How Careful Planning and Luck Helped The Timberwolves Rebuild

Philadelphia is in chaos. In the midst of face-saving bureaucratic restructuring, the 76ers have shown that rebuilding can be messy and difficult. The organization is in the third year of "The Process" and still morbidly putrid – and worse yet, their future remains murky.

Philadelphia's situation is a testament to the uncertainty of rebuilding. And at a time when nine teams — nearly one-third of the league — can generously be characterized as somewhere in their rebuilding phase, the 76ers embody the inherent risk in scrapping everything and starting from the bottom again. But one of those teams, the Timberwolves, have shown that it doesn't always have to be so tough.

While others are struggling, Minnesota has seemingly been able to make it look simple, turning a middling playoff hopeful starring Kevin Love into a young, talented roster with two franchise pillars, Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins, already in place. Another young player, Zack LaVine has tantalizing potential. They've done it with an ingredient that some other rebuilding teams have not been able to benefit from — luck — and they are now trying to harness it with an unlikely resource: past-their-prime veterans.

"It's very reassuring because I've had some of my peers tell me that they wish they could be where we are," Milt Newton, the Timberwolves GM, told VICE Sports. "Make no mistake, it's a very strategic process. Everyone wants to win now, and we have to understand that this thing is going to take some time for our players to develop. But to have two players like that on our team it's very reassuring."

It's not that Minnesota has skipped the tumult of rebuilding or its painful periods – they did win just 16 games last year, and are only 11-16 this year, although that puts them two games out of the playoffs in the West right now. They have just been able to streamline the process.

Finding franchise-player talent is the most difficult task in the NBA, and the Timberwolves now have two of those. Towns is the most promising rookie in the league — a seven-foot center out of Kentucky who ranks 16th in PER. Towns can grit his way inside, run the floor, defend and will eventually become more dangerous from the perimeter. Wiggins is his uber-athletic compliment on the wing, another former No. 1 overall pick that's just 20 years old. When fully matured, the tandem could eventually rival almost any other.

But Newton knows Minnesota is fortunate to have them. Wiggins was a trade coup. The organization had put themselves in position to make the playoffs two seasons ago in Love's final year with the team, only to fail. They traded Love to the Cleveland Cavaliers during the final year of his contract, and in came Wiggins — less than two months removed from being Cleveland's No. 1 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.

That was savvy — a front office pulling off a wise deal. Landing Towns was a blessing. The Timberwolves may have had the best odds heading into last May's NBA Draft lottery but that is hardly ever a cinch to land the top pick. And to get that pick in 2015 — when a player like Towns was available — was a break, too. Landing the No. 1 overall pick in a year with someone like Towns or Anthony Davis leaves a team with a franchise player. Getting it the year with no clear option leads to poor outcomes — like Anthony Bennett or Andrea Bargnani — and can leave a team still crippled.

"There is some luck involved," Newton said. "I think that anybody would say that but I think you have to be prepared to capitalize on that luck as well."

The Timberwolves' plan is now in its next phase. They have moved away from asset collection — a phase where teams like the Celtics still linger, anxiously awaiting a superstar to trade for — and are trying to build a holistic team, supplementing Towns and Wiggins with complimentary pieces. They are also eschewing talent-mining for leadership. Unlike the Sixers, who have turned each roster spot into an opportunity to find a usable player, Minnesota has brought in Kevin Garnett, Andre Miller and Tayshaun Prince over the past year as a counterweight to the youth.

Each is obviously near the end of their careers but Newton values their collective basketball wisdom. They are as much an investment in Towns and Wiggins' development as anything else.

"You can be young and talented but you also need leadership," Newton said. "You need to learn from players that have been there and done that how things are to be done in the NBA. We didn't feel that it would be beneficial for our team to have additional young players while we have a plethora of young players on our team right now — we didn't feel it would benefit what we're trying to do to add even more younger players. To have younger players without the guidance that they're going to need for them to develop to the level that we believe they can develop and the potential that they have."

Towns has become Garnett's apprentice. Wiggins studies Prince. LaVine is learning the fine art of post-ups from another big point guard in Miller. Even Ricky Rubio, in his fifth year now, is still just 25.

The Timberwolves have avoided the veteran vacuum that is glaringly apparent in Philadelphia.

"I feel very fortunate, not only because he's a veteran, but because he's a legend," Towns said of playing with Garnett. "I've told KG, Tayshaun and Andre that a lot. I was asleep one day and I woke up and came to practice and I told them how blessed we are because not only do we get to be with vets, but all-time greats. Everyday. From point guard, forward to centers. So it's a blessing for our team to not only have vets that've been playing in this league a long time, but to have vets who are all-time greats at their position."

This is only the beginning, of course. Minnesota has stocked itself with high-end talent but they await potential turning into results.

Still, the Timberwolves have been able to do it so fast and so smoothly that it puts them in an enviable spot. Winning the lottery was the springboard to all this. Teams spend years looking for just one franchise-player, now Minnesota has two.

"Our immediate reaction was now we do have some young talented players, we can start moving the organization forward with and knowing that development is going to have to take place," Newton said. "But having them on board and building with them, we can be really, really good for a long time."