Con: Intangibles
Basketball analysts always rave about a player’s intangibles. Those things that a player does that happen outside of the box score but still go a long way towards helping their team win. Andre Iguodala is probably going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame because of his intangibles, and right now, the Minnesota Timberwolves are going to need to work on theirs.
One of those intangible is hustle attributes. Any chance the Wolves had to just straight up outwork their opponents were almost always passed up. Nobody looked like they were playing with any urgency on the court and no situation seemed to add any pressure to this team.
In some ways, that can be a good thing, but if it just causes everybody to play lethargically on the court, then it isn’t going to do anything to help them.
Minnesota had an assist-to-turnover ratio of 50:46, essentially meaning that for every pass that led to a score, there was one that led to a turnover.
While the Timberwolves have struggled over these last two games, as the age-old saying goes, it is just the preseason. There’s always a lack of urgency during this time. There are always players taking more “heat check” types of shots while on the court and due to the lackadaisical style of play, there are always going to be more turnovers.
So even though the last two games haven’t been great to watch, they aren’t necessarily indicative of any larger problems with the organization.