Tag: NBA Playoffs

Ryan Saunders has officially been introduced as the Head Coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Dane, Charlie, and Tom breakdown Tuesday's introductory press conference, expectations...

The Minnesota Timberwolves will have the 11th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. A slightly disappointed Dane & Charlie react to the lottery, discuss...

Gersson Rosas was introduced as the new President of Basketball Operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday. We breakdown the press conference, offer quotes...

The Minnesota Timberwolves have hired Gersson Rosas as their new President of Basketball Operations, so Dane & Charlie invited Britt Robson (@brittrobson) to join...

The NBA Playoffs are here! Dane & Charlie take a deeper look at the likely 2nd round matchup between the Houston Rockets & Golden...

With the fewest 3-point attempts in the league and the league’s ninth-slowest pace, the 2017-18 Minnesota Timberwolves were the antithesis to pace-and-space. Much to the chagrin of the fan base and definitely those who opine on the team, this style received the labels of ‘grating’ and ‘hard to watch.’ But now the 2018 playoffs have happened and there has been a referendum on this ‘ugly’ style of basketball. Threads of Tom Thibodeau’s coaching scheme were present from all four conference finals teams. Most notably: The leveraging of isolation scorers on offense and the defending of ball-screens with only two defenders. The pace-and-space era evolved this spring into isolation-and-switchability. Being capable of switching defenders on screens is a strong (arguably the strongest) counter to the spreading of the floor and the relative rush into possessions to which viewers have become accustomed. Switching’s core strength lies in the fact that it allows […]

A harsh truth became apparent in the shadow of yet another dismal Andrew Wiggins performance in the season’s playoff finale. On the horizon of a daunting financial future that will pay Wiggins $25, $27, $29, $31 and $33 million annually through 2023, it became clear that the former number one overall pick has officially become the macro barometer of who the Wolves are and where the franchise will go. The 2018 NBA playoffs only further drove this ideology home. While Wiggins showed more consistency than any of Minnesota’s starters Games 1 through 3 of the playoffs (given Butler’s health and Towns’ shrinking against the Houston scheme) the 23-year-old finished the series in quintessential Wiggins form. His playoff performance only further illustrated what had already become a prevailing truth: The Wolves go as far as he does. Minnesota’s Game 3 victory was the franchise’s crown jewel of the series and also, […]

It seems that everyone and their brother — and Charles Barkley — has an opinion on what Karl-Anthony Towns has to do and how he has to do it differently in Game 2, if the Wolves are to avoid falling into a two-game hole. Because Towns had multiple stints in Game 1 where he went more than 12 minutes without a field goal attempt, it has become the public consensus that something has to change. For Tom Thibodeau, this sentiment was not echoed. At the Timberwolves Tuesday afternoon practice, Thibodeau alluded to the contrary and relented a bit on his postgame comments that directly mentioned Towns and his need “to be more active.” “After watching the film, I thought he made a lot of good plays,” Thibodeau recounted to a slew of reporters who attended the end of the Wolves’ practice at Rice University’s facilities. “Offensively, I thought he made a lot of good plays. I think he understands what he has to do. He’ll be fine.” Thibodeau […]

Tim and Dane join Timberwolves play-by-play broadcaster Dave Benz at the Timberwolves team hotel to talk about Game 1 and what's to come in...

It has been over 5,000 days since the Minnesota Timberwolves last played in a playoff game, which justifies getting into the weeds a bit. Here are three important subplots to the Wolves-Raptors series that could make a discernable difference. Who is going to play? The Wolves (finally) got back to full strength for the last three games of the season. However, given Jimmy Butler’s minute restriction upon return and Taj Gibson’s neck injury, only the finale can be used to inform which players are in the good graces (read as: in the rotation) of Tom Thibodeau. In that game against Denver, only the starters played in the overtime (except for Jamal Crawford who played three seconds), meaning the box score can be seen as true in its suggestion. Bench Minutes In Season Finale Player Minutes Played Jamal Crawford 17:34 Derrick Rose 11:23 Nemanja Bjelica 10:54 Tyus Jones 10:13 Gorgui Dieng 6:06 For […]