Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo sat down for their weekly NBA review, and they had some nice things to say about the Minnesota Timberwolves. After a year of (rightfully) panning the Rudy Gobert trade and savaging D’Angelo Russell, they gave the Wolves a chance in the playoffs if they can stay in the sixth seed.
“I love that the Timberwolves are a six-seed,” exclaimed Russillo.
“Did you see them this weekend?” asked Simmons. “There’s flashes of ‘Oh my God, this could actually be a competent playoff team.’ Because [Mike] Conley is really starting to ingratiate himself in the Conley way, in the good ways, right?”
“Yeah, because it didn’t look really good,” Russillo responded.
It looked like he had fallen off a cliff there. Actually, he was leaking a little bit last year. I have a lot invested in them kinda being steady the rest of the way because forgotten in the Kendrick Perkins run this season is that he said the sneaky-best backcourt in the NBA was D’Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards.
I’m a big Anthony Edwards fan; not so much with D’Angelo Russell. So when Timberwolves fans were upset that I was so negative about Russell, and then the team traded him like a week later. I have a large position in them looking like a real basketball team because Russell put up really good numbers, was a really good shooter, all this stuff – but it was all these other things that we covered before.
And then when you look at the standings, they’re a six-seed.
“With a chance to climb,” added Simmons. “I mean, they have a chance to leapfrog the Warriors. They’re having a crazy Naz Reid bench season. There’s games, Naz Reid is on the starting team of guys on League Pass where if you catch them on the right night, you wonder why they don’t make $25 million a year.”
“Yeah,” Russillo responded, laughing.
“It’s like, ‘Oh my God, is this guy like the 11th-best player in the league,’” Simmons said in jest.
“It’s like the [Andrew] Nembard game against the Lakers where he hit the game-winner, and you’re like, ‘Wait, this guy, was he picked sixth or seventh?’” joked Russillo. “Somebody took [Jaden] Ivey ahead of this guy.
“And then Jaden McDaniels, when you look at some of those defensive numbers from him? They’re insane.”
“You know, I wasn’t on it,” Simmons admitted. “I gotta admit, I couldn’t watch Minnesota that much earlier in the year because I couldn’t watch Russell. I just didn’t enjoy their team. I love Edwards, I want Edwards to do well. I just didn’t like watching them.”
“Look, I watched a ton of them just because of him,” asserted Russillo, “and that’s why I felt so good about my Russell commentary.”
“Well, a couple of people were like, ‘Hey, you gotta check out McDaniels again,’ after I did my trade value [column],” Simmons responded. “Like, ‘McDaniels should have at least been honorable mention.’ I checked him out. I mean, he’s about as fearless as a perimeter guy as we have now.”
“And, by the way, the Towns injury,” Russillo added, “it’s always good when you Google the Karl-Anthony Towns injury and the first three hits are ‘it’s a mystery.’”
“Yeah, I did that today,” Simmons said, laughing. “Yeah, because they could add Towns to this team, and it’s a little frisky if it’s Sacramento and Minnesota, 3-6 [seeds].”
“I mean, he got hurt at the end of November,” Russillo added, “and the initial diagnosis was 4-6 weeks, which puts you at the beginning or middle of January. We’re in March, baby!”
Towns has said that the original Grade 2 calf strain diagnosis was incorrect, but either way, the Timberwolves would be an interesting playoff team with him. They also look like they’re better off without Russell.
But ultimately, it’s good to hear that Simmons has come around on McDaniels. The Wolves are more fun to watch now, and he’s been the saving grace of the Gobert trade.
