Minnesota Timberwolves: Will They Make The 2013-14 NBA Playoffs?
The Minnesota Timberwolves are coming off of one of the most disappointing seasons in their often-disappointing history. Expectations were as high as they have been since Kevin Garnett left town, but the injury bug spread like wildfire and the team was left wondering what could have been. Now healthy, can the Timberwolves make it back to the NBA playoffs for the first time in 10 years?
It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since Garnett, Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell made it to the Western Conference Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s even harder to believe that the Wolves haven’t made the playoffs since.
Kevin Love will come back with a vengeance in 2013-14. Photo Credit: Keith Allison, Flickr.com
The return to the playoffs was supposed to happen in 2012-13, with dark-horse MVP candidate Kevin Love leading the way. Ricky Rubio was going to dazzle us with his passing ability, Andrei Kirilenko was going to provide veteran leadership and defensive stability and Nikola Pekovic was going to emerge as one of the best centers in the game.
So much for all that.
The Wolves were more fragile and lost more time to injury than your average “Operation” board game. It seemed like every minor injury turned into something larger (Chase Budinger) and every freak accident was worse than originally thought (Love).
The good news is, 2013-14 is just a few months away. The Wolves lost Kirilenko to the Brooklyn Nets, but they’ve made some solid additions in Kevin Martin, Corey Brewer and Ronny Turiaf. The draft additions of Gorgui Dieng and Shabazz Muhammad make the Wolves one of the favorites to return to the playoffs.
Chemistry shouldn’t be much of an issue, as the core of Rubio-Love-Pekovic has seen enough time together to be comfortable. Having a pass-first point guard like Rubio makes it easier to get accustomed, as everyone can play to their strengths and trust that they will get the ball when they need it. Even Derrick Williams played well with Rubio.
Derrick Williams could be a key contributor, if the Wolves are lucky. (Photo Credit to AP, Creative Commons License)
In fact, the Wolves roster stacks up (offensively, at least) with every team in the Western Conference.
Their undoing, if it comes, will be on the defensive end.
While Rubio racked up an impressive amount of steals (137, 2.4 per game), he isn’t thought of as a terrific defensive player. 82games.com shows that Rubio allowed an efficiency rating of 18.6 to opposing point guards in 2012-13. Martin has long been one of the poorest defensive shooting guards in the league and the combination with Rubio doesn’t look promising.
The Wolves could get away with it if they had a rim defender to erase some of their mistakes. Unfortunately, Love is serviceable at best and Pekovic resembles a concrete block in his stature and ability to move laterally.
The Western Conference has a lot of teams who improved considerably and will be looking to sneak into the playoff mix. The Portland Trail Blazers, New Orleans Pelicans, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks will all be pushing for that No. 8 seed.
Are the Wolves better than those teams on paper? When healthy, yes, they are. Are games played on paper? Ask the 2012-13 Lakers that question. The Wolves would be best suited to take care of their own business and stay under the radar. It’s going to take 46 wins to get that No. 8 spot this season and the Wolves are just the team to do it.