The Timberwolves were struggling through a difficult 2019/20 season even before the coronavirus pandemic caused the entire league to postpone play indefinitely, writes The Star Tribune’s Sid Hartman.
The Wolves’ average home attendance count of 15,066 placed them last in the NBA. Their 19-47 record put them at No. 14 in the Western Conference. After the team made a series of deadline trades, including the transaction that moved swing man Andrew Wiggins‘ contract to the Warriors in exchange for point guard D’Angelo Russell, president of basketball operations Gerson Rosas stressed the importance of game play for building chemistry for the new-look Wolves.
“Those [remaining] games are critically important to us,” Rosas said. “I’ve said it from the beginning, this year is about building identity. It’s building chemistry, building habits, and it is painful. These first 50 games, it was painful to go through the growing pains.” The truncation of the team’s final 18 games impeded that.
There’s more out of the Northwest Division:
- Jazz wing Joe Ingles, who tested negative for COVID-19, notes that he’d be willing to walk away from the NBA if he needed to do so to protect his three-year-old son Jacob, who is more at risk due to his autism, per The Athletic’s Sam Amick. “If you had to tell me that you could never play again to protect Jacob from this,” Ingles said, “I would walk away, fly to Australia and never play another game in my life and be very content with it.”
- Second-year Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons has shown flashes of promise, but had been frustrated by his own lack of progress during the 2019/20 season, according to Jason Quick of The Athletic. The Blazers are still excited about the athletic swingman’s potential.
- The Thunder face an uncertain future in light of the impact the coronavirus pandemic could have on next season’s salary cap, the Oklahoman’s Joe Mussatto reports. Though Oklahoma City only has $105.5MM committed in salaries next year, the team’s notable free agents are key contributors Danilo Gallinari and Nerlens Noel. Defensive stalwart Andre Roberson, who has been absent since midway through the 2017/18 season with a serious injury, is also on an expiring deal this summer. Roberson last suited up for an NBA game on January 27, 2018.
Is KAT the most over rated player in the NBA
No
Heck no. Now, if you want to consider whether MN ownership is the most inept in the NBA (excluding Knicks, of course)…
No, of course not, no way, not at all. He is an MVP caliber player that delivers every single game, whether the team wins or not that is irrelevant his performance is out of this world, one of the top centers ever in history, at his age he is unbelievably good.
Actually he is one of the most underrated players in the league for sure!!!
Simons notes, you said Trail Blazers guard then finished with excited about the forward…
he’s a combo guard not a forward.
I think Onyeka Okungwu is a perfect fit for the Wolves in the draft at PF. He can share minutes with James Johnson who is the experienced Vet of the team. Okungwu is a solid PF who gets you boards and blocks and mainly plays down low which suits KAT who plays more of an outside game.
Kinda like the direction of the Wolves, Russell is a solid franchise PG that is underrated by some still. At SG they have Okogie, Culver who didn’t live up to expectations and Beasley who needs an extension. It’ll be interesting what happens there with those 3. Then obviously SF needs filling out but they have Evan Turner’s almost 19mil deal expiring so hopefully they can use some of that and grab someone good on defence to complete that team.
I’d suggest looking at Glen Robinson, Jae Crowder, Josh Jackson and Torrey Craig.
With all the draft picks they have, I think the Thunder are in good position to replace Gallinari & Noel if they lose them to free agency.
Nerlens really blew his chance passing up that candy coated contract. I wonder how much hes behind on his current contracts compared to where he would of been at.