Scouting the Enemy: Minnesota Timberwolves
By Eric He
As the Warriors get set to play the Minnesota Timberwolves in a matter of hours, it’s time to preview the game by scouting the enemy. Our thanks to Ben Beecken of Dunking With Wolves, who was kind enough to answer five questions about the Timberwolves and the upcoming game:
1) The Warriors were one of the teams vying for Kevin Love‘s services this offseason, but weren’t willing to budge with Klay Thompson. Would you rather have Klay or Andrew Wiggins & Co.?
I would rather have Andrew Wiggins, Thaddeus Young, and Anthony Bennett than Klay Thompson. Not because Wiggins is better than Thompson — he’s not, yet — but because Thompson is going to get paid max money very soon. He may have made the Wolves better in the short-term, but the promise of Wiggins on a rookie deal, plus Young and the lottery ticket that is Bennett outweighs overpaying Thompson, no matter how good of a shooter he is. (Now, Draymond Green is another story…if he had been in the deal, it would have made it a lot more tempting.
2) The Timberwolves have lost 8 of their last 9. What is accounting for their struggles?
No Ricky Rubio. No Nikola Pekovic. No Kevin Martin.
I could stop there, because that’s the reality. They haven’t played well, but it’s hard to play well when Corey Brewer is playing point guard and Robbie Hummel and Jeff Adrien are your backup centers. The absence of Rubio hurts far, far more worse than many casual NBA fans realize, by the way. He impacts the game on both ends of the court like an All-Star level player, and a team that could have easily been 5-0 to start the year with Rubio is a bottom-four team in the NBA without him.
3) Sorry, I have to ask this: do you fantasize about what might have been if the T-Wolves hadn’t passed over Stephen Curry twice?
Yes. Next question.
In all seriousness…yes. A million times, yes. Not twice, so much as once. If I had been in charge of the Wolves draft that year, I would have taken Rubio where they took him, and Curry immediately after — as would have 99 out of 100 people. But David Kahn is a rare breed, and Jonny Flynn‘s smile was too much to withstand, apparently.
I’m not sure if the Flynn-over-Curry mistake is made better or worse when compared with the litany of other gaffes by Kahn — Wes Johnson over DeMarcus Cousins, four years of overpaying Darko Milicic, almost trading Kevin Love for Anthony Randolph….but I digress.
4) Keys for the Timberwolves to win this game?
They won’t. Unless two of Rubio, Martin, and Pekovic make a miraculous recovery, suit up, and play at full strength, there’s literally zero chance that they win.
In order to keep it close (this is the game I’ve been playing lately, because it’s far, far more realistic), Zach LaVine needs to avoid silly fouls and silly turnovers (the backup point guard is literally Corey Brewer, did I mention that?), and Andrew Wiggins needs to be aggressive the entire game while avoiding foul trouble guarding Thompson.
5) Final score prediction and why?
125-105. The Wolves defense has been horrible lately, and they struggle to guard the three-point line. Definitely a recipe for disaster against Golden State. To make matters worse, the offense has been inefficient and inconsistent. It won’t be a close game.