End they lose three of their last six games and the Timberwolves would end the year 56 and 26 the best record that they’ve had since 2003 and end the year as the third seed with their last three losses coming at the hands of Denver and two of them to the Phoenix Suns and as there only one game behind the first seed those three losses were very influential to where they ended up it isn’t about positioning it’s about what you do with it and they can’t be upset with themselves showing the NBA that the Timberwolves were the first time in 20 years are a serious contenders for the NBA finals and while the all NBA teams haven’t been awarded yet at the time of me making this video Anthony Edwards will be a part of the all NBA second team most likely Rudy gobear won his fourth DPI award for leading the best defense in the league with the best offensive rating and scoring defense and finally Nas Reed would win six man of the year for his contributions to Minnesota’s season even if it was controversial some people thought it’d be Malik Monk while you had me saying it was Norman Powell who wasn’t even a finalist but this isn’t the video for that all over you had the Timberwolves giving credit for their play this season and it only strengthened the case that the Rudy gobear trade was that much more worth it and the decisions in the front office creating this team after the Jimmy Butler mess was near perfect but we don’t talk about jerro cver though that was about the biggest Miss they had in that little span but going into the playoffs the Wolves were ready for any team who was going to be in front of them with their near and impeccable strategy and a top defense in the NBA except uh the opponent they ended up getting in the Phoenix Suns a team that got swept by in the regular season with every game being a blowout due to their star started top three of Kevin Durant Devin Booker and Bradley Beal ESPN’s predictions were about split on the decision on who’d win but if there was one thing they had in common the series was expected to be long and competitive and the main concern of the Wolves were just how they were going to be expected to deal with KD Booker and Beal Al together Minnesota timber was the number three overall seed in the Western Conference to beat the Phoenix Suns who are the six seed I’m changing my mind I’m going with the Suns to win this series now I’m fully aware that the new look Suns never quite lived up to preseason expectations but Phoenix has suffered a rash of injuries early in the season and underperformed even when the big three Kevin Durant Brad Bill and Deon Booker were healthy but the bottom line is they avoided the playing game and now face the Timberwolves in the first round and I’m just looking at some of these numbers ladies and gentlemen I I got to admit to you these are scary so first of all understand that Devon Booker and Kevin Durant are the only teammates to each average at least 27 points per game this season I’m looking at the Timberwolves they’re 56 and 23 in the season right I’m just looking at them right now and I’m just wondering about it against I’m sorry 56 and 23 against 28 teams in the NBA which is considered to be a remarkable turnaround but they’re 0 and3 against the Suns this year 0 and3 losses of 1918 and 10 they were up by 23 yesterday with 3 minutes to play before the Wolves bench closed with a 130 run to mask the final score they were getting blown out okay do y’all know that the Timberwolves have never been within single digits in the second half in any of those games they’ve never been within single digits in the second half of any of those games and I’m looking at that and I’m saying myself excuse me then I got to take into account you’re the number one defense in terms of defensive efficiency in the n in the NBA and I got to think about Rudy go who’s in line to win another Defensive Player of the Year where he’s already got three but this Rudy goar is the same Rudy goar that you can pull away from the basket and he’s a liability for you that was one of the things that frustrated Donovan Mitchell and the folks in Utah when they were both in Utah well now here they had here Rudy Gober is he’s in Minnesota and what are we talking about here against the Phoenix Suns with Rudy Gober on the floor the wolves have been outscored by 25 26 and 17 points in those three games where Rudy go be on the floor he’s a liability for them against Phoenix talking blank like that were all over the national media but one thing people got to remember regular season games are nowhere near the same as playoff games by any means you see it as early in game one as the Wolves ended up winning 120 to 95 because the Wolves were ready to game plan against the Suns and make sure the strategy of the Suns or I guess the talent of them wasn’t going to beat them like they did in the regular season they sent a nice message with no one on the team being able to go to Anthony Edwards who score 33 points in pressure the point guard Devin Booker all game making him go five of 16 in game one the plan for the Wolves was to shut down KD and book and make sure that someone else was the reason they were going to lose game one goes to Minnesota as book was locked up and KD didn’t get enough helped to keep up game two was more of the same making the Suns turn over the ball 19 times and shutting down their Victory