In 2014, Basketball God seemed to be in order to make up for the debt caused by Garnett's departure, and began to "favor" this lone snow wolf (husky?) in the northwest of the United States. ）。
The Cavaliers who welcomed LeBron's second return in 2014 exchanged Wiggins, who was signed by that year's winner, for the Timberwolves' "two-double machine" Kevin Love, and the Timberwolves got the "LeBron second" in the national media. Then 16 wins and 66 losses, the West bottom.
In 2015, the Timberwolves won the first sign with their strength, choosing the super newcomer Carl Anthony Downs of the famous kentucky, of course, there is no need to worry about the data in the Timberwolves, and the data of the Downs rookie season of 18.3 + 10.5 is the best rookie. The team then went on to bottom of the West with a 29-53 loss.
In 2016, the Timberwolves invited Thibodeau, the "iron coach" who trained Rose to mvp and build the 08 Celtics into a historic defensive team, the downs + Wiggins two-piece leader, the up-and-coming Zac Lavin, and the Spanish genius guard Rubio. Such a line-up is just two wins ahead of the previous season, with 31 wins and 51 losses.
In 17 years, Thibodeau re-recruited the old department, exchanged Lavin for his own "real man" Jimmy Butler, and finally narrowly defeated the Denver Nuggets in the final game of the regular season, with a 47-35 loss to the eighth place in the West, entered the playoffs for the first time in 14 years, and then was cut 4-1 by the Rockets in the first round. Against Downs, Capela played like O'Neal.
In 18 years, the Timberwolves even Butler could not move, leaving "all the way you are too XX need me" angrily switched to the 76ers, but the team also exchanged for the top 3D Covington, plus the state of Rose, the lineup is still not bad. But under the leadership of Wiggins-Downs, the team went home early to fish 36-46, and the only thing they remember most that year was Rose's 50 points in a single game.
Last season, the Timberwolves' three-game winning streak began with an 11-game losing streak in December, followed by a 13-game losing streak in January. The team finally couldn't stand replacing "Goji Mamba" Wiggins. Don't get me wrong, the team is not fed Wiggins's "health basketball", but can't stand Downs's repeated requests to want to partner with his friend Angelo Russell, anyway, the first round of wiggins + 2021 was exchanged for Russell, then a wave of 3 wins and 9 losses, and finally 19 wins and 45 losses to go home early to fish, not even qualified for the rematch.
Then this year they drew the lottery again, this time the lucky one (unlucky egg?). It was Anthony Edwards. Anyway, all I know is that once selected by the Timberwolves, Edwards' probability of winning the rookie of the new season slid from the first straight to the fourth.
There are Knicks in the east and Huskies in the west, and as long as these two teams exist, we can always understand where the bottom line of the NBA-level team is.
But unlike the Knicks' poor draft picks for more than a decade, the Timberwolves have had an endless stream of quality players in the past five years, from Wiggins, LaVine to Towns, to Butler, Covington, and this year's Edwards, but their record has never disappointed in disappointing.
The "number one war criminal" among them is undoubtedly the new generation of "wolf kings", Carl Anthony Downs, known as the "next generation of insiders".
<h1>First, the future alliance superstar? Super Data Brush! </h1>
NBA Media invites the general managers of 30 teams to conduct a questionnaire survey every year. One of the questions is which player in the league you'd like to choose as the cornerstone of your team, and the first choices for the past five years are:
In 2015, Anthony Davis, 86% of the vote
In 2016, Downs, 48% of the vote
In 2017, Towns, 29% of the vote
In 2018, Alphabet Brother, 30% of the votes
In 2019, Alphabet Brother, 86% of the votes
Downs has been collectively optimistic about the NBA teams after the rookie season (2015-2016), but now the thick eyebrows in front of him have held the championship and played a season of dominant playoff performance, and the alphabet brother is even the MVP, which is the biggest potential stock in the NBA at present, and Downs? Except for two All-Stars, only one was eliminated in the first round.
He is probably the "data brush" of the current NBA inner line second only to Drummond.
He averaged 22.7 points and 11.8 rebounds per game in five seasons of his career, and is one of the 16 "20+10" interior machos in NBA history.
He ranks tenth in NBA history with a career efficiency score of 25.1, with Harden, Abdul-Jabbar, Duncan and Curry all behind him.
He is the youngest season 25+10 achiever in NBA history (2016-17, 25.1 points, 12.3 rebounds)
Judging from the data of the first five seasons of his career, he is an inside giant at the same level as Duncan and O'Neal, and he is almost the most outstanding three-point inner star in the NBA. But is he really like that in the game?
In fact, Towns is more like a basketball god who first made a small forward who attacked strong and defended weakly when "pinching people", and then accidentally stretched ten centimeters.
Offensively, he would not turn his back, and the scene where he resisted Cousins but did not move was ridiculed for a long time, and even he could not eat Gallinari, who was ten centimeters shorter and weighed not much less.
He's obsessed with projection, having made 58 percent of his 622 shots last season on jump shots, which is number one of all NBA interior shooters with more than 500 shots. As Garnett's heir, he did not learn the bloodiness and fierceness of the "Wolf King", but perfectly inherited the attributes of "Jump shot Pretty Boy".
He is the most determined player in the NBA center to perform the "magic ball play", but as a center, he shot only 44 times less than he shot in the box (195Vs239) outside the three-point line.
Although his outside-based playing style makes his real shooting percentage, offensive contribution value and other high-level data quite beautiful, it cannot be used as the core of the team, and his tactical position on the offensive end of the team is even inferior to Wiggins, who plays with a thermos cup.
