It's not time to sound the alarm on the Timberwolves
With five wins in 11 games the level of concern about the Minnesota Timberwolves is rapidly rising like an updraft on a thunderstorm. But there's no need for a severe storm watch or warning at Target Center just yet.
Eleven games of just below .500 ball is a garden shower. Another five or ten games of disappointment would lead to watch-level issues, but it's going to take a lot more before the warning sirens sound with a roster as talented as Minnesota's.
Did the Warriors hit the panic button when they dropped 16 of 23 games in the middle of last season? Nope. They collected themselves and won the title. How about the Celtics when they were 18-21? Not at all. Jayson Tatum and company won 33 of 43 games to end the regular season and found themselves in the Finals.
In 2021 the Suns started 8-8 and then caught fire all the way to the NBA Finals. The 2019 Heat were in the Finals despite losing 16 of 29 to end the regular season.
Minnesota is 5-6. How a team starts, or even finishes, the regular season does not dictate where they are going. And really, unless we're talking about the dynasty Warriors (2016-19) there aren't many teams that go through a season unscathed.
This is precisely what coach Chris Finch said in a radio interview last week.
"No one's going to win an NBA championship in October or November or even December. It just doesn't happen. The teams that are playing well now are these teams that are full of hard-playing vets, maybe without stars, or hard-playing vets around a team with one star, like a Dallas or a Memphis. Everybody else is figuring it out," said Finch.
Right now, the Timberwolves are soft – just as Anthony Edwards said after the Knicks blasted them inside Target Center Monday night.
“We just play soft, man,” Edwards said. “Like, every bump, we flying all over the place, including myself. Teams just coming in like, ‘We’re going to take their heart,’ and that’s what’s going on. We’re down 20 every game. We’ve got to figure it out.”
A roster as talented as Minnesota's shouldn't be getting drilled on a nightly basis, but they've trailed by 18+ points in five of 11 games and they're routinely being out-rebounded. Effort, not talent and ability, is being questioned.
“Right now, I think we have to find a combination of guys that are going to play much harder, give themselves up to what we’re trying to do, and we’re always looking for what we can try to do a little bit better,” Finch said Monday night. “I need to give them some solutions right now. It’s on me.”
A lack of compete is nothing new for this group of Wolves. Just look at last season following a blowout loss to the Jazz that dropped Minnesota to 11-14. Finch said his guys were finishing "soft" at the rim and "didn't compete on the ball."
Last year's Wolves were 16-20 and then put it together to go 30-16 the rest of the way. They didn't figure it out until January.
Once the effort issue is resolved, attention should be laser-focused on gelling on offense with Rudy Gobert on the floor. With Gobert on the court (entering play Tuesday) the Wolves had the 30th-ranked offensive rating (101.1) and 2nd best defensive rating (104.0). When Gobert is off the court it's the opposite: 116.2 offensive rating (3rd) and 113.3 defensive rating (23rd).
That's any lineup combination involving Gobert. He's clearly slowing the offense down, but growing pains were expected with him in the early goings, although even Finch has admitted that he thought the offense would be further along than it is.
The offensive rating (95.1) is flat out terrible when Gobert is on the floor with D'Angelo Russell, Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and Karl-Anthony Towns. That's the starting five, who on most nights are the closing five. If they can find a way to score, they have a chance to be really good.
If Christmas comes and they still haven't figured it out with Gobert on offense, then the warning sirens might start blaring. Until then, R-E-L-A-X.