once again and it was safe to say that the Wolves had their number having so many players you can switch onto the stars and take advantage of the sun’s lack of playmaking dbook being the point guard worked in a regular season but in the slow down nature of the playoffs the cracks in his game will show clearly game three would be the best performance of The Big Three now at home combining for 76 of their teams 109 but when Anthony Edwards is scoring 36 with ease and no one can stop him in the wolves having five other players and double figures the Suns stood no chance with their more than lacking defense and Anthony Edwards wanted to make sure that was known by everyone ai’s three Off the Mark Edwards the rebound the leak out goar lays it in plus the foul and an exclamation point from Rudy goar as Anthony Edwards delivers a little something extra are you a big late 90s wrestling fan late 90s wrestling fan no not at all um you talking about my my uh yeah um I was trying to get Rudy to do it with me but he would never make eye contact with me which was crazy cuz I threw you the ball for the N1 now with the three lead the wolves are fully in control of their Destiny and have the game planed to stop the Suns by any means necessary they just need to do it one more time and make it to the second round for the first time in two decades Devon Booker tried his best in game four going for 49 to save his team Seasons but Anthony Edwards 40 with 16 in the fourth quarter alone and catch 28 was all the Wolves needed to keep the Suns at Bay to win this series in a sweep their first sweep in franchise history a truly historic day for all t-wolves fans out there and having all the momentum for a potential finals run but there are still three more rounds to complete and the next one will be a Revenge match against the second seated Suns the same team that sent them packing last year at the time that I’m writing this part the Timberwolves have just confirmed their spots in the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2004 the video I’ve been working on for a month and some change have officially come full circle as the Timberwolves have fully found their newest Superstar and player to rely on for years to come but was this series easy in the slightest against defending champs hell no while the Timberwolves made it look like they got them all figured out in the first two games with Anthony Edwards scoring 43 in the first game and Cat and ant combining for 54 in game two the narratives were that the Wolves one of the most dominant teams in the playoffs winning their first six games of the year’s playoffs and this is against some top tier Talent all around but again the mix of a top tier defense and Anthony Edwards terrorizing everyone is an amazing Synergy that is seen historically many times but as the more experienced team the Nuggets weren’t going to back down without a fight and it was quite the turnaround to make the point that their Championship status from last year was not a fluke game three saw the Nuggets having their starters scored 95 of their 17 points and playing good enough defense to Keep the Wolves down crazy enough though the starters outscored the entire Timberwolves team as they lost 117 to 90 and the Wolves being dominated the entire game game four the Wolves changed their defensive strategy to make someone else pop off on the team to beat them and it allowed Aaron Gordon to have his best career game in the playoffs for 27 points on 11 to 12 shooting and going two or2 from three spoiling Anthony Edward 44.9 and once again losing by nearly 10 points and finally game five was a solo act by yic torching the timber wolves defense for 40 points and seeing him go eight of nine against The Season’s dpy Rudy goar to win three in a row and now be up 3-2 with all the momentum something had to change for the Wolves to win and the Wolves season was on the line giving up the momentum to the nuggets and game six showed that the Wolves were ready for that challenge and weren’t giving up the series so easily especially at home where they got eliminated in last year’s playoffs to the nuggets and it’s crazy to say that game six doesn’t even deserve much of a recap seeing the wolves go full double team mode on joic once again and betting on the fact that no one else on the team was going to beat them individually and that thought would be nothing more than an understatement as yic scored 22 points on eight to 19 shooting but the main stat was that joic only got two assists in that game meaning the rest of the team wasn’t doing for the three time MVP four of 18 from Jamaal Murray one of six from three from mpj one of six from Christian Brun and don’t Donuts from Reggie Jackson and Justin holiday and the score showed that even more beating the Nuggets 115 to 70 a 45-point win the eighth biggest blowout in NBA Playoffs history and the biggest blowout to a defending champion in NBA Playoffs history the wolves made a statement and they only have to get one more win in Denver to reach their first ever Conference Finals in 20 years 20 years of tanking bad decision bad management bad draft selections so much history that can be slightly forgotten if they win one more game but the Nuggets would coming on a heater with 22 first half points for Jamal Murray JIS with a first half double double and Anthony Edwards was being locked