1. The Culture
It seems cliche, right? After all, how could a team’s culture be one of the main reasons for success?
This is the NBA! Stars are everywhere, dynamic duos are flexing their power and the league just went through such a massive shakeup that the championship is almost wide open, but you’re going to claim that the culture on a team with just one bona-fide All-Star is what is going to make the difference?
Well, you can’t argue with the results.
The Minnesota Timberwolves just look more coherent now. It really seems like the team is coming together really nicely, in a fairly short amount of time, and is already firing on all cylinders.
Minnesota is fifth in the league right now in screen assists per game at 11.3 and they are able to convert those screens into the league’s fourth-most points off of screen assists at 27.2.
They are dead center in the league in assists per game at 23.7 and they are the fastest-moving team in the NBA right now, with a pace of 109.02, all while keeping their turnovers per game to a respectable 17.7. Not Finals contender numbers for sure, but these numbers seem to suggest a playoff team that may be able to do some first-round damage.
Ultimately, the Timberwolves are more than capable of keeping this great run up, and, if they keep up this great work rate, the Wolves could become a regular playoff team in the Western Conference.