Minnesota Timberwolves: 5 takeaways from 2017-18 NBA season

The Minnesota Timberwolves fell to the Houston Rockets in the first round of the 2018 NBA Playoffs. Here are five takeaways from the season.

The Minnesota Timberwolves can consider this season a relative success despite the early exit. In Year 2 under head coach Tom Thibodeau, they made their first postseason since the 2004. Thibodeau had an improved season with Jeff Teague, Jimmy Butler, Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns and Taj Gibson as this year’s starters.

Gone were Ricky Rubio, Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn, and the team fared better than in 2016-17. It finished the regular season with a 47-35 record this year, 16 wins better than last season’s squad.

Butler led the team in scoring (22.2 points per game), but KAT was right behind him with 21.3 points per game along with 12.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.4 blocks per contest. Andrew Wiggins’ production was down in 2017-18 (17.7 points per game) after averaging a career-high 23.6 points per game last season.

The team chemistry is still a work in progress, but Minnesota is onto something with the core of players it has. It took until the final game of the season for the Wolves to secure a playoff spot, but they secured one, nonetheless.

Here’s a look at five takeaways for the Minnesota Timberwolves from the 2017-18 NBA season.