Howling Loud in Minnesota

Can the Timberwolves make a surprise run at the playoffs.

“Playoffs?!?!?! Don’t talk to me about playoffs!!!” was my friend Kyle’s response (in his best Jim Mora voice. It was awful) when I asked if his hometown team could make the playoffs this year. But I was dead serious asking him that question after Minnesota narrowly lost to the Miami Heat in Minnesota right before the New Year.

This is a team loaded with talent with the likes of Kevin Love inside controlling the boards, yet again, with a 15 rpg average to go with 25 points. The Spanish sensation Ricky Rubio dishing out nearly 8 highlight and textbook assists a night to his young, athletic teammates like Michael Beasley, Anthony Randolph, Wesley Johnson, and first round pick Derrick Williams this is a very dangerous up and coming team.

The most significant acquisition for this young team may be the hiring of head coach Rick Adelman who has led teams to the playoffs 16 times over a 20-year coaching career. Adelman had successful stints with Portland, guiding them to NBA Finals appearances in 1990 and 1993, the early 2000 Sacramento Kings and most recently with the Rockets. It is Adelman’s offensive acumen that makes him perfect for this Timberwolves team that is loaded with swingmen and forwards that can move without the ball and run the floor- two of Adelman’s key components to an efficient offense. The T-Wolves hoped that the pairing of Adelman would finally lead to coaching stability it had sorely lacked over the last few years.

With the T-Wolves 3-5 record, their lack of recent success, and sitting in last place in a very tough Northwest division I could see why my friend would not respond well to my playoffs question. But in this truncated NBA season when it is a sprint to the playoffs instead of the grind of a full season wouldn’t the Wolves have a sneaky chance of catching fire and making a late season push for the playoffs? Yes, and here is why.

With the NBA lockout this young team did not have the standard time to learn a new offense and gel as a team that it normally would. This team will learn Adelman’s offense on the fly and with enough in game reps and practices you will see this young team start to space the floor and move without the ball in a more fluid and effective manner. With Adelman’s track record and his ability to produce offensively proficient teams, as evidenced by his prior teams, it will only be a matter of time before this team hits the ground and hits the ground running.

Ricky Rubio loves to pass the ball. Ricky Rubio loves to make his teammates better. Ricky Rubio will have the same polarizing affect as the season wears on as Tim Tebow. Okay, maybe not that high, but the media will, if they haven’t already, fall in love with this kid. He is Steve Nash 2.0 passing wise, not shooting wise, in that he can see the play before it is there and can make difficult, tough angle passes look quite simple. And his teammates love him for that. Passing and sharing the ball is contagious (Are you listening Sacramento) and that is why Rubio is a perfect fit for Adelman’s office in that he will get people the ball where they need it to be, when they need it to be there.

Kevin Love and his weight loss. The NBA lockout was kind to Kevin Love who took advantage of the down time to work on slimming down his body and getting in better shape. It is hard to believe that a guy who led the league in rebounds and was a double double machine last season would not feel his body of work (pun totally intended) needed an overhaul. It is that type of commitment and dedication that Minnesota sorely lacked and has not had since the departure of Kevin Garnett. That type of work ethic is what Bull’s teammates take note of with MVP Derrick Rose and fall in line with. I believe that Kevin Love’s work ethic will eventually rub off on these young wolves in the form of a hard charging playoff run.

It is early in the season, but the T-Wolves are already a must watch team with their young and exciting talent. If they can develop that young talent into wins over the next couple of months then the T-Wolves will be a very dangerous team, on par with last years Grizzlies, that will once again give the fans of Minnesota something to howl about.