Bill Simmons released an “NBA power poll” on his latest podcast, and he wasn’t too kind to the Minnesota Timberwolves. He ranked them as the 21st-best team in the NBA, placing them in a category called “panic time.” Lest you think The Sports Guy is kicking the Wolves while they’re down – they just lost Karl-Anthony Towns to a calf strain – he’s been saying it’s panic time for a while.
Still, it’s not great that his tune hasn’t changed on the Wolves. Worse yet, he presented a doomsday scenario.
You can guess one of the teams: Minnesota. 10-11, just lost Towns for multiple weeks. Humiliated in the Golden State game a few days ago when it just became clear that Towns and Gobert against any team that has scoring and spacing, it’s gonna be a nightmare for them.
The Towns-Gobert thing, you might remember me saying in the summer, repeatedly, on a podcast with [Ryen] Russillo, who was agreeing with me vehemently, that this had a chance to be one of the worst NBA trades of all time. We’re creeping closer and closer, my friends. This was an awful trade.
And now there’s a new wrinkle. Because if Towns is out for a while, and the West is really good, and all of a sudden, Minnesota starts creeping toward that bottom-4, bottom-5 in the West, they’re 10-11 right now … Minnesota giving Wembanyama pick in this year’s draft, would be the single craziest plot twist, I think, in this century in the NBA.
I’m trying to think of anything crazier than that, like, ‘Oh, the Brooklyn Nets thing. Kobe and Shaq breaking up. Harden demanding to be traded twice.’ You go through it, I think Utah getting the Wemby pick, another French guy, in the Gobert trade, that would top everything.
And by the way, A-Rod is one of the owners of Minnesota, which I think is hilarious. This would be yet another embarrassing title for him.
Simmons takes a pot shot at Alex Rodriguez at the end because he was a star for the New York Yankees. However, I’m not sure he fully tied the two together. The typically conservative Wolves took a big swing on Tim Connelly, wooing him from Denver. In turn, Connelly made the blockbuster move for Gobert. It feels like they were making a splash as the team was transitioning to new ownership to create some buzz after years of sub-.500 play.
If Simmons’ scenario manifests, and the Wolves gave up the Victor Wembanyama pick for Gobert, 30, it could set an already woebegone franchise back significantly.
Fortunately, that scenario feels unlikely. The Wolves have maintained a .500 record while integrating Gobert, and it’s possible that Gobert, Anthony Edwards, and some of Minnesota’s shooters could see a spike in production with Towns out. Unfortunately, it looks like the Wolves could experience a significant decline after going on a five-game winning streak and may have made a blockbuster trade only to become a .500 team.
