Minnesota Timberwolves: 2018-19 NBA season preview

Predictions:

As I predicted here a few days ago, Minnesota will trade Butler to Miami within the next few weeks for Josh Richardson, a bad contract (I’d guess Dion Waiters or Tyler Johnson) and a first round pick.

Without Butler, the team’s offense drops a bit but manages to stay top-12, leading to most games being nail-biters. Richardson helps fill Butler’s hole defensively and Towns and Wiggins make small improvements to keep the team serviceable on that end of the court (although the team’s defensive rating will remain in the 20s).

Wiggins makes nominal improvements to his all-around game and KAT posts another huge stat line, but they fail to lead the team to wins by themselves. Lagging in the playoff race come February, the Wolves send Gibson elsewhere to chase a ring; Rose again suffers an injury, so his value becomes nonexistent.

Rookies Josh Okogie and Keita Bates-Diop both prove themselves to be rotation-caliber players going forward and see enough minutes to cut their teeth. Justin Patton, however, has a setback in his physical therapy and misses the entire season, calling his NBA career into question.

The Timberwolves do not make the playoffs, finishing 10th in the West with a 39-43 record. After the season, Tom Thibodeau and the franchise agree to part ways, and Minnesota goes about looking for a young head coach and a savvy executive to lead the team into the Karl-Anthony Towns-led future.