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).

  • ace_alive@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    This is not a sub for discussion, it‘s just a sub for posting videoclips, outbof context twitter headlines, news headlines and getting reactions to them from very young fans that watch highlight videos at best.

    I think your points are interesting but you need to post them in smaller subs which discuss basketball and the NBA, which definitely is not this sub.

    Nice OC effort, completely wrong sub.

  • archerarcher0@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I fully agree, they are looking mighty spooky this year

    Should be a pretty spooky season for wolves fans

      • Ubishuuubish@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        No he’s an important wing player for them trying to replace Prince production from last year who played clutch mins for them

    • MrAppleSpoink@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Troy is capable of playing rotation minutes. He’s a solid man defender and a pretty consistent catch and shoot guy, as well as a good transition target. He struggles with off ball chasing a bit but he’s your prototypical “stick him on their 2nd best wing” guy.

    • FishGoldenLite@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      And a hopefully healthy KAT. People can clown on him all they want but he’s a beast and was sorely missed last year. I also think most people expect Ant, Jaden, and Naz to get better - they are all very young still. Shake is legit the best back up wing we’ve had in a long time and NAW was only here after the deadline and made a HUGE impact.

    • EsotericPotato@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      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.

    • WheedMBoise@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      As much as all of us (Wolves fans included) complain about Rudy and that whole trade, the team did really well when they actually had both KAT and Rudy playing together. This year hopefully we get more than 15 or so games with the entire starting 5

  • dkdoki@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Deepest roster? Am i missing something lol. More like some ppl recognize names on the bench = deep roster.

    • EsotericPotato@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      One of the deepest among half the league. I’m getting kinda tired of having to explain to people that don’t actually watch real NBA games how valuable Naz, Anderson, Naw, and Milton will be in their respective roles. That is a serious 9-man playoff rotation. Who in the West, if we are discussing in good faith, even has a claim to a deeper roster?

      Clippers and Lakers might be the only teams in the west that are deeper, and I’d argue neither of them have depth that is as well-rounded in terms of fit and versatility.

  • RVAIsTheGreatest@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I agree with you u/EsotericPotato and one of KAT/Rudy is gonna be on the court pretty much at all times, so they’ll have enough size with their bench rotation. NAW has really come on as a player. He has looked fantastic with the Timberwolves and I think Shake is a great addition…he does a lot well. He can facilitate a little, he can definitely slash and pressure the rim, can shoot, can defend…he’s a good player. McLaughlin is a good player and will probably have his moments of time depending on matchups and rhythm of a game.

    Wolves have fantastic depth, Ant has taken a leap it appears, Rudy and KAT are healthy. Wolves offense was quite a bit better with Conley last season, struggled before it. His table setting and off ball shooting took their offense to another level. This is the best team in Minnesota in a very long time; since the KG/Spree/Cassell team.