There are better teams in the West, and the Timberwolves are certainly not a top-tier western conference post-season contender, but I do think they’ve got a roster that’s going to put them in a position to be one of the best regular season (regular season) teams in the WC.
Starters: Conley, Ant, Jaden, KAT, Gobert.
Bench (players regularly in the rotation): Shake Milton, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Troy Brown Jr, Kyle Anderson, Naz Reid.
Deep bench: Jordan McLaughlin, Josh Minott, Leonard Miller, Luka Garza.
Their 5-man bench rotation is extremely versatile on both ends, although perhaps lacking in size in the front court. You have two legitimate self-creators/microwave scorers in Shake and Naz. You collectively get high level playmaking/distributing on the floor from Shake, NAW, and Anderson. NAW is quietly developing into one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA and Anderson is a versatile, high level on-ball and help defender. And you get quality 3 point shooting across the board (Shake shot 38% from 3 last season, NAW 38%, TBJ 38%, Slow Mo 41%, Naz 35%).
Their deep bench has a ton of promise too. Minott is an athletic, 20 year old wing who averaged 18-8-3 and 2 stocks in the g-league last season and whose athleticism/motor/defensive versatility is going to earn him a spot in the rotation long-term. Leonard Miller is 19 year old versatile wing who can handle the ball, defend, and score and is shaping up to be a big part of the team’s future. McLaughlin and Garza are both legitimate NBA-quality players that could (and did last year/prior years) easily slot into the regular rotation if injuries arise. Although Mclaughlin dealt with a nagging calf injury most of the season last year, he’s a high level backup PG who can facilitate well and run the offense as a pass-first, high IQ guard. Garza saw limited action but was an efficient, versatile scorer and good rebounder (per 36 of 27-9-3 on 54-36-79 shooting splits) that filled in well for KAT last season.
You have high-quality/versatile scorers, PoA and help defenders, shooters, and playmakers at all levels of the roster and it’s a roster made of almost exclusively returning Timberwolves players. They have a legitimate 12-man rotation and eight if not nine guys who will be able to earn honest playoff rotation minutes this season. I think the Timberwolves are going to surprise a lot of people in the regular season, unless they’re ravaged by injuries I think 50 wins is not out of the question (although I think their post-season ceiling is one series win).
Yeah, and they were one of the deeper teams in the league last year. They missed their multiple all-NBA PF for 50 games and Gobert, Naz, Anderson, Prince, JMac all missed 12 to 28 games and they still won 42 games.
You get also get a massive gain in addition by subtraction from just losing Jaylen Nowell (truly one of the worst players in the NBA last season) alone, and that’s nothing to speak of Milton being a massive upgrade on the floor as a player, as well as Austin Rivers. It’s also worth noting that it wasn’t clear they’d be able to keep both NAW and Naz this offseason.