All Things 2023-2024 Minnesota Timberwolves In-Season Thread

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The Warriors are trying to hold on to their past. The Timberwolves are trying to bury theirs.

When Towns went down with a knee injury on March 4 and the Wolves slipped out of the top spot in the West, the psychosis that comes from advancing out of the first round in the playoffs one time in 35 years started to whisper in the ears of their long-tortured fans.

When the Wolves opened Sunday’s game with eight turnovers in the first eight minutes of the game and fell behind by 12 in the first half, the volume of those whispers increased. But that’s what it takes to wake them up this season..

For years, the Wolves have been chasing these Warriors. They’ve been beaten by them, ridiculed by them and mocked by them. The Warriors rolled like that because they could. They have won four championships since 2015. The Wolves have won just four playoff games in the same span.

These Wolves are no joke. Now they are the ones expecting to make a deep playoff run while the Warriors are just trying to hold on to a Play-In spot. Curry scored 31 points on Sunday, but he only played 29 minutes in the game.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr said they were trying to conserve his minutes at the beginning of a stretch of five games in eight days, all on the road. There was a time when Curry would have played 38 minutes against a very good Western Conference team as the Warriors chased a much-needed win. But at 36 years old, the Warriors are more careful with Curry and less capable of covering for him when he sits.

Minnesota (49-22) is just one game behind Denver (50-21) for the No. 1 seed in the conference with Oklahoma City (49-21) sandwiched between. The Wolves defense is the best in the league and their offense is showing signs of coming together even while KAT recovers from his torn meniscus.

“For the most part, I think we’ve made leaps and bounds in gains of what we used to be,” said Conley, who finished with 14 points, seven assists and four steals. “We’ve just got to continue to be able to mature as a team to understand time and score, not turn it over late, which we did a great job of tonight.”

If the Timberwolves keep progressing like this and get Towns back healthy early on in the playoffs, the All-Star Game won’t be the only time this season that Green is watching and talking while they are playing on the court.
theathletic.com

Hey Draymond Green, these aren't the same old Timberwolves anymore

The Warriors are trying to hold on to their past. The Timberwolves are trying to bury theirs.
theathletic.com theathletic.com
 


Breakin' The Plane said:
Phoenix is at OKC and Denver this week. There's still lots of ways this can shake out, but I don't feel great about the Wolves against the Kings or Mavs either. What's the best-case scenario, even if they get up to the #1 seed? Taking on the Lakers/Warriors? Makes me nervous too.
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This is why I don't even care too much about seeding at this point. We won't even know who we will be playing until the last game of the season is done since it's such a mess at 1-3 and 5-8. Yeah, home court is great but against all these teams it will play a minor role for any team in the west.
 

kg21 said:
this is why they can trade Towns this offseason for a damn good haul.......and not skip much of a beat. We need to see how we look in the playoffs first.
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What would be a targeted haul? We need a PG obviously but have multiple core guys locked up decently long term. Thinking just bench spots? Draft picks?
 



TruthSeeker said:
PG. Conley will move to a 15-20 minute per game role.
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PG for sure, remember, Ant and McDaniels are only like 22 years old.

I've always thought another forward that can score and moves the feet better, also.

Keep Naz coming off the bench.

Teams expose our point guards defensively. Imagine a point guard that can put up Conley's points and can play tougher defense.
 

kg21 said:
this is why they can trade Towns this offseason for a damn good haul.......and not skip much of a beat. We need to see how we look in the playoffs first.
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With the new CBA plus Towns' $50M salary plus a lot of wear and tear (Thibs way overplayed him), the market for him will be a lot weaker than you think. The days of huge hauls for players like Gobert, KD, et. al. are over.

Enjoy the high flying, young Ant while we have him. The beating that he takes every single game will have consequences five years from now. Today's NBA is almost the NFL without pads.
 

tmvander said:
What would be a targeted haul? We need a PG obviously but have multiple core guys locked up decently long term. Thinking just bench spots? Draft picks?
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Getting a PG would be ideal like Garland from CLE. Four (4) months ago, most people thought that we'd have to add value with KAT to land Bridges from the Nets. Its probably the Nets that would need to add value now.

Any trade for KAT would have to include at least one (1) high-level "win now" player along with Picks/prospects IMO.
 



Suns and Clippers lost last night. Golden State and Miami, Lakers at the Bucks, OKC plays at NO and Dallas is out at Sacramento. Means there will be some movement in the Western Conference Conference tonight.

The Clippers, the darlings of the NBA in December and January are only 2 games above having to play in the play-in tournament.

www.espn.com

NBA Standings - 2023-24 season - ESPN

Visit ESPN for the complete 2023-24 NBA season standings. Includes league, conference and division standings for regular season and playoffs.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 



Timberwolves over the Detroit Pistons. That there 50th win of the season.

The Timberwolves beat the Pistons 106-91 tonight at Target Center and became the fastest team in franchise history to 50 regular season wins.
 



gophersfan said:
Timberwolves over the Detroit Pistons. That there 50th win of the season.

The Timberwolves beat the Pistons 106-91 tonight at Target Center and became the fastest team in franchise history to 50 regular season wins.
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Won after a terrible 1st Half and with Edwards playing pretty badly too. Reid, also was off to a very slow start but ended-up leading the team in scoring. Naz, McDaniels, Gobert and Anderson keyed this win.

Now gonna watch some of the Suns/Denver game. The Wolves play out in Denver on the 29th.

www.espn.com

Timberwolves 106-91 Pistons (Mar 27, 2024) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Detroit Pistons NBA game from March 27, 2024 on ESPN. Includes all points, rebounds and steals stats.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
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Iceland12 said:
Won after a terrible 1st Half and with Edwards playing pretty badly too. Reid, also was off to a very slow start but ended-up leading the team in scoring. Naz, McDaniels, Gobert and Anderson keyed this win.

Now gonna watch some of the Suns/Denver game. The Wolves play out in Denver Thursday night.

www.espn.com

Timberwolves 106-91 Pistons (Mar 27, 2024) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Detroit Pistons NBA game from March 27, 2024 on ESPN. Includes all points, rebounds and steals stats.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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Denver game is Friday night.
 




Rockets have won 10 in a row and 12 of 13.

They are building something in Houston.
 

Denver Nuggets 51-22 are in first place in the West. Half a game ahead of the Wolves and OKC who are both 50-22.

Interestingly enough, they are also the only teams in the West with 50 or more wins. Only the Celtics in the East are above 50.

Tomorrow night the Wolves are out in Denver and OKC hosts Phoenix.
 

Looking at remaining schedules I think the Wolves can finish the season ahead of OKC but Denver will be hard to jump.
 



Hey, the Timberwolves (50-22) are still playing!

Tonight at 8:00 they are out in Denver. The Nuggets (51-22) are a half game ahead of them in the West.

OKC, who is also a half game back, hosts the Suns at 7:00.
 

Kendrick Perkins on the Minnesota Timberwolves:

"I would tell everybody to watch the Minnesota Timberwolves play defense..They're on your ass like back pockets"
 

Guessing that Murray, Jokic, Edwards and Gobert will make miraculous recoveries by game time. Clark and Nnaji not so much.

i
Minnesota Timberwolves

NAME, POSSTATUSEST. RETURN DATE
Anthony Edwards
SG		GTDMar 29
Rudy Gobert
C		GTDMar 29
Jaylen Clark
G		OUTMar 31

i
Denver Nuggets

NAME, POSSTATUSEST. RETURN DATE
Zeke Nnaji
PF		OUTMar 31
Nikola Jokic
C		GTDMar 29
Jamal Murray
PG		GTDMar 29
 





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