Wolves 2014-15: Youth Must Be Served

Second alternate logo (2008-present) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Minnesota Timberwolves ended another misbegotten season Wednesday, losing 138-113 to the Oklahoma City Thunder at Target Center.  The Wolves finished with the NBA's worst record at 16-66, lost 12 consecutive games to end the season, and missed the playoffs for the 11th straight year.  Quite an accomplishment, no?

You can excuse young players such as Andrew Wiggins (who's on his way to Rookie of the Year.  Truthfully, he'd be better off in his native Canada playing for the playoff-bound Toronto Raptors.) and Zach LaVine for finding their way in the NBA.  They've had to play more than most rookies because of injuries to Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic, as well as the departures through trades of Corey Brewer, Mo Williams and Thaddeus Young.

Kevin Garnett?  He was brought here from the Brooklyn Nets on a wave of optimism and nostalgia as the Wolves' past, present and future, even though he's 39 and nearing the end of his playing career.  Since coming back, Garnett's mostly sat on the bench.  Patrick Reusse of the Star Tribune called the whole thing a scam to goose sales of tickets and jerseys (we should add that Wolves owner Glen Taylor is also Reusse's boss).  Not necessarily.  The team knew exactly what it was doing, putting KG in the role of mentoring younger players while preparing for his possible career in management.

Now it comes down to the ping pong balls, which will determine where the Wolves will pick in the 2015 NBA Draft.  They can't finish any lower than fourth in the lottery.  Taking into consideration that the New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers also had lousy seasons, and the fact that the Wolves have never had much luck in the lottery to begin with, one should not be too confident.  Since the NBA considers the Knicks, Lakers and Sixers to be more important to the future of the league than the Wolves, a third or fourth place finish sounds more realistic.

But hey, the future looks bright for the Timberwolves.  With all the young talent and the trades made by defacto general manager and coach Flip Saunders, and with Garnett lending his insight and occasional court presence, the team should be worth watching again.  Or not.

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