The Timberwolves Are Almost Ready

When the Minnesota Timberwolves held their media day last Monday, they were scrupulously, impressively on message. With one voice, the team preached the importance of developing their young, talented players and working toward reaching the playoffs—probably not right now, but soon.

Minnesota fans have been hearing this message for nearly a decade, especially after the team traded Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics in 2007. The Wolves have been in flux ever since, perpetually in rebuilding mode, but this time they might really have a long-term solution. Probably not right now, but—well, you know the rest.

"We have a great group of young guys who are eager to learn. And I'm using the word 'great'. Not good, but great," said Garnett, who has returned to Minnesota as resident magus for this latest iteration of the team. "They're willing and open to work hard and give everything. I see a lot of myself in some of these guys."

While Garnett was in Boston, the Timberwolves cycled through a series of new teams over the years, featuring lead faces like Al Jefferson, Kevin Love, and Ricky Rubio. All good players, but not one was able to carry a team by himself. Rubio is still on the roster, and arguably the Wolves' most important player; he is joined now by a slew of potential stars, including the last two No. 1 overall picks, Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns. Wiggins made a name for himself in the NBA last year, winning Rookie of the Year. Towns has barely spent time as an official NBA player but is already making his mark.

"When I came here for the draft, and I saw the young guys working out, I only needed like two minutes to see that he [Towns] was the guy," said Rubio. "The main thing that really impressed me was that he really wants to be here. He's a guy who can stretch the floor, he's athletic, can run in the open floor."

Theoretically, the strategy Rubio referenced should excite Timberwolves fans the most. Not only are Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns a pair of potential 20-point-per-game scorers, they both like to score from multiple parts of the floor. Towns can post up, shoot from mid-range, and from deep. Wiggins, while he comes by it differently, does a lot of the same.

Rubio, the third cog of the Wolves young trio, has the most important job of all—putting Wiggins and Towns in a position to score those points as comfortably as possible. "I'm very excited," said Towns of his new point guard. "In our pick-up games, me and Ricky have been on the same page. It's going to be awesome."

It's a nice problem to have, but Rubio will also have to find a way to involve the Wolves' other developing players. Shabazz Muhammad averaged 13.5 points and 4.9 rebounds on 48.9 percent shooting in just under 23 minutes per game in his injury-shortened sophomore season. This includes 18.5 points per game in December, the one month Muhammad averaged over 28 minutes per game. He doesn't turn 23 for another month. Gorgui Dieng has shown all the makings of a solid bench big; Zach LaVine, while still very much a project after an uneven NBA debut at age 19, is at least a hugely exciting one.

All those players, including Wiggins and Towns, are relative question marks, and very much unfinished. That's why the Wolves can talk about making a playoff push soon, but qualify it with a "probably not right now." Interim head coach Sam Mitchell—who stepped into the role after Flip Saunders, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, took a leave of absence—has a few veterans on hand to work into the mix. Garnett will again be the NBA's loudest and most intense tutor, while Andre Miller and Tayshaun Prince will effectively be player-coaches, but Mitchell seems determined to let the youngsters go through their growing pains early on.

"At some point, they've got to learn how to play in those situations. Kevin Garnett, Andre Miller, Tayshaun Prince—they're not going to be here three years from now," Mitchell said. "So I've got to make sure that I do right by the organization, by making sure these young guys get a chance to learn how to play."

Still, the importance of the veterans on this team, in terms of youth development, is paramount. This is especially true of Garnett, whose words in Minnesota carry more weight than perhaps any other veteran in the league. Luckily for all involved, Garnett has shown not just a willingness but an eagerness to teach at this juncture of his career.

"I will say I'm a voice of the locker room," Garnett said. "I think [Saunders] wants me to transcend some of the work ethic, and the things he knows of me, and try to spread it throughout the locker room."

It will doubtless help to have Garnett, coach Mitchell, and the rest of the veterans around to lead the team's young core. It will help to have Rubio running the point. But if the Wolves want to end their 11-year playoff drought, Wiggins, Towns, and at least a few other relative newbies will have to get them there.

While that probably won't be this year—too much depends on too many young players, especially in the supremely stacked Western Conference—this might be the first year since Garnett's original go-round with the Wolves that fans can reasonably feel excitement. There isn't just one Kevin Garnett, one Kevin Love, one Al Jefferson, and a bunch of projection and wish-casting. The Wolves have a pocketful of diamonds in the rough, and if a few of them grade out, that could be very valuable indeed. There is reason to dream big, in other words, and the soft-spoken Wiggins is already doing just that.

"My biggest goal this year is just an all-around goal for the team," he said on media day. "To make the playoffs."

That's how players, especially young players, are bred to think. They don't think about rebuilds, projects, and prospects; they don't have to remember a decade-plus of disappointment. They think about winning right now. To the Minnesota Timberwolves, for the first time in a while, "soon" feels like a reality. For the team's young stars, and everyone else, soon can't come soon enough.