up going one of seven in the first half with a score of 38 and 53 going into halftime with no home court advantage and your season on the line some people had the timber wolves out once again earlier today at least when it came to me riding this video we seen the Pacers route the Knicks with a huge lead and maintaining it but the biggest comeback in game seven history is 11 points in this game at the 10-minute Mark in the third quarter the lead was 20 entire points and it wasn’t looking good for the Wolves as ball Arena was going crazy knowing that they were another 22 minutes away from making their second straight Western Conference Finals but the Timberwolves were going down without a fight clawing the lead all the way down to one at the end of the third allowing only 14 points from the nuggets and doubling it with Anthony Edwards scoring nine and the third but now in the fourth and only being down by one the Wolves can make history making the Western Conference Finals with a second time in franchise history and completing the biggest comeback in game seven history and despite Yin scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter alone the Wolves stayed aggressive garnering 15 fourth quarter free throws making 12 of them and beating the finals Champions by eight points and you know what that means the wolves have finally did it when I started making this video it was beginning of the playoffs and the Wolves were considered underdogs against the Suns and considered first round exits due to a regular season record and at the end of today at 2:50 a.m. Central Standard Time on May the 20th they completed the biggest comeback in game seven history making it to the Western Conference finals for the first time in 20 years and ironically enough on Kevin Garnett’s birthday so now the wolves are confirmed to have a great future ant is on the cusp of super stardom cat has a few years until he turns 30 so he has plenty of more time of his Prime and Rudy gobear will most certainly stay around his talent level for a few more years himself at the dep that they have in Nas Reed Jaden McDaniels and nil Alexander Walker the Wolves will be able to stick around for a good bit as the old generation of stars Fades out and Anthony Edwards and the new age of stars create their reign in the current NBA but now they have to face the D Mavericks on Wednesday the 22nd and with them only being eight games away from winning their first championship of franchise history and being in their first Finals in franchise history if they can pull that off well let’s just say that this video only becomes that much more worth creating as I documented just how far this young franchise has come being at the point since trading away their all-time best player with that being said tell me what NBA timeline you’d like to see next your thoughts on this video gold timber wolf make history make Kevin Garnett proud and until next time

The Minnesota Timberwolves. A Team established in the 1989 Offseason joining the Miami Heat in the NBA is a Franchise with very little success. But when they drafted High School Standout Kevin Garnett, their trajectory as a franchise changed almost overnight. A 1x MVP, 10x All Star, 8x All NBA Player, and 8x All Defensive member as a Timberwolf. But even in his time in Minnesota, the Wolves only made it to 1 Western Conference Finals, and been first round outs in EVERY year before that. So after 3 more years of no playoff appearances and KG being north of 30. The Twolves had to make a very hard decision that KG didn’t even want, having to trade what some call one of the best PFs in NBA History to the Boston Celtics on July 31st, 2007. And despite the HUGE haul they received from the Celtics, the many years of tanking, and the MANY early first round picks used, the Timberwolves have only made the playoffs 4 times, created only 2 All Stars, and been through 9 coaches. But as we know, the Timberwolves just created their 2nd best record in Franchise History and have a new Franchise Leader in Anthony Edwards who will be the new version of KG for the Franchise. Well that is the topic of today’s deepdive to find out just how the Minnesota Timberwolves took 17 seasons to truly rebuild after the Kevin Garnett Trade and now being in the place they are with Anthony Edwards, Karl Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert.

Chapters:
0:00 – 2:15 Intro
2:15 – 6:39 Prologue and the KG Trade
6:39 – 14:19 2008 and the Rise of Al Jefferson
14:19 – 23:43 2009 Kevin Love arrives in Minnesota
23:43 – 36:06 2010 The Biggest Draft Blunder ever
36:06 – 49:53 2011 Al Jefferson is traded
49:53 – 1:06:21 2012 All NBA Kevin Love
1:06:21 – 1:14:02 2013 Signs of Improvement
1:14:02 – 1:25:28 2014 Flip Saunders returns and a Playoff Push
1:25:28 – 1:40:41 2015 Kevin Love leaves and Andrew Wiggins joins
1:40:41 – 1:51:04 2016 The Arrival of Karl Anthony Towns
1:51:04 – 2:00:23 2017 Tom Thibodeau takes over the ship
2:00:23 – 2:15:25 2018 The Wolves are BACK in the Playoffs
2:15:25 – 2:25:20 2019 The Jimmy Butler Trade Saga
2:25:20 – 2:34:49 2020 The End of Andrew Wiggins
2:24:49 – 2:46:04 2021 The Arrival of Anthony Edwards
2:46:04 – 2:59:53 2022 The Wolves are on the Rise
2:59:53 – 3:16:09 2023 The Trade heard Around the World
3:16:09 – 3:34:21 2024 The Timberwolves Bright Future

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