Minnesota's Starters Are Becoming A Death Lineup

The Minnesota Timberwolves traded their future for Rudy Gobert during the offseason for one reason, to scare the hell out of other teams and overpower them with talent in every game. Adding Gobert to a starting lineup that featured Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, D'Angelo Russell, and Jaden McDaniels was supposed to be the last infinity stone in Chris Finch’s gauntlet to finally take over the Western Conference.

Instead, the starters struggled out of the gate. Gobert and Towns couldn’t find a rhythm on the court together, and the bench largely outplayed the starting lineup over the first month of the season. Through the first 13 games of the season, the Wolves were a disappointing 5-8, largely because of the disinterest of the talented starters.

When Edwards, Gobert, Russell, Towns, and McDaniels were on the floor, the Wolves couldn’t put the ball in the basket. They scored only 100.9 points per 100 possessions giving the starters a net rating of minus-5.8 in 163 minutes played together. When the season began, everyone gave the Wolves the same out, saying something along the lines of “it’s going to take at least 20 games for this team to figure things out.” We all were ready to give them a grace period to learn how to play together, but nobody expected this starting lineup to play like the 5-14 Charlotte Hornets. 

It may be the team finally learning to play together, catching a bunch of mediocre teams missing their best players, or someone taking the lid off the rim. Regardless, the Wolves are on a five-game win streak, and the starters are finally playing like the death lineup we all hoped they would morph into this year.

The Wolves starters’ offensive rating is a scorching 124.7 during their five-game win streak against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat, and Indiana Pacers. They’re outscoring their opponents by 22.3 points per 100 possessions, which would be the best offense in the league by six points per 100 possessions. We can all rejoice that the Wolves have seemingly re-learned how to shoot the basketball. During the win streak, the starters are shooting an impressive 58 percent from the field and 38 percent from three.

It’s reminiscent of Minnesota’s starting lineup last season that somewhat surprisingly dominated other teams with a plus-12.8 net rating, with Towns, Russell, and Edwards playing with Patrick Beverley and Jarred Vanderbilt. Wolves fans have been pinning for the days of old, or at least last year, when the less talented lineup played with a ton of heart and dominated on grit and determination.

This year’s squad has been a disappointment at times. They've occasionally gone through the motions and expected less talented teams to roll over for them, and they lost a few games they should have won. The fans have let the team know how they feel, and wherever you fall on the fans booing debate, the team has largely fallen short of expectations. Edwards hasn’t played with the same exuberance and bounce that the 21-year-old has become famous for. KAT started the season where he left off in the playoffs. And Russell looked like he wasn’t vying for a new max contract.

It looked like the mid-market Wolves had sold their soul and gone corporate to chase home-court advantage in the playoffs. Over the last five games, the switch may have finally been flipped on this season. Maybe it was getting spanked on ESPN by the hated Memphis Grizzlies; maybe it was the losing. Perhaps the booing fans kickstarted the turnaround. Regardless, they’re beginning to look like the Timberwolves that play with a chip on their shoulder again.

Edwards didn’t have a dunk through his first eight games, but he's back to being a regular highlight factory. In year eight, Towns is finally hitting his next evolution as a sharpshooting point forward, and McDaniels is making the third-year leap before our eyes. It’s heartening to see the best players on the team finally take it upon themselves to will this team to a winning record and the 8th seed in the West instead of Micah Nori negging them in the halftime interview.

Things are starting to move in the right direction, but as Timberwolves fans know all too well, a five-game win streak can turn into a double-digit losing streak and another lost season in a hurry. If you would have said at the beginning of the season that this team would be 10-8 at Thanksgiving with a top-ten defense, I think most Wolves fans would be pretty happy with that. Now that the starters have had a month to get to know each other, it’s time to knock things into 12th gear and take this team from a play-in team to a home-court hopeful.