Minnesota Timberwolves: Revisiting the 2010s
By Ethan Becker
2016-17 Season
Record: 31-51
High Point: The Minnesota Timberwolves began what would be known as The Thibodeau Era in 2016-17. It’s forgotten about now, but at the time there was a lot of excitement about Tom Thibodeau coming on for Minnesota. The team’s defense had declined over the past few years and Karl-Anthony Towns wasn’t turning out to be the defensive specialist that we hoped he’d be.
It was thought that maybe Thibs could unlock that aspect of his game.
The Timberwolves also saw some nice output from Towns, Andrew Wiggins and Ricky Rubio. Towns and Wiggins both placed in the top 20 in points per game and Rubio once again placed in the top10 in assists and steals per game. Things were coming together nicely and it seemed to be the first year where there was hope of breaking the playoff drought.
Low Point: Missing the playoffs was rough for this team. Even with the slightly improved record, it was still not enough as the Timberwolves took the 13th spot in the Western Conference and the 24th spot in the league.
This was also the first year that questions began to arises about Wiggins’ drive. Even though he still ranked in the top-10 in points per game, he was also missing a ton of shots and was scoring less than Towns, despite Wiggins having the most minutes played in the league.