Why Are the Timberwolves Struggling?

[Impuniti]

- bad defensive team
- no consistency when you rely on 21 year olds to bail you out
- no leadership
- that leads to no solid vets in the team to teach them, bring KG to teach KAT to be a defensive big
- awful PG offensively, needs to be replaced
- improve bench

[Ice Man]

Wolves' opponents are shooting 53% on the year on 2s against them. It's hard to win when non-defending like that.

[Unbreakable99]

Maybe the Sixers can trade Noel for LaVine. Doubtful but as a Sixers fan I would do it. Thibs wouldn't.

[madmaxmedia]

If only they had signed Swaggy P and Sweet Lou.

[YourBuddy]

Shouldn't Wiggins be the one to come off the bench?

No, Wiggins and the Wolves play much better on both sides of the ball when they play Wiggins at SG. I found this just a few days ago.

https://www.reddit.com/r/timberwolves/comments/5exa0u/wiggins_numbers_when_he_is_playing_sg/

There aren't many minutes where Wiggins has played without LaVine and a good portion of those minutes happened to come when Wiggins scored 47 points. Not really a big enough sample to be so confident in it.

The OP also makes this point, but that one Laker game would only make up a third of his minutes at shooting guard, if he played the entire game at that spot. The sample size was roughly 25% of the sample size LaVine has at shooting guard this season. Not equal, but is is significant.

[YourBuddy]

Maybe the Sixers can trade Noel for LaVine. Doubtful but as a Sixers fan I would do it. Thibs wouldn't.

Highly doubtful.

[MalonesElbows]

This is what happens when teams try to go all young with no veterans. Leadership counts for a lot. Someone will demand a trade if the losing keeps up. GM's too often neglect the human factor when trying to build their team.

[vxmike]

They should have traded Rubio and the 5th pick for a mid career lower end star. Now that Dunn doesn't look good his trade value is much lower. They need vets and a PG that can shoot.

[OrlandoDream]

They're core is still young and inexperienced. Need more vets but also the trio will keep improving. Just need to stay with it.

[brutalitops]

Our bench was 2-11.

Look how much better the Jazz became with Diaw/Hill comming over.

We need an experienced PF,I'ld throw money at Gibson to start, move Dieng to the bench, Would solve a lot of our issues with just on-court immaturity, a dude who can effect the game without the ball. RIght now Wiggins/Lavine/Towns are damaging but all 3 are not two way players yet.

Bjelica needs to really step up. He's been a massive dissapointment, He just hasn't found his game in the NBA yet. Shown he's talent, But he fouls easily, It doesnt help when realisticly he's a 3.

I wouldn't be selling the farm at all, However we need to move guys like Shabazz/wait till Pekovic retiresm play Jones a little bit more,

[Johnny Firpo]

They should have traded Rubio and the 5th pick for a mid career lower end star. Now that Dunn doesn't look good his trade value is much lower. They need vets and a PG that can shoot.

I don't think trading their only good defender is the answer when defense is their main problem. Rubio is on a good contract and for that money, he is valuable. Good defender, good passer, he is not the problem, or at least not their biggest problem.

[mihail_petkov]

Looking at the free agents next summer, Wolves can quickly become a top 4 team in the West if they add some defense and veteran experience. Milsap and Covington/Andre Roberson will be great additions to their young core. Tony Alen can be a third option after Covington/Roberson but I don't like Rubio and Allen as startes. They will have some issues on offense. This team will fix their two main issues - defense and bench. They will be one year more experienced and watch out.

Rubio (36)/Dunn (12)/Jones
Wiggins(12)/Lavine(36)/Rush
Roberson or Covington(24)/Wiggins(24)/Rush
Milsap(36)/Dieng(18)/Bjelica
Towns(36)/Dieng(18)/Aldrich

[thierry]

They should have traded Rubio and the 5th pick for a mid career lower end star. Now that Dunn doesn't look good his trade value is much lower. They need vets and a PG that can shoot.

I don't think trading their only good defender is the answer when defense is their main problem. Rubio is on a good contract and for that money, he is valuable. Good defender, good passer, he is not the problem, or at least not their biggest problem.

6 pts 6 asts in 30 mins on 36% shooting can't hit a 3. plz hes pure garbage. he missed a couple wide open threes that let to baskets for the knicks in the 2nd quarter that completely swung the game

[The_Hater]

- bad defensive team
- no consistency when you rely on 21 year olds to bail you out
- no leadership
- that leads to no solid vets in the team to teach them, bring KG to teach KAT to be a defensive big
- awful PG offensively, needs to be replaced
- improve bench

How can you complain about the leadership and the defense and then propose getting rid off their best defensive player and leader?

[Johnny Firpo]

6 pts 6 asts in 30 mins on 36% shooting can't hit a 3. plz hes pure garbage. he missed a couple wide open threes that let to baskets for the knicks in the 2nd quarter that completely swung the game

Judging Rubio by his averages was never a good idea, he is one of the hardest players to assess. Nevertheless, he often did well in RPM, and was easily the Wolves' best defensive player in the last three years. If you think the team would be better with Dunn or Jones, you will be severely disappointed.

[Lawyershawn]

Likely youth. Give this team 2-3 years, then this question becomes a legitimate concern.

[Magic Giannison]

The problem is not the youth but the team chemistry in general.
We got teams with AD, Lebron ,KD and Giannis carrying teams to playoffs at very young ages, what they had in common was a good team surrounding this players.
Right now Minny got individually good players but not a good team, overall. Their lack of defense is insane and many thought it was the coaching problem. The thing is many hyped overrated Minny due to their offensive capability but totally ignored how important defense is. Right now neither KAT or Wiggins are playing good defense despite them having one of the best defensive minded coaches.

They will need to find player that compliment KAT and his weaknesses like Bucks do with Giannis which is shooting. I know it may sound weird but trade either Wiggins or Lavine for some defensive pieces and try to establish core that can cover each other weaknesses. Right now Minny got good offense but they are terrible literally at everything else.

[Patsfan1081]

Looking at the free agents next summer, Wolves can quickly become a top 4 team in the West if they add some defense and veteran experience. Milsap and Covington/Andre Roberson will be great additions to their young core. Tony Alen can be a third option after Covington/Roberson but I don't like Rubio and Allen as startes. They will have some issues on offense. This team will fix their two main issues - defense and bench. They will be one year more experienced and watch out.

Rubio (36)/Dunn (12)/Jones
Wiggins(12)/Lavine(36)/Rush
Roberson or Covington(24)/Wiggins(24)/Rush
Milsap(36)/Dieng(18)/Bjelica
Towns(36)/Dieng(18)/Aldrich

Why would Milsap want to sign with a rebuilding team? They need vet leadership but they don't have to be all stars. Maybe they could use their pick this year to find a good defensive role player.

[Prez]

Yeah, the crappy bench argument is pretty clear now. I really liked what I saw from Bjelica last year, Aldrich on the Clippers, and Dunn was supposed to be at least somewhat ready offensively. That's three guys who on paper should be really really solid depth this year and they're not bringing it. Shabazz has regressed hard and straight up kinda sucks. Basically the only guy who has exceeded expectations is Tyus, and as much as I like Tyus, if he's your most promising bench piece you have problems.

The defense is an absolute mystery to me though. I have no idea how a Tom Thibodeau coached team could be so weak defensively.

[Volcano]

They should trade their young non-starters for defense and bench depth.

What happened to Shabazz anyways. I remember he used to post up some nice stats whenever he got playing time.