Each NBA team’s most devastating injury in franchise history
Most devastating injury in Minnesota Timberwolves history: Jimmy Butler
It seems like a long time ago due to how quickly things broke down, but the Jimmy Butler/Andrew Wiggins/Karl-Anthony Towns trio produced some positive early returns in their first season together with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The team began the year 31-18. While the defense wasn’t up to the standard of a Tom Thibodeau-coached team, they sported a top-10 offense and spent most of the first half of the 2017-18 season.
With that said, there were some red flags, namely Thibodeau’s pathological need to play his starters heavy minutes. For the most part, it worked out.
Minnesota had a +8.9 net rating when their starting lineup was on the floor, but that group played more minutes than any other lineup in the NBA that season. As Thibodeau learned in Chicago, there’s a price for putting that much of a load on your players.
On Feb. 23 of that year against the Houston Rockets, the bill came due when Butler injured his knee late in the third quarter. He later underwent surgery to repair his injured meniscus and didn’t play until April 6 against the Los Angeles Lakers.
In the time that Butler missed, the lack of minutes the bench received throughout the year came back to haunt them. They went 8-9 during that stretch, dropped in the standings and had to beat the Denver Nuggets on the last night of the season to snap their 13-year playoff drought.
Had Thibodeau managed his starters’ minutes better, they likely would’ve finished higher in the West and may have won a playoff series. Regardless, the franchise wouldn’t have had to deal with the turmoil that unfolded prior to the 2018-19 season that led to Butler being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers and Thibodeau getting fired.