Minnesota Timberwolves Begin New Year Amidst Skid, Consider Lineup Change

The Gopher State Timberwolves lost 6 games inward the row, but move into 2023 with a specific goal to remainder their losing run and regain hold in the endorsement half of the season.

With a 16-21 record, the Timberwolves are inward 11th place inward the Western Conference standings. If the harden ended today, they would bubble the Play-In Tournament and miss the postseason.

The Timberwolves began this time of year with richly expectations after they qualified for the playoffs lowest flavour through and through the 2022 Play-In Tournament. The team up thought they made a Brobdingnagian jump frontward after getting heart Rudy Gobert inward a megahit swop with the Mormon State Jazz. They were single of the preseason favorites to win the Northwest Division, but they’re at present in quaternary put and trailing the first-class honours degree localize capital of Colorado Nuggets by 8.5 games.

The gain of Gobert did not thrust them to the top side of the stacked horse opera Conference. The team struggled inwards the firstly billet of the season, and things got fifty-fifty worsened when leading scorer Karl-Anthony Towns suffered a right on sura injury inwards late November.

The Timberwolves are 6-10 since Towns went cut down against the Mile-High City Nuggets. They hope he canful takings to the team sooner than later, but he’s expected to miss a couple to a greater extent weeks.

The Timberwolves were a pop pluck this preseason to win the 2022-23 NBA title at +3500 odds. They slipped to +7000 betting odds after Towns’ injury. During their recent losing streak, the Timberwolves saw their form of address betting odds tumble to +18000.

Frustrated Timberwolves Call Players’ Only Meeting

The Timberwolves suffered an mortifying deprivation to the Motown Pistons on New Years’ Eve. The Pistons are in cobbler's last come out inward the Eastern Conference, and the Timberwolves failed to beat i of the rack up teams inward the NBA. The ugly red ink extended their losing run to VI games, which prompted frustrated veterans to call off a players’ only if meeting.

I finger like we can modification this,” said vet freehanded man Naz Reid. “We live we tin alter it. So, we simply got to buy into the things that we know.”

“We’ve got 2 options,” said Gobert. “We put up sit around indorse and finger sorry for ourselves or we canful simply look forwards and see that it’s allay a long season and we’ve got a lot of time left if we hold that mindset of just keep getting better.”

Shooting ward Susan B. Anthony Edwards, the #1 pluck from the 2020 NBA Draft, picked upward the scoring slack for Towns. Jonathan Edwards leads the squad averaging a career-high 23.9 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game. The relaxation of the team up has struggled offensively, especially 3-point shooting, and the bench unit has been inconsistent.

The Gobert switch looks similar a bust. The former Defensive Player of the Year and teetotum rim protector inward the NBA has not looked similar his dominant self. His stats are shoot down crossways the room this season. In 31 games, Gobert averages 13.6 points, 11.9 rebounds, and 1.3 city block per game.

Chris Finch Ponders Shuffling Lineup

The Timberwolves were the highest-scoring team up inward the NBA utmost twelvemonth averaging nearly 116 points per game, which made them must-see TV with their high-octane offense.

The conference saw an offensive flourish this season with vii teams scoring more than 116 points per mettlesome on a every night basis. The Timberwolves only intermediate 114.4 points per spunky this season, and they’re #15 ranked scoring offence versus #1 utmost year. They’re not share-out the orb as much, especially with Towns sidelined the endure 16 games.

The Timberwolves make been particularly frightening inwards the thirdly quarter this season. It’s a polar clip in games when winning teams inking pad their lead, or trailing teams hunker downwardly on defense and cut their deficit. In the pillow slip of the Timberwolves, the tertiary canton is when they typically commence digging their own graves with poor shot and poriferous defense.

Finch considered shuffling his starting lineup, or changing his bench revolution to sparkle the Timberwolves and remnant their losing streak.

Maybe I need to reckon differently nearly who plays when and how,” Finch told reporters after the red to the Pistons. “Maybe I’ve just now got to make it up totally different.”

Point guard D’Angelo Henry Russell was an of import constituent of last-place season’s turnaround time as the team’s third-best scorer behind Towns and Edwards. Russell’s inconsistency has been an government issue this season, but he’s struggled to chance his groove. He’s averaging 17.1 points per game, but it’s his whip yr in sise seasons.

Finch would’ve benched Ken Russell already, but backup head safety device Jordan River McLaughlin is nursing a calf strain.

Finch could promote Jaylen Nowell to the starting cinque regular though he’s a shot guard. Nowell anchors the indorse unit averaging 11.5 points per game, but he’s struggling from 3-point array with a 30% success rate.