In the 03-04 season, as Garnett grew to a super inside line that averaged 24.2 points, 13.9 boards, 5.0 assists per game, and 49.9% shooting percentage, the Timberwolves recorded a second record in the league with 58 wins and 24 losses that season, and also helped Garnett win the only MVP trophy of his career.
It's just that after this season, the Timberwolves seem to be under a "spell" and gradually become familiar to us - 13 consecutive years of being blocked out of the Western Conference playoffs, until Butler joined, only in 18 years barely reached the playoffs with 47 wins and 35 losses to the West in the eighth place...
Season 17-18: "Butler + Towns + Wiggins" teamed up, but failed to make a difference in the playoffs
In the 2017 offseason, the Timberwolves management exchanged "2017 first round No. 7 pick, Zach Lavin, Chris Dunn" as a chip from the Bulls to "Jimmy Butler, 2017 first round No. 16 pick.". The reason for this operation is that they are nothing more than hoping that the combination of "Butler + Towns + Wiggins" can help the team go further.
After all, in the two seasons when "Downs + Lavin + Wiggins" officially joined forces, he only led the team to 29 wins, 53 losses, 31 wins and 51 losses, ranking thirteenth in the West for two consecutive seasons.
Although their personal data performance is OK, the performance of "Downs + Lavin + Wiggins" makes people completely blind to the hope of the future "revival" of the Timberwolves.
In Butler's first season, the Timberwolves quickly achieved a breakthrough in results. With Butler's 22.2 points, 5.3 boards, 4.9 assists, 47.4% shooting percentage, Towns 21.3 points, 12.3 boards and 2.4 assists, 54.5% shooting percentage, Wiggins 17.7 points, 4.4 boards, 2.0 assists, and 43.8% shooting percentage, the Timberwolves have made the playoffs again after 13 years...
Towns and Wiggins, who thought that they had entered the playoffs for the first time in their careers, would play a superstar performance in the playoffs driven by Butler's "infection", creating a big trouble for the Rockets at that time. Who ever thought that the series Wiggins only had 15.8 points, 5.2 boards and 2.0 assists, 44.1% shooting percentage, and continued to "health" personal performance.
And Towns faced Capela, did not play his own advantage, played the dominance of the super center, but averaged only 15.2 points, 13.4 boards and 2.2 assists per game, and 46.7% shooting percentage. Even the presence of downs at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends is not as good as that of a "blue-collar center" like Capela.
After all, capela on the other side, but played 15.8 points, 14.2 boards and 1.4 assists, 67.3% super high shooting rate of personal performance. In the end, in the case of a poor performance at the core of the team, the Timberwolves lost 1-4 to the Rockets. It was also after this series that Butler began to leave the team...
Because at that time, Towns and Wiggins, the competitive state and desire to win showed by the two of them were not enough to make the Timberwolves go further in the playoffs. However, when Butler was dissatisfied with Towns and Wiggins, the Timberwolves management still chose to "believe in talent."
In the end, Butler was traded to Philadelphia shortly after the start of the 18-19 season and played a good season performance. Even Butler led the team to the Finals after joining the Heat, successfully justifying himself and proving that the Timberwolves management's choice was wrong.
However, after Downs and Butler "fell out", there was no significant decline in personal performance. Over the next four seasons, he was able to average around 25+10 per game.
18-19 season: 24.4 points, 12.4 boards, 3.4 assists, 51.8% shooting percentage; 19-20 season: 26.5 points, 10.8 boards, 4.4 assists, 50.8% shooting rate; 20-21 season: 24.8 points, 10.6 boards, 4.5 assists, 48.6% shooting rate; 21-22 season: 24.6 points, 9.8 boards, 3.6 assists, 52.9% shooting rate of the super star data performance.
