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Minnesota Timberwolves: 5 bold predictions for 2017-18 NBA season

By Dominique Clare

SHENZHEN, CHINA - OCTOBER 05: Jimmy Butler #23, Andrew Wiggins #22, Karl-Anthony Townsand and Taj Gibson #67 of the Minnesota Timberwolves celebrate during the game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Golden State Warriors as part of 2017 NBA Global Games China at Universidade Center on October 5, 2017 in Shenzhen, China. (Photo by Zhong Zhi/Getty Images)
SHENZHEN, CHINA - OCTOBER 05: Jimmy Butler #23, Andrew Wiggins #22, Karl-Anthony Townsand and Taj Gibson #67 of the Minnesota Timberwolves celebrate during the game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Golden State Warriors as part of 2017 NBA Global Games China at Universidade Center on October 5, 2017 in Shenzhen, China. (Photo by Zhong Zhi/Getty Images) /
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Minnesota Timberwolves
Photo by Zhong Zhi/Getty Images /

The Minnesota Timberwolves are all set for an exciting season. As the first game nears, here are five bold predictions for the 2017-18 NBA season.

There are a lot of predictions for the Minnesota Timberwolves this season. Almost all of them have them doing better than last season, when they only won 31 games and failed in a lot of key areas statistically.

Defensively they were poor as a unit. They posted the 27th ranked defensive rating in the NBA. Another big reason behind the team’s struggles was the Wolves didn’t get much help from their bench, which ranked last in the NBA in several categories.

One area where the Wolves excelled last season was on offense. Scoring was no issue as they ranked 10th in points scored per 100 possessions. They’ll look to improve on both sides of the ball this season.

The Wolves feature a new look during the 2017-18 season. Not just new players, but they literally have a new look after redesigning their logo and uniforms. The team is officially starting a new era after adding Jimmy Butler and some other quality players to the roster. That will hopefully end a playoff drought that caused Minnesota to have the second-lowest attendance in the NBA last season.

ESPN made a prediction that the Timberwolves will finish nine spots higher than last season based on their real plus-minus projections, which project them to finish fourth in the Western Conference with 50.1 wins.

That seems fair based on the data they used to make that prediction, but it’s on the safer side. Here are five bold prediction for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2017-18.

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