Minnesota Timberwolves: 5 storylines from the first week of games

The Best Offense Is…A Really Good Offense

By far the best thing to come out of this early season for the Minnesota Timberwolves has been their offense. Minnesota stocked up on offensive weapons this offseason, bringing in Edwards and Rubio and re-signing Beasley, and it has benefited the team from the get-go.

Against the Utah Jazz, Rubio, Beasley, Edwards, and Russell combined for 70 points, and the Timberwolves as a team shot 44.6 percent from the field and 44.8 percent from 3-point range.

That last number would probably be the most intriguing to Rosas and is a really interesting phenomenon. Most of the time, a team/player’s field goal percentage is brought down by their 3-point percent, i.e. the 3-point percentage is lower. However, Minnesota’s is higher. That means, for this game at least, the Timberwolves shot better from 3-point range than they did inside the arc.

The Timberwolves also had an amazing transition game. Edwards filled the lane beautifully on fast breaks, and Minnesota saw 16 fast break points and 11 points off of turnovers.

This seems to be a sustained effort as well. Through the first two games, Minnesota has recorded an offensive rating of 110.7, placing them 11th in the league. That, combined with a solid defensive effort, has given Minnesota the eighth best net rating at 7.8.

With a high-powered offense, the Timberwolves could begin to afford to fall behind early in games.

However, the important part is figuring out how to keep a high-octane offense running once it’s on. While Minnesota shot the lights out through the first half of their game against the Jazz, they struggled to pick it back up going into the second half. While this clearly didn’t hurt them too badly in this example, doing this against a higher-powered team with a smaller lead could prove dangerous.

At the end of the day, it seems a little too early to judge anything too closely in the NBA. Especially for teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves, who haven’t played organized basketball in nine months. However, if this is how Minnesota looks with whatever amount of rust they still have from that break, things could go up real fast for the Timberwolves.