21-22 season: Towns performed well in the regular season, but once again "pulled the crotch" in the play-offs
In the new season, due to the team's improved record + 24.6 points and 9.8 boards per game, and 52.9% shooting rate, Towns was selected to the Western Conference All-Star bench. Combined with downs' personal performance of nearly averaging 25+10 per game in previous years, it seems that as long as he can prove himself in the playoffs, he has every chance to become a superstar next season.
But just when the outside world expected Downs to lead the Timberwolves and make a difference in the playoffs, Towns once again played a personal performance of "pulling crotch". In the recent playoff between the Timberwolves vs Clippers, Towns did not play better against the Clippers without super centers.
In this game, Towns instead played a "crotch pull" performance: 3 of 11 shots in a single game, only 11 points, 5 boards and 3 assists, which was far from his regular season performance. The Timberwolves wouldn't have had much hope of beating the Clippers with Downs' poor performance alone, but fortunately Russell and Edwards were good enough individually...
In the Timberwolves vs Clippers game, Russell shot 10 from 18 in a single game, efficiently blasting down 29 points, 5 boards and 6 assists; even Edwards, who was only in the second year of the league, had a huge star performance of 10 of 21 shots, 30 points, 5 boards and 2 assists. In the end, under their play, the Timberwolves defeated the Clippers 109-104 and successfully advanced to the playoffs.
That is to say, Downs in this year's playoffs was almost "brought" into the playoffs by his teammates. After all, if it weren't for Russell and Edwards facing the Clippers and playing superstar-level individual performances at the same time, expecting down The Timberwolves this year might not have made it to the playoffs at all.
So, can Towns, who was "brought" into the playoffs by his teammates, prove himself this year?
Thinking of entering the second season of the league, Downs at that time played a super inside stat with 25.1 points, 12.3 boards, 2.7 assists, and 54.2% shooting. And his playing style and technical characteristics are similar to those of the thick eyebrows at that time, and he can also be inside and even have a stronger medium- and long-distance projection ability than the thick eyebrows.
And with Downs's physical condition and technical characteristics, it is fully in line with the conditions of the small ball era. Therefore, at that time, the outside world was extremely optimistic about Towns, thinking that he would most likely become a super center in the new era. However, over the years, compared with the rise of super centers such as Embiid and Jokic, he has never been able to make a name for himself.
Instead, a "soft" word that almost ran through his seven-year career. In particular, the classic picture of him playing Capela on his back and cousins on his back was once the talk of the outside world after dinner...
This year's Timberwolves' playoffs are not only the beginning of Downs's proof of his superstar abilities, but also the best opportunity for Towns to tear off the label of "weakness". If he can play a personal performance of close to 25+10 and 50% shooting in the regular season in the playoffs against the Grizzlies, no one will underestimate him.
The Grizzlies, in particular, don't have a strong center presence. Whether it is Adams (injury), Jalen Jackson Jr., or Killian Tilly, Aldama and others, with their defensive ability, they can't actually completely limit Downs's offensive firepower.
Even with their own offensive firepower, Towns didn't have to expend a lot of physical strength on the defensive end like they did against Jokic, Embiid, and Thick Brow. Therefore, from the perspective of lineup alignment, Towns can still occupy a lot of advantages, after all, the Grizzlies' advantage is not in the center position.
But with the overall strength of the current two teams, the Timberwolves are still inferior to the Grizzlies, and it is inevitable that they will eventually lose. But downs doesn't have to lead the team to win the series if he wants to prove himself.
As long as he can average about 25+10 per game, lead the Timberwolves to win two games, and create some trouble for the Grizzlies, instead of being defeated by them like "destroyed and decayed", Towns has actually successfully proved himself.
However, from the perspective of Downs's career resume and personal playing style, even if there is a counter-position advantage, Towns wants to prove himself, wants to average about 25+10 per game in the playoffs, and lead the Timberwolves to create some trouble for the Grizzlies, which is not an easy task for him. Once he performs in the playoffs and "pulls his crotch" like 18 years, then he will not only be unable to avoid the overwhelming criticism of the outside world, but also sit on the "soft egg" image...