The Olympics are in the rearview mirror and NBA teams are beginning to prepare for training camps. We shift our focus to a Timberwolves team who sent the basketball world into a frenzy with a shock All-Star-for-All-Star September swing. In these previews, we will take a look at each team’s key acquisitions, fantasy stars, and predicted finish.
Key Acquisitions
In perhaps the most consequential move of the summer, Minnesota agreed to send Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks in exchange for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, Keita Bates-Diop and a future first.
The trade caught the NBA world by surprise and, with things having now marinated for several days, pundits are becoming more comfortable firing off takes.
Towns was a casualty of the restrictions brought on by the league’s new collective bargaining agreement with Minnesota now basking in some added flexibility as a result of the deal.
They add Randle – a player who has been an All-Star in three of the past four seasons – and DiVincenzo – who is coming off a 13-game playoff run in which he averaged 17.8 ppg shooting 42.5% on over eight nightly threes – to a core of Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert, Naz Reid, Jaden McDaniels and Mike Conley.
Randle is a polarising individual on- and off-court with his isolation-heavy offence, up-and-down three-point shooting, questionable decision-making and inconsistent defensive effort all frustrating hallmarks of his game.
The soon-to-be 30-year-old does however possess a valuable ability to create for himself and others thanks to his strength as a driver and willingness as a passer.
His effectiveness in Minnesota will be determined by his desire to buy into Chris Finch’s vision and his success from deep – he has attempted over five threes per night the past four seasons, but his percentages have constantly gone through peaks and valleys.
DiVincenzo will prove a superb pick-up for the Wolves should his three-point shooting mirror what he showed a year ago – only he, Stephen Curry, and C.J. McCollum shot over 40% from deep on eight or more attempts per game.
They also traded up to draft Kentucky guard Rob Dillingham with the eighth pick in the draft.
Dillingham is small at just 6-foot-1 and 164 lbs but proved to be a microwave scorer in his one year as a Wildcat averaging 15.2 ppg and shooting 44.4% on 4.5 threes per game.
He had a 35-point game versus Tennessee in February in which he hit on 14 of his 20 field goal attempts and six of his eight threes as well as 27-point, 7-assist game against Texas A&M the following month.
Fantasy Stars
Edwards (11th overall, 3rd SG/1st SF) has been handed to keys to franchise and is fresh off a year in which he averaged 25.9 ppg, 5.4 rpg, and 5.1 apg en route to an All-NBA 2nd Team nod.
Gobert (42nd overall, 15th C) is coming off a year in which he 14.0 ppg, 12.9 rpg, and 2.1 bpg and claimed the fourth Defensive Player of the Year Award of his career.
Projected Finish
The Timberwolves won 56 games a year ago to notch the West’s No.3 seed and should hover around a similar mark.
The effects of the Towns trade remain to be seen, but the additions of Randle, DiVincenzo, and Dillingham make them a deeper team.
They were the league’s best defence a year ago and should have little issue replicating that success even if the Towns-for-Randle swap makes them a smaller team.
