I am not in opposition to analytics as a result of information is vital, however there isn’t any solution to account for issues like your finest participant lacking a tip as a result of he was late, or a coach taking his second-best participant when he is on solution to a 70 hamburger. . The Minnesota Timberwolves are an excellent basketball staff and one of the best within the Western Convention. Nevertheless, if DraftKings compelled you to guess your home on who will come out of the West, I guess you would not guess it on the T-Wolves.
Whereas Minnesota was nonetheless capable of deal with lowly Portland, 119-114, star guard Anthony Edwards got here off the bench Monday night time as he “forgot the time.”
The win snapped the Wolves’ two-game skid, and mixed with the Thunder’s loss to the Lakers, vaulted Minnesota again to the highest of the convention. Chris Finch’s skill to refocus his staff after final season’s 1-4 implosion within the first spherical in opposition to the Nuggets was spectacular.
Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Cities coexist, Mike Conley is an extension of Finch on the courtroom, and Edwards is continually doing issues that make you suppose he is a future face of the NBA. He performs contained in the offense and higher but, he does it each night time.
He is solely been held below 20 factors 11 instances this season*, together with final night time, and the Wolves are 7-4 in these video games. (*Technically twelve instances, however I omitted that point when he left with an harm after lower than 5 minutes of play.) It is a testomony to his selflessness and the expertise on the roster that the staff continues to have success even when Ant is free. .
What provides me pause are the mind farts that sometimes accompany Edwards. There was a time when he used homophobic language on IG Stayor when he brandished a folding chair that hit some bystanders after a loss within the 2023 playoffs. I do know Staff USA was destined to fail with the underdeveloped, misfit forged despatched to Asia for the FIBA World Cup final summer time, and that it is virtually a very totally different sport, however nonetheless he got here out on prime and received the staff no medal.
Two out of three of these issues are inexcusable, identical to final night time’s accident. I perceive that half of Minnesota’s beginning 5 may spend the half-hour consuming sweets and ingesting wine within the stands, and the Wolves would nonetheless beat this 12 months’s Blazers, however, as Finch famous after the win, Minnesota “I completely needed to have this.”
Whereas coaches’ statements are all the time a bit hyperbolic, Minnesota has solely misplaced twice in a row this season and they’re in a decent race for a No. 1 seed. Each benefit is essential if you have not executed it but. So that you’d suppose Edwards may make it to the Goal Middle in time sufficient for a shootout, not to mention a tip-off. Who is aware of if he performed Fortnite or what occurred? All I do know is that Ant is admittedly the most important purpose to belief Minnesota.
Conley is outdated, KAT’s flailing protection will get him into massive bother within the postseason, and Gobert’s tendency from mid-April onwards has been to get performed off the ground. Edwards will dictate whether or not Minnesota lives as much as the expectations of a prime three seed within the West.
The Nuggets, Wolves and Thunder may theoretically face a mixture of the Suns, Warriors and Lakers within the first spherical. Who do you suppose these decrease seeds can be pushing in opposition to? I do not wish to name the Timberwolves of 2024 the Grizzlies of 2023 — at the least not except Ant flashes an Uzi on TikTok.
March and April are the slowest of all NBA video games, so I am unable to blame guys for succumbing to bouts of apathy. I additionally sleepwalk by way of components of my work. All of us do. It is human. Be that as it could, for skilled hoopers the job begins considerably sooner than when the ball is within the air, and Anthony Edwards has but to earn the identical free move as different established stars.