Three games can’t make an NBA team, but a three-game stretch like the one the Minnesota Timberwolves are on can break a team.
The Wolves have been the worst team in basketball this week. It began with the Orlando Magic blindsiding them on Saturday, losing 119-92 in one of the most embarrassing performances of the season. Then, the LeBron James-less Los Angeles Lakers dominated them on Tuesday. And they rounded out the trifecta by getting pantsed by the LA Clippers at the Intuit Dome, losing 153-128 while a 40-foot-tall 3D Kawhi Leonard mocked me all night from the Halo screen.
Over the last three games, the Timberwolves are 28th in the NBA in offense and 29th in defense with a minus-21.6 net rating, the worst in the league. Minnesota was in third place in the Western Conference standings before the loss to Orlando and has fallen all the way to sixth, and is just 1.5 games ahead of the Phoenix Suns for seventh place and a spot in the play-in. Staring down the barrel of a late-season gauntlet of playoff teams that include the Oklahoma City Thunder, Detroit Pistons (twice), Houston Rockets (twice), and Boston Celtics, it’s officially panic time inside Target Center.
But this panic time feels different from the other dozen or so panic times over the last five seasons since Chris Finch and Anthony Edwards elevated the Timberwolves into a perennial playoff contender. It’s the kind of late-season meltdown that could get some people fired if the Wolves don’t correct things immediately. Wolves fans have been calling for Chris Finch’s head intermittently over the last two seasons. But this stretch could finally be the last straw. And a late-season firing of an established playoff-caliber head coach wouldn’t be that stunning of a move.
Just last season, the Denver Nuggets kicked Michael Malone to the curb with just three games left in the regular season. The Nuggets were two years removed from a championship run under Malone’s leadership, and they were 47-32 and in fourth place in the Western Conference when ownership decided his time was up.
The Timberwolves have reached the Western Conference Finals twice, been embarrassed both times, and are 40-26 and sixth in the West. Nuggets owner Josh Kroenke decided Malone’s voice was no longer resonating in the locker room and gave David Adelman a chance to juice things up for a playoff run after the Nuggets had lost four straight games and were just 11-13 post All-Star Game.
Things might not be at the red line quite yet for Finch’s tenure in Minnesota. The Wolves are 6-4 since the All-Star break with big wins over the Nuggets and Toronto Raptors. But the losses have gotten louder. Their last five losses have been by 21 points to the Clippers, 27 points to the Philadelphia 76ers, 27 points to the Magic, 14 points to the Lakers, and 25 points to the Clippers.
Players have grumbled that they aren’t adhering to the game plan, and Finch has helped lead the franchise to new heights that most fans didn’t think were possible after 20 years in the wilderness. But the NBA can be a cruel, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately. And if this poor play down the stretch leads to an early playoff exit, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Lore, and Tim Connelly will have a tough decision to make on the head coach’s future.
Finch isn’t alone in the thunderdome of shame. Julius Randle is playing some of the worst basketball of his or any professional’s life over the last month. He’s averaging 14.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, and four assists while shooting 39.3 percent from the floor and 16.1 percent from three since the All-Star break. He’s searching for answers when he’s on the court and giving minimal effort on the defensive end. If his play doesn’t improve drastically over the last 17 games and the playoffs, it will be tough to see him back in a Wolves uniform next season.
Jaden McDaniels has been a shell of himself during the skid. He’s had a breakout season in Year 6 but is averaging just 6.7 points and 1-10 from three during the three-game losing streak. Rudy Gobert has had little impact on either end lately. Donte DiVincenzo is averaging 4.7 points per game on 25/21.4/50 shooting splits since Minnesota’s last win. Even Anthony Edwards looks like he wants to be on any other team right now after going 2-15 against the Lakers and getting back cut by everyone on the Clippers roster.
The Wolves have few options to improve this group without making huge changes. Outside of Joan Beringer becoming the French version of Giannis Antetokounmpo, they don’t have much invested in young talent that could develop into another running mate for Ant as he approaches his prime.
Randle and Gobert are in their 30s and could net some assets in return; they won’t get the multiple first-round picks or caliber of young players the Wolves need to infuse the roster with new championship potential. They could really swing for the fences and trade Jaden McDaniels for a Mikal Bridges-type asset haul. Still, if you squint, you can see the 25-year-old from Seattle as the Scottie Pippen alongside Edwards’ modern Michael Jordan.
Perhaps a new head coach could get them to buy into the regular season and not sleepwalk their way to a frustrating 50-win season and no home-court advantage in the playoffs.
There’s no time to mess around as we head into the last month of the regular season. The Wolves have spent much of the season and the last three years toggling between a championship contender and a middling Big East team. If it doesn’t happen now, it’s never going to happen with this group, and someone will need to be the sacrificial lamb to get the Wolves to the promised land for the first time.
