MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES
Recap Rewind: Minnesota’s dismal season mercifully came to an end on April 18th following seven straight losses. It will go down as another waste of a marvelous Kevin Garnett effort. He finished averaging 22 points, 13 rebounds, and 4 assists. Adding insult to injury they lost a lottery coin flip to the Portland Trailblazers, with whom they were tied, and they will now pick behind Portland unless they get lucky and move up to the top three.
Playoff Prospects: You should never, ever count a Kevin Garnett team completely out of a playoff chase. With a few better breaks the Timberwolves could have been in the end-season hunt for that last spot. But unless the do get one of the top two picks this year it’s hard to see where they’d make a serious run at it soon. This is doubly true if Garnett forces a trade in the off-season. No matter who they get in return it won’t be equal value, and without KG it will be years before this team is heard from again.
Questions for Next Season: Garnett is obviously the biggest one. He has a player option in 2008-09. If he threatens to use it and walk away leaving the Timberwolves without compensation they’ll almost have to move him. Everything they are right now depends on his presence. You can’t even speculate what the team would look like without him. Assuming he does stay, the huge issue facing the ‘Wolves is surrounding him with consistent, reputable talent. Ricky Davis was the team’s second leading scorer at 17 points per game but he is incredibly inconsistent and unhelpful. They really have to move him if they can find a taker for the last year of his contract and get some talent in return. Mark Blount is decent, but not much more. Rookie Randy Foye looks promising but he’s young. Recently-signed point guard Mike James was a near-complete bust this year. Minnesota doesn’t have to assemble all-world talent to be competitive, but they at least need a couple guys who can show up night in and night out. Big names, unknowns, younger guys, veterans…it almost doesn’t matter at this point. They just need somebody besides Garnett to rely on. If they have to give up talent or draft picks to get those kind of players so be it. Otherwise it’s more of the slow shuffle to obscurity.