I am a stone sitting in a mighty river. The water rushes all around me — fast, violent. Yet, amid the chaos, I find peace. For I, the stone, remain unbothered. The river current is strong but cannot pull me away from who I am. I am a stone.
Forgive the esoteric introduction, but there is a point here. In this metaphor, let the reader be the stone. The river is the Minnesota Timberwolves. Currently, it seems that much of the fanbase is less like a stone and more like a delicate branch thrown about by the flowing water, only finding peace when the river slows. To be the stone is to find peace no matter the circumstance. It is to be steady and consistent.
Weak, feeble stick behavior:
Strong, powerful stone behavior:
Moments of calm have been few and far between for the Timberwolves. Most often, Minnesota’s management has bucked consistency and patience in hopes of frying bigger fish, so speak. Simply put, Wolves management has repeatedly rushed to build a competitive roster, only to stumble and fall flat on its face. And yet, here they are again, being the stick and not the stone.
I’d like to focus specifically on the Karl-Anthony Towns era of Timberwolves basketball. Since joining the franchise, Towns has faced turnover and turmoil at a near-constant pace. Sure, there have been some quality basketball sprinkled in, but all have been cut short. In Towns’ eight years in the league, he has had four different coaches — five if you include Flip Saunders, who tragically died before KAT’s rookie campaign. Towns has had a constantly revolving cast of characters around him as the Wolves have tinkered, torn down, and repeatedly rebuilt the roster.
Now, Tim Connelly has made the all-in move, giving up all of Minnesota’s assets to try to win with Towns as the centerpiece. So far, the Gobert experience has fans ready to jump ship, but the Wolves owe it to Towns to play this thing out and let the team grow together.
I’ll be very clear here, I’ve been a skeptic of the pairing since the jump. You can listen to my rant here if you want my full complement of thoughts. I’ll say this now, though: While I remain queasy about the ultimate upside of pairing Towns and Gobert, there is already some evidence that it can work.
Some folks hate data, and, to be honest, the eye test doesn’t necessarily match up with the numbers. But the Timberwolves have been pretty good when they’ve been healthy. Here are their top-four highest-possession lineups. I use Cleaning the Glass, which filters out garbage time, so huge leads late in the game are taken out of the equation.
The starting unit has been good. They certainly aren’t world-beaters with that net rating, but 541 possessions is a decent sample size to surmise that this group is good. Injuries have ravaged the Wolves, and it’s been a long time since we saw them together. The team has been incredible with Kyle Anderson in the starting lineup, though that sample size is significantly smaller.
Jordan McLaughlin and Taurean Prince have also missed significant time. Towns, Anderson, Prince, and JMac have missed a combined 50 games this season. That’s four of the top 10 players who were meant to be in the rotation, all missing many games. Anderson has been in and out with back spasms, but the other three still appear to be out of the lineup without a clear timeline.
Injuries are a part of the NBA season, but the best way to combat injuries is with a level of continuity on the roster. Filling a team with players who have played with each other and know the system can help a team weather the storm. Once again, the Wolves are starting the season with a brand new roster, and it shows.
My grand point is that I don’t think drawing sweeping conclusions from these first 34 games is fair. It’s been hard to watch the team falter and underperform, but if Connelly can’t stomach the growing pains and tries to reshuffle the group too soon, he’ll be falling into the trap that Wolves management has since 2015. Never-ending roster reconstruction is no way to build anything that will last. Again, the stick and the stone. The stick knows nothing but to respond to the water which surrounds it. The stone stays true, no matter the current. Connelly must be the stone.
Maybe two or three seasons down the line, the Gobert experiment won’t have worked out. There is a chance that this iteration of the Wolves is just a middling group. Towns and Gobert might not find that chemistry, and D’Angelo Russell might not be the right point guard for this core. Perhaps Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards don’t develop how many expect. But Connelly has set down this path, and to cut bait so soon is a disservice to Towns, who has dealt with so much turnover in just eight seasons in the league. It’s time that the Wolves let a group grow together and see where it can go.
