The Minnesota Timberwolves (14-45) are dead last in the Western Conference and have the second worst record in the NBA. Their current stretch of now five losing seasons in a row comes after an excellent run of eight-consecutive playoff appearance with future Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett as the centerpiece.
It’s been a long season for Kurt Rambis in his first year with the club, but success just doesn’t come overnight, especially in the NBA. I spoke with Rambis prior to Minnesota’s 98-92 defeat in Atlanta and asked him about the progress his team has made since he was hired on August 10th.
Rambis: “We’ve made a tremendous amount of progress - individually and as a team. Having all of the young guys that we have, the young point guards that we have, the new system we have put in. There is no holdovers from last year. All of the new faces trying to work together and figure each other out. The lineup changes we’ve gone through. The injuries we’ve had to adjust through. Where we are right now and how we execute offensively and defensively, we are light years ahead of where we started. I am proud of our progress. We obviously have a lot of improving to do. Our direction has to be clear on how to improve and we got to continue to get better.
“We have pockets in games and stretches in games where we play just great on both ends then we have pockets where we are poor. It’s something we have to continue to strive and get better at. One of the key components is that we have to get better at playing hard. I think it’s a learning skill like any other basketball skill. Our guys have to learn how to drive themselves, to push themselves, to do the right basketball things and play as hard as they can out there. They are getting better at it, they just aren’t really good at it.”
Looking at the team’s roster, I can honestly say that the Timberwolves may be closer to competing in the West than the normal fan might expect. Let’s take a look:
Much has been made at Minnesota’s draft in 2009. If you remember, they traded Randy Foye and Mike Miller to Washington for Olesky Pecherov, Etan Thomas, Darius Songalia and the No. 5 pick – giving them back-to-back lottery first round selections.
I said at that time, if I was David Kahn I would use the tandem picks on Stephen Curry and DeMar DeRozan. I loved Curry’s game because he was an explosive scorer and a threat from everywhere on the floor. I felt DeRozan gave them a nice wing to pair with Corey Brewer.
However, Kahn couldn’t pass on the Ricky Rubio buzz despite already having decided to use the fifth pick on another point guard in Jonny Flynn. Not a problem. They are still two potentially great players in this league.
The problem however, is Rubio is not interested in playing for Minnesota. His hype is still at a premium around the league. I think Kahn should trade him because he holds a tremendous amount of value. I’m not saying Rubio won’t be a star one day, but Minnesota can get a lot in return and I think they should give it some serious consideration.
Fast forward to the draft of 2010. Minnesota has an excellent chance at landing the number one pick. If not, they are still likely going to be in the top three. This opens the door to the likes of John Wall, or maybe Evan Turner. If they can draft Wall, I’d make him your future and trade Rubio immediately for more pieces. At this point, I don't think anybody is sure what you could get for Rubio, but it unquestionably would be a good amount of talent.
Minnesota will likely also receive Charlotte’s pick this year because of last season’s Ty Lawson trade on draft day. The pick is top 12 protected, however, so if Charlotte falters the rest of the way, Minnesota will have to wait. But let’s say they don’t.
This means that the Timberwolves will essentially have two lottery picks again to build around the core of Kevin Love and Al Jefferson. While Love and Jefferson have yet to prove they can actually coexist on the same floor, it is still a powerful and feared frontcourt where trading one of them for other valued assets is plausible.
On Wednesday night, Minnesota cut Atlanta’s lead to two mid-way through the fourth quarter. In the final six minutes, they struggled immensely in finding a way to score the ball. They didn’t have the closer that so many good teams in the league do have. I even asked Rambis about this after the game.
“That’s one of the areas that we are lacking on our ball club is that go-to-guy that teams have where you just throw them the ball and they go get you a shot,” Rambis said. “Whether it’s a guy that hits outside shots or takes it to the basket and gets to the free throw line. We are still trying to develop that guy right now, but definitively we don’t have that guy yet.”
They could very well get that guy in this year's draft. Whether it be Wall, Turner or somebody else, the potential is there. Then, send Rubio away and the team gets even stronger. And they still would have Charlotte’s pick at 13 or 14.
They may be in last place but there is a future in Minnesota. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at Oklahoma City (Durant), and Atlanta (Johnson) and see what happened as soon as they got their go-to-guy.
Im so excited about this, I hope this go-to guy theory works all the time