If on the offensive end he is only a problem of playing that cannot become the axis of the team, but the data is still gratifying, then the performance on the defensive end can almost be described as "disaster".
His judgment and movement of the blocking defense is almost at the level of O'Neal in his later years, and as a center known for his technical versatility and movement, almost any blocking and dismantling on the defensive end can fool the young Wolf King.
In the first round of the 2017-18 playoffs, facing the Rockets against Capela, as the core of the team, Towns could only get 15.2 points and 13.4 rebounds in the entire series, while on the defensive end, he was teased by Harden and Paul's blocking, while Capela, who was at most the team's third person, was able to grab 15.8 points and 14.2 rebounds, and the Timberwolves were almost desperately eliminated by the Rockets in five innings.
As a center, his weight and ability to protect the basket are also unable to support him as the patron saint of the team's penalty area, and his back-beating by Joo Teacher's military training is in stark contrast to his own incompetent back attack. And also as the top interior line of the new era, thick-browEd Anthony Davis scored a high of 50 points in a single game for the Lakers.
But is Downs to blame for all this? In fact, the strange management of the Timberwolves is the "ultimate culprit" who caused all this.
<h1>Second, the "husky" management - all the jokes you can think of, you can see here</h1>
(1) Yin-Yang contract, the laughing stock of history
In 1998, in order to retain another star forward on the team, Joe Smith in '95, the Timberwolves created the most famous "salary cap scandal" in NBA history. At that time, the Timberwolves signed a pseudo-contract with Smith that was well below the market price ($1.75 million for 2 years), and then secretly promised Smith a long-term top salary contract ($86 million for 7 years) two years later. As a result, this matter was officially discovered by the NBA, the Timberwolves were severely punished, deprived of the first round of the draft for the next 5 seasons plus a high fine, and Joe Smith was also ordered to suspend the contract to become a free man, and Garnett became the real lone wolf king.
(2) Buy high and sell low, alliance philanthropist
In the case of the most famous recent deal, the Timberwolves traded Jimmy Butler with new stars LaVine and Dunn plus a first-round pick (later picked Markkanen). It took almost three future stars of the team to get this powerful cadre in hand. However, Butler asked for a trade because he was dissatisfied with the team's "mixed world" atmosphere for only one season, and the Timberwolves sent him to 76 to only Covington and Saric, and the team's results plummeted. Last season, the Timberwolves used Covington's multi-party relegation to exchange malik Beasley, whose contract is about to expire, and is clearly the candidate who can be won in the free market this offseason.
In a series of unscheduled trades, the Timberwolves have repeatedly relegated their lineups. Then they could only hold the thighs of Towns Wiggins (now Russell), and then use their humiliating results to continue to survive in the draft, and this year they were replaced by the unlucky egg they looked up to edwards.
(3) Conniving with rookies will eventually hurt Zhongyong
It seems that the Timberwolves management has been hallucinated by Garnett's 12 years of loyal protection and efficient output, believing that as long as enough money is given, the stars can naturally go to the soup for themselves, and it is incumbent on them. But not all players put everything on basketball like the wolf king once did.
Wiggins joined the league wearing the title of "LeBron Second", and his amazing talent has long been known to the world. The rookie year of 16.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists can not be compared with the historical sages, but it is also the best rookie in the average year.
The Timberwolves also let Wiggins' personal development go with the attitude that you are happy, so Wiggins is usually 20 points after punching in and out of work every season, occasionally contributing a few highlight performances that show talent, and then continue to start his own health play. Every year Wiggins's data is high or low, no one doubts his talent and potential, but he never gets the results and affirmations corresponding to his talent.
But the Timberwolves did not care, the rookie contract expired as soon as the 4-year 132 million maximum salary contract was offered, giving him the confidence to continue to mix for four years.
In timberwolves, money is so good to earn! To what extent did Wiggins' actions affect the later Towns, Lavin, and Dunn?
<h1>Third, the new season outlook - can talent really do everything? </h1>
Watching the Timberwolves before each season gives people a feeling of "they must do it this year", and this year is no exception.
Towns + Russell, the young all-star combination, not only has a good relationship, but also the combination of defenders + centers is also the most likely position combination to produce results. Coupled with edwards, the university's killer last year's No. 5 show Kulfer, the returning old minister "Golden Boy" Rubio, the high-priced Marik Bisley, the Timberwolves' outside strength in the West is also a playoff level. The interior line, as well as Hernangomez and Ed Davis as a bodyguard for Downs, is a potential stock with a full internal and external line.
But this year, they still have a high probability of not being able to recover the identity of the western fish belly.
Their coach is still the son of the team's meritorious coach Sanders, 35-year-old Sanders Jr., the youngest head coach in the NBA. A man of his own who has no professional coaching experience and grew up almost as a child in the Timberwolves, his main task is to carry the pot and make young stars like Towns happy.
Both Russell and Towns are able to play all-star on the offensive end, but they need "net red" superstars with "nannies" at the bottom of the defensive end. They have the ability to contribute beautiful numbers, but it doesn't seem so easy to make the West back to the playoffs in this year's fully upgraded West.
Of course, the most unfortunate thing is Edwards, in front of him, there are two unreliable predecessors who are not much older than him who firmly occupy the ball and shooting opportunities, and are in a fish-belly team with little team culture and a level of management that makes people anxious. Even if he has the ambition to change the world and the ability to reach the world, it is too difficult to make a name for himself in such a timber wolf.
If only Garnett had quickly formed a group to buy the team.