Chris Collymore
Jul 22, 2017 · 2 min read

Don’t Turn Your Back on the Wolfpack

This is not the WWF and this is definitely not the nWo (New World Order) but the Wolfpack is coming. The Minnesota Timberwolves may finally be ready to end their 13 year playoff drought.

The Timberwolves have one of the best young rosters in

the NBA. With Andrew Wiggins and Karl Anthony-Towns set to lead this team for the foreseeable future and the additions of veteran’s Jimmy Butler, Jamal Crawford, Taj Gibson and Jeff Teague; this team may finally be ready to leave the NBA’s basement.

With coach Tom Thibodeau leading the way in his second year with the team the Timberwolves should be great on the defensive end of the court.

The teams length and versatile defenders should allow the Wolves to switch on pick an rolls. While also allowing them to pressure the defense to force more turnovers.

The struggle for this team will be on the offensive end of the floor. Wiggins and Towns while being capable scorers are still working on becoming bigger threats on that end of the court. Scoring is much easier on a bad team there’s more shots to go around.

The additions of Butler and Crawford, two legitimate scorers will force both Wiggins and Towns to change their respective games a bit.

They’ll need to learn to move more without the ball and better space the floor to make room for Crawford and Butler to operate on the outside.

Making the Western Conference playoffs will not be easy; especially with all the moves teams have made this offseason. With Paul George now with Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City and Chris Paul joining James Harden in Houston the west has become even more formidable.

There are four teams guaranteed to make the playoffs next season: Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Timberwolves could definitely squeeze into one of those last four playoff spots.

Claiming those final four spots won’t be easy. The Los Angeles Clippers, Portland Trailblazers, New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks will all be legitimate threats to take those last four spots.

If the Timberwolves can learn to mesh on the offensive end while establishing what could be one of the NBA’s most stifling defenses the Timberwolves could finally leave the lottery behind.

It certainly won’t be easy but the Wolfpack has the tools to take the next step. Only time will tell if these really are Wolves ready to pounce or just young pups who aren’t ready to leave the den.