Bill Simmons had Ringer staff writer Rob Mahoney on his latest podcast to discuss the Phoenix Suns, Evan Mobley, and all things NBA. They dedicated most of the second segment to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who suddenly look like a legitimate playoff team. However, the Sports Guy brought up an interesting point about Karl-Anthony Towns’ fit on the post-D’Angelo Russell Wolves.
Simmons started the segment by hyping the Wolves a bit.
Alright, so Minnesota, only 34-32. [Ryen] Russillo and I talked about them a tiny bit on Sunday night. I think we’re all seeing the same thing, they look a little more professional the last couple of games, and I’ve actually enjoyed watching them.
And the Gobert trade is one of the worst of all time, but at least they have – if you remove what they gave up, at least they have him and Mike Conley, those are two guys who have been in some games. And Edwards has played so much better the last three months. And then McDaniels, as he’s come on as a defender. Could you see them winning a round? Is it possible?
Like, it could be Sacramento-Minnesota, 3-6, in Round 1. I think they absolutely could beat Sacramento.
Mahoney pointed out that the Wolves have gotten better defensively, recently.
There’s a funny twist with that, which I would say the Wolves overall have been pretty competent defensively lately. And they’ve really leveled out as a net-positive team, solid top-10 defense. There’s a lot to get into there in terms of how that’s all working and figuring out.
But McDaniels is a big part of it. Edwards is defending pretty well, is a big part of it. And they have Gobert. The one catch, they just cannot fucking guard the Sacramento Kings. The five-out thing –
“Nobody can!” Simmons interjected.
Mahoney continued:
Nobody can, but the Wolves will be having a great defensive stretch for a couple of games, they’ll roll into Sacramento, and they just implode. And some of it is the five-out thing is uniquely challenging, and [Domantas] Sabonis is very challenging for many teams, like the action he enables.
They just cannot get through it, and so while if you’re any other team on the six-and-down part of the Western Conference ballot, I could see you saying, ‘Maybe we could beat the Kings. Maybe we can get into that matchup. Maybe we can roll over the Kings in the first round.’ Minnesota might have the worst case for it, unfortunately.
But I do think they’re better. They’ve steadily climbed over the course of the year. They’re really getting into a place where, with Towns looming and coming back, there’s gonna be a lot to figure out, but at least you’re feeling solid about what you’re doing defensively.
At least you’re feeling a little more secure in the fact that Rudy Gobert isn’t the player he has been historically, but at least you’re getting to the point where you’re saying, ‘At least we’re a good defensive team, and we’re gonna figure out the rest. And we’re gonna have to play really hard, and there’s nights where our role players are gonna have to hit shots. But at least we we know this about what we are.’
And that’s at least comforting for them.
Then Simmons got to the meat of his Towns argument.
The Towns part is interesting for this, because, like you look at that Minnesota-Sacramento game the other night, which was just, some of these scores now, I don’t know if people have just given up on defense or it’s just more fun to play offense or what. But it’s just a random 138-134 final, which we seem to have more of those.
And I think the pace, the fact that they quickened up the pace in a whole bunch of different ways over the years plays a piece in that. But also, you’re not really allowed to really play defense anymore.
But Gobert plays 31 minutes in that game, and Naz Reid, who, if you’re making the all-bench, all-NBA team, Naz Reid is like at least been a third-teamer for the last couple of months. I don’t know where Towns gets the minutes when he comes back.
Because SloMo (Kyle Anderson) has been really helpful for them. And he’s another adult in the room. One of the reasons that I think they’ve looked good lately is Conley and SloMo and Gobert, at least these are adults in the room.
So Towns, if you give him the Naz Reid minutes, that’s weird. If you give him the SloMo minutes, you’re kinda unraveling something that wasn’t really working. You can’t give him the McDaniels minutes. So it feels like Naz Reid loses, and probably Gobert loses, and now we’re talking about a completely different team.
On the other hand, we might not see Towns again this season. Who the hell knows?
Mahoney agreed with him on Towns and brings up a decent point about his return.
That we’ll have to see. But it’s so weird that the Wolves have gone through this whole trade cycle, really turned over their roster. Multiple trades with the D’Angelo Russell one, too. And they kinda ended up in the same place, which is, they’re very reliant on Jaden McDaniels and Kyle Anderson to be what they are.
To be a good defensive team, those guys have to be out there and have to be good, and they really have been for the last couple of months. Similar to how before they were really reliant on Jarred Vanderbilt and Patrick Beverley, these role-playing guys, to kinda give them the identity of what their team was, and was supposed to be.
And ideally, you can get more of that from Gobert, and maybe in time, when Gobert and Towns have an opportunity to really get some minutes together, will really stabilize that. But as it is now, that is why this team does, even now, feel a little bit wobbly.
It’s like, Towns comes back. Anderson, who’s been one of the most critical players in the league, just in terms of how important he is to his team. You’re now gonna have to shift him into a different position, different roles. It gets a little messy that way. There is gonna be a lot to figure out when Towns comes back, there is no question.
Simmons then pointed out how weird the Wolves were in the playoffs.
Last year they were one of the dopiest playoff teams we’ve seen in a while, and there were real reasons for that. Edwards was a baby, he was 19-20 years old, with big reps in a playoff series. Towns has been one of the strangest hoops IQ players of any player we’ve had in the last 20 years. Russell will take some of the worst shots and do some of the dumbest things defensively of anyone, and then you have PatBev who is just a complete wild card at all times.
So that’s one of the most erratic kinda nucleuses you could put together. Now, I think one of the reasons I’ve enjoyed watching the T-Wolves a little bit lately is there’s kinda a savviness to them now, and SloMo brings that and Conley brings that where the team makes sense.
And Edwards is a year older, and he’ll still go off the rails every once in a while. But for the most part, he’s been 27 a game and playing hard for three months here. So just putting Towns back into that, who, to me, I’m just not sold on his hoops IQ at all, and his decisionmaking, it could unravel some of it. But they’re way more interesting a month ago.
Oh yeah, and Simmons acknowledged his McDaniels commentary.
It’s funny, I have some T-Wolves fans in my life who are like, ‘Ohh, looks like you were wrong about McDaniels.’ And I was like, ‘Was I wrong? I made fun of the Timberwolves last summer because they gave up more for Gobert in one of the most ridiculously lopsided trades in the history of the league, and then they tried to spin it as ‘We kept McDaniels.’ And it’s like, ‘You lost every pick you had. And you gave up [Walker] Kessler. And Vanderbilt.’
Like, you can’t brag about the guy you didn’t give up when you already got absolutely pillaged. But McDaniels has made a step up. I read a good piece from Britt Robson, he’s been chronicling the T-Wolves forever. And he has a really nice breakdown of everything that’s changed with McDaniels over the last couple months.
First, to address the McDaniels thing, Simmons has changed his tune. But he’s right in one respect, McDaniels isn’t much more than a saving grace in the trade right now. Unless things really change when Towns returns, that trade still looks better off. The Wolves would have been prudent to just walk away from the table.
And that’s the thing, the Wolves kind of have a good thing going now. They’re playing well defensively, Edwards has taken off, and McDaniels looks like a bona fide star. But they’re not good enough to break away from the middle of the pack in the West. Some fans hold out hope that Towns is the difference-maker, but it’s possible that his defensive inefficiencies would revert the team back to what it was at the beginning of the season – which wasn’t very good.
