New-look Timberwolves need to rediscover the edge that took them so far last season
As the Minnesota Timberwolves walked out of Ball Arena on May 19 with their ticket to the Western Conference finals punched after an epic Game 7 victory, Denver Nuggets players and members of the organization looked at them with a sense of familiarity.
"They remind me of us last year," more than one said, marveling at the intensity with which the Timberwolves seemed to attack every game, the relentlessness of their effort and the hunger that couldn't be faked.
More than Anthony Edwards' soaring dunks, more than the success of the oft-doubted Karl-Anthony Towns- Rudy Gobert frontcourt pairing and more than Mike Conley 's clutch play, last season's Timberwolves were defined by a razor-sharp edge to their game. They punished their opponents with a nasty, physical defense that was fueled by a palpable desperation to prove themselves to the league at large.
I knew the start of this Timberwolves season was going to be a grind. A team cannot make the kind of identity-changing trade they did just days before the start of training camp and not expect to have some serious growing pains as they adjust to the new faces.
What has come as a surprise is not the Timberwolves' underwhelming 6-5 record. It is that almost everything about the Timberwolves has been underwhelming. Their defense. Their energy. Their competitiveness. It has been a season of meh to this point, which stands in such stark contrast to the ferocity of last season's team.
It is startling to watch a game like the 122-108 loss in Portland, Ore., on Tuesday night. It is not that the Timberwolves lost a game to a terrible Trail Blazers team that appears two years away from being two years away, one that Minnesota beat by 25 points just last week. It is that the Wolves did so by offering the bare minimum of focus and not a single shred of the tenacity that was so important to their success last season.
The Timberwolves entered the game against Portland coming off of an embarrassing loss to the short-handed Miami Heat . But that mistake-filled loss did not appear to wake them up. Instead, the early season malaise lingered into their first NBA Cup game of the season. They turned the ball over 23 times, the third straight game they have committed at least 20 turnovers. They were outrebounded 39-32, allowed Portland's bench to rack up 64 points and shoot 56 percent from 3-point range (18 for 32).
The Trail Blazers entered the game with the 28th-ranked offense in the NBA . They are a mess of a team that lost to the Memphis Grizzlies by 45 points on Sunday. The Grizzlies did not have Ja Morant or Desmond Bane for that game, prompting Blazers coach Chauncey Billups to rip into his team for a lack of effort. They entered the game 30th in the league in 3-pointers made at 10.1 per game.
The Wolves should have expected the Blazers to play with some more grit and energy, but they also didn't do a thing to deter them in the first half. Despite playing without Anfernee Simons for most of the game and Deandre Ayton for all of it, Portland shot 52 percent from the field and hit 12 of 20 3-pointers to hang 60 on a once-proud defense in the first half.
They were slow-footed on defense with toothless closeouts on the perimeter that gave the Blazers great looks over and over. The rotations were busted.
And whenever Gobert went to the bench, the Blazers got whatever they wanted at the rim against Naz Reid and Julius Randle , a recurring problem for the team this season.
There wasn't a hint of force in anything the Wolves did.
Edwards was just 1 of 5 in the first quarter, made a foolish foul of Jerami Grant on a 3-pointer that gave Portland a four-point play in the second quarter and did not grab a single rebound in the game. Minnesota was outscored by 20 points in his 37 minutes on the court.
Donte DiVincenzo scored just three points in 18 minutes and turned the ball over four times, the majority of them on reckless passes out of drives to the basket.
When the Wolves weren't blowing defensive assignments or getting outhustled by Robert Williams III on the glass, they were a slapstick comedy of errors on the offensive end. They turned it over 13 times in the first 28 minutes of the game, including three off of inbounds passes in the backcourt. They even had an 8-second violation when Randle failed to get the ball across half court in the third quarter.
The urgency was lacking all night from Randle. He was flat-footed on defense, failing to close out to the corner on 3s, only grabbing six rebounds and going 3 of 9 from the field for a quiet 11 points.
When the trade was made, the thought of adding Randle's toughness and bully ball to the group was intriguing. Wolves coach Chris Finch calls him a "hit-first" player, one who would fit right into a team that loved to flex its muscles. For most of the season, he has been an excellent offensive player, a hub who can get others shots just as he can create his own. But he has been prone to inactivity on the defensive end, which is likely attributable to him still getting used to a new team and a new scheme.
No one seems to be thinking straight right now. One game after Finch said he "didn't get it right" in the way he handled the end of an inexcusable loss to the short-handed Heat, he chose to keep his main rotation players on the floor on the front end of a back-to-back even when it was clear in the fourth quarter that the Wolves were not going to mount a comeback.
The players on the floor, the top eight who have played almost all of the minutes this season, were not getting it done. They would make a shot here or there and then not get a stop. And whenever they did get a stop, they would turn it right back over. When the Blazers went up 17 with 4 minutes, 18 seconds to go, it was time for Finch to pull his regulars and throw the youngsters into the game. Given how poorly they were playing, there was even an argument to do it earlier.
The quick response would be that this was an NBA Cup game, where point differential matters. So leaving the best players in the game gave the Wolves a chance to trim the deficit and stay in the hunt for a wild-card berth even after a loss to the lowly Blazers. But the main Wolves players didn't have it on Tuesday night.
Maybe Rob Dillingham , Josh Minott , Terrence Shannon Jr. and Luka Garza would've given them a spark and played with the urgency required to get back in the game. Or maybe they still would have lost by double digits but gained a little experience in the process while ensuring that Edwards, Gobert, Conley and the main guys were fresh for the rematch on Wednesday.
Either way, these Wolves have bigger issues to worry about right now than getting out of group play in the In-Season Tournament. They have to rediscover their sense of urgency. They are not playing with the motivation of a team that was bounced in the conference finals last season. They are playing like a team that is bored with the regular season, that sees it as just a necessary evil before the real games begin in April.
Finch mentioned it as a point of emphasis in the preseason.
"This is not the same team from last year," he said in October. "Different team from the Western Conference finals and we have to re-establish ourselves. Re-establish our identity, that hunger, that drive, things that got us to playing in May."
Just as the Wolves needed time to acclimate when Gobert first arrived, it is reasonable to expect that Randle and DiVincenzo need time to get settled this season.
Coaches and players told the media in Portland after the game that there is no reason to panic 11 games into the season. And they are right. It is still early and patience is required as they form their new identity.
If there is cause for concern, it is less about a player missing shots in this small sample size of games or a five-man unit slipping up on defensive rotations. Those wrinkles can be ironed out.
Right now, the biggest issue is that last season's Timberwolves were hard to play against. They fought for every inch on their way to 56 wins and the first two playoff series victories in 20 years.
This team is making things far too easy for their opponents. They are opening doors they used to slam in people's faces. Until that changes and they get that taste of blood back in their mouths, the disappointments will continue.
(Photo of Mike Conley: Alika Jenner / )
