Can the Timberwolves Win Without Towns?
It’s been about 20 years since the Minnesota Timberwolves were serious championship contenders. Probably not since the days of Kevin Garnett and Sam Cassell has there been so much hype surrounding a Minnesota team. But this year’s squad has—at least until recently—lived up to it.
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The Wolves have been at or near the top of their conference for the majority of the season, largely due to their incredible defense, currently ranked number one in the league according to Fox Sports. The T-Wolves allow only 106.3 opponent points per game, on average, more than a full point ahead of the next contestant, the Knicks, at 107.5. Rudy Gobert, the relentless, towering center for Minnesota, forms one key ingredient of this powerful defense, and may be the best defensive player in the NBA right now. He contests every shot and averages 2 blocks per game. Jordan McDaniels also has a wide wingspan and has played some fantastic defense.
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In addition, Minnesota has turned heads due to the agility and jaw-dropping athleticism of Anthony Edwards. Michael Jordan himself recently said that Edwards’s game reminds him of his own. While some of the Jordan-Edwards comparisons are probably exaggerated, there’s no denying the young star’s outstanding talent.
Alongside Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns has provided the Timberwolves with offensive weaponry. He bullies and bombards his way to the rim for dunks, while also being able to send three’s down the drain casually, like it’s just some dirty dishwater. That is—he was doing those things, until he got injured.
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And this is the point. Karl-Anthony Towns’s injury (torn meniscus) earlier this month has many people asking: are the Timberwolves still in the race? Could they pull this thing off without their star big man? It’s uncertain whether he’ll be back on the court by playoff time, so the team has to consider what their run might look like without him.
To be sure, they have faltered. Since Towns’s injury, they’ve fallen from the number one perch in the conference and lost 3 of their last 9 games.
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As Jack Maloney observes for CBS Sports, while the loss of Towns will deal a significant blow to the Wolves’ offense, their defense is another story. It might actually improve, since Towns’s effort on that end of the court isn’t quite as stellar. Maloney writes, “Naz Reid will likely take Towns' place in the starting lineup, and in the 67 minutes he's played alongside the Wolves' other four primary starters. . .the Wolves have an unheard of 82.3 defensive rating.”
But without Towns, they also have the lowest offensive rating, so it’s a double-edged sword. Out of nine top teams, the Timberwolves are currently tied for the longest odds to win the title. After the Towns injury, their odds fell from +2500 to +3500.
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If the Wolves can reclaim the no. 1 seed in the West, that will certainly help their chances of winning it all, with or without Towns. They’ll play the current number one seed, the Nuggets, twice during the remainder of the regular season (both away games), and if they could beat their top competition, they might reclaim the coveted spot.
Still, even if the Wolves finish first in the conference, it’d be an extremely uphill struggle to make a deep play-off run without their second-best scorer. Impossible? No. Likely? Probably not.