We did it, guys! In a few short hours, the Minnesota Timberwolves will be playing professional, regular-season basketball again, and I couldn’t be more excited. To get us all set to kick off, let’s finish off our roster rankings (15-11 can be found here and 10-6 here) by rounding out the top five.
5. Shabazz Muhammad – SF/PF – 23 years old
“What? Shabazz Muhammad, who lied about his age in college and has never averaged more than 23 minutes a game, a top 5 player on a playoff-hopeful? Pshaaw!” I hear your griping, and guess what? I don’t care! Shabazz has been the forgotten man during this recent period of enhanced expectations, but he has all the tools to take the Wolves over the top. Everyone knows that the Wolves have a dynamite starting unit, but they can’t do it alone. Without a crack sixth man to keep things steady and get buckets when the starters rest, winning gets infinitely harder in the playoffs. Luckily, the Wolves have a guy who is built for getting buckets: a 6’6 wrecking ball who loves bullying defenders in the post, splashing threes, and soaring for breakaway jams. If he can tap into his defensive gifts, he will make for a potent secondary unit with Dunn, Bjelica, Rush and Aldrich.
4. Zach LaVine – SG/PG (just kidding!) – 21 years old
Could this be the season that we move past wondering if LaVine would be best as a bench player? There’s only one man who can answer that, and he happens to be the bounciest baller since Robin Williams tampered with a high-school game by exposing players to untested performance enhancing goo. If this team is going to take the step so many expect them to, LaVine will need his post-All Star Break shooting trends (16.4 points on 43.7% three point shooting) to become the norm, in addition to continuing to improve as a defender and, equally importantly, a set-up man. I’ve given up on LaVine as the second-unit PG, but he needs to be a secondary facilitator, especially when Rubio goes to the bench. 18 points per game is optimistic but not unreasonable for the youngster.
3. Ricky Rubio – PG – 26 years old
El Toreador is the most important non-#1 pick on this team’s roster, regardless of what anyone says about Kris Dunn. Rubio has averaged a double-double per 36 minutes for the last season, while also kicking in upwards of five boards and two steals. He’s arguably the best defender on a team with Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns and while his On/Off numbers may be skewed by just how terrible his replacements have been in recent years, they do a great job illustrating the effect that Rubio has on such a young team. Not to be overlooked is how effective he is on the defensive end, as a non-athlete covering some of the best athletes playing the deepest position in the league. For all the talk of Dunn as a defender, the kind of intrinsic defensive ability that Rubio possesses takes years in the league to develop, if it ever does. If we’re serious about wanting this team in the playoffs this year, I don’t see any way the Wolves can afford to give up Rubio without getting something big back.
2. Andrew Wiggins – SF/SG – 21 years old
Wiggins’ time may be upon us. For someone who was completely cold-shouldered by the team who drafted him, things couldn’t have gone much better for Ender. He got a season of being the man, taking as many shots as he wanted, then was gifted the best big man prospect outside of Anthony Davis that we’ve seen in years, and finally was given a coach who has made a living turning players worse than Wiggins into the exact kind of player we want Wiggins becoming. His flaws are well-documented, as are his strengths, so let’s just say if Wiggins can make steady improvements to his rebounding, defense, and passing over the next couple years, I’ll be a happy panda.
1. Karl-Anthony Towns – PF/C – 20 years old
As most of us have discovered by now, it’s KAT’s world, and we are all here to serve as witness. The kid had one of the best rookie seasons of all time, and doesn’t seem to have any holes in his game. Literally the biggest danger to him right now (other than falling icicles in the Minnesota winter) is the hype running too far for him to catch. And honestly, even that seems unlikely. This seems like one of those rare times where the extraordinary hype is entirely justified. I can’t wait to see him be an All-Star before 23.
That concludes our player rankings. Now let’s basketball! First up: The Memphis Grizzlies. Suckers don’t know what they’re getting themselves into.
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