We did it again. The Minnesota Timberwolves faithful spent the offseason hyping up the team that seemingly did everything right over the offseason. They re-signed Naz Reid, gave Anthony Edwards a max extension, and paid Jaden McDaniels while adding a few savvy veterans to round out the roster. The vibes were off the charts with many beleaguered Wolves faithful exclaiming this the most excited they’ve been for a season since the 2003-04 campaign that saw Kevin Garnett bring home the MVP trophy while leading the Timberwolves to the top seed in the West and the deepest playoff run in franchise history.
This was the year that would make the misery we endured since Sam Cassell’s big balls dance ended in catastrophe and put a decades-long curse on the franchise. Edwards would ascend to the NBA’s superstar high table. Karl-Anthony Towns was healthy and ready to accept his role as Ant’s wingman. Rudy Gobert had learned the dark art of not air balling threes, and McDaniels and the rest of the supporting cast would give the Wolves a legitimate claim to be the deepest team in the league.
We built the Timberwolves up as contenders, and it took all of 48 minutes in Wednesday’s opening game stinker against the Toronto Raptors to burn all the goodwill to the ground. The Wolves labored through a frustrating 97-94 loss that saw all of our deep-seated fears come to the surface in one game. They shot 34 percent from the field, 8-31 from three, and played hero ball all night. Edwards and Towns combined to shoot 16-52 with four assists and six turnovers between the two stars.
It’s only one game and this is all obviously an overreaction. They will regress towards the mean and be just fine. But the Timberwolves opened the season as poorly as one could imagine. Their performance will bring back haunted memories of sloppy, uninspired basketball for Wolves fans who have suffered for 20 years.
All eyes will be on how Towns and Gobert fit together in year two of the Twin Towers offense that the Timberwolves have doubled down on, and the early returns are not flattering. The two former All-Pro tall boys shared the court for 20 minutes in Toronto and did a really poor job. In those 20 minutes, Minnesota had a minus-22 net rating, and the offense ground to a halt at a dismal 87.8 points per 100 possessions. They clogged the lane all night, making it nearly impossible for Edwards, Kyle Anderson, and the rest of the smalls to penetrate effectively when the threes weren’t falling.
For a team that is dead-set on making the two-big lineup work, the Timberwolves must be able to impose their will and hammer teams in the paint to rack up easy wins. The Wolves shot horribly from every spot on the floor on Wednesday. However, they only made 50 percent (13-26) of their shots from five feet and in, tied for the third-worst mark in the NBA’s opening slate of games. For all their size, Gobert and Towns combined to make 9-16 shots from inside five feet. The usually lethal Edwards was 1-4, and Naz Reid and Kyle Anderson were both 1-2.
When the Timberwolves weren’t bricking threes, they were charging the paint. They threw wild, off-balance layups high off the backboard, praying the glass gods gave them a friendly bounce (they did not). Floater practice was obviously not on the training camp agenda. At times, Towns looked lost stuck in between a pull-up, a floater, and throwing a lob to Gobert. The Frenchman powered home a few lobs that found their target, but he blew anything around the rim that wasn’t a two-handed power dunk.
Things should get better. The silver lining here is that the Wolves were just as stingy on the defensive end, limiting the Raptors to a respectable 61 percent shooting within five feet of the rim. But Toronto was 0-11 between 5-9 feet and 0-17 in the paint outside the restricted area.
It’s one game, but the Timberwolves can’t be bullied out of the paint so easily when they’re trying to be the power team this season. Minnesota shot 20 free throws in the first half and only two attempts in the second half. Too many times in the second half we saw someone decide to try to get to the basket only to fade away and try to avoid contact resulting in an off-balance prayer.
Instead, this team constructed around strong men like Ant and Gobert needs to do a better job of embracing contact and either finishing through it or leaving the officials no choice but to send them to the free throw line. Toronto’s defenders blocked three of Edwards and Towns’ shots each. They blocked Naz twice, and Anderson, Shake Milton, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker once. Going up strong through contact has to be the norm if the Wolves are to survive the Wild West this season.
Minnesota doesn’t have the luxury of easing into the season. The Wolves must toughen up fast because they host the Miami Heat on Saturday before early November matchups with the Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, and Victor Wembanyama on the horizon. It’s just one game, but the Timberwolves need to show that they can use their size and athleticism the way God intended, by punishing teams in the post. The Raptors are no slouches, and they have designed their defense to knock unsuspecting teams in the mouth. But the Wolves have some work to do to get the vibes back on track.
