Pre-All Star Break Timberwolves Update

I am writing this update to summarize the Timberwolves progression throughout the first three fourths of the season.

Overall the Wolves started off really well! In fact they were the surprise of the NBA for the first month. However it didn't take long for the Wolves to slap us fans back into reality that our team isn't as good as their record suggested. That spark that was there at the beginning got lost somewhere between the trade deadline the beginning of the season. 
Just weeks before the All-Star break, many fans could tell this team just did not have any drive anymore to win. The Wolves were headed for another drought just like back in November. They ended up capping that last losing streak  at 13-games. More on that later.

The good news, however, was that Andrew Wiggins seemed to be somehow getting better as the season went on. He wasn't always the shooting hog we are all used to, he was becoming a shooting cog. He had many nights where he approached a double-double. His 3-point game was getting better as well. After all he does lead the Timberwolves in scoring all-time. But nevertheless even though Wiggins was making progress it didn't mean the rest of the team was benefiting from it at all. They looked like they were just running through the motions. On top of that KAT was dealing with lots of injuries. It was a very ugly time to be a Wolves fan. 

Then towards the beginning of February, rumors were circling that the Wolves front office was pushing hard to acquire PG D'Angelo Russell from the Warriors. However the Warriors reportedly wouldn't budge from their asking price that at least included a 1st round pick from this year's draft. This was the line in the sand by Timberwolves GM Gersson Rosas. He was determined to find a way to bring Russell to Minnesota in a way that didn't include the coveted protected 1st round pick for this year's draft. Finally a proposal was made that included Robert Covington and Andrew Wiggins. This was not good enough for the Warriors. So Rosas did another surprising move and traded multiple players away, including Covington, to Houston, Denver, and Atlanta. This brought in multiple players with high hopes including Malik Beasley and Juerran Hermangomez. It also brought in another 1st round pick from this year's draft.
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While everyone else in the world thought the Wolves were done trading, Rosas pulled off another trade. This time it was with the Golden State Warriors as they finally caved and sent Russell to Minnesota in exchange for Andrew Wiggins, a 1st round protected pick from the 2021 and a 2nd rounder from the same year.

Minnesota fans welcomed Russell with open arms, including his best friend Karl-Anthony Towns. The Wolves then played 3 more games with this new core before the All-Star break. The first night, the Wolves went without their biggest addition and shocked the Los Angeles Clippers in at Target Center. This also included a franchise record 26 3-PTM. This was only 1 shy of the NBA all-time record! This set expectations high for the last 2 games before the break. The new-look Wolves went into Toronto and nearly shocked the high-flying Raptors on their home floor. While they ended up losing by 11, the game didn't not go that way. They kept up with Toronto for most of the game. This was also Russell's Wolves debut. Then the Wolves returned to Target Center to play the lowly Charlotte Hornets. While KAT was out with injury this game the Russell-led Wolves were able to hold a significant lead until the 4th quarter. After that they ran into trouble and ended up losing miserably by 7.

But despite this I think these new Wolves look to be like a great group looking forward and have restored my thirst for Wolves basketball again. Look for my updates on Twitter, as I am sure I will be posting something during the games.

​Go Wolves!