Is Andrew Wiggins Right When He Declares The Timberwolves ‘Can Make The Playoffs’?

The Minnesota Timberwolves are one of the most exciting young teams in the NBA. They boast the past two Rookie of the Year winners (and No. 1 overall picks) in Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony towns, a supremely-gifted athlete in reigning two-time dunk champ Zach LaVine, and a new head coach in Tom Thibodeau who should be able to transform all that talent into one of the league’s most formidable defensive units.

By all accounts, they appear poised to make a jump next season, and Wiggins feels confident that will entail a trip to the postseason next spring. Via Omari Sankofa of SI.com:

I think we’re going to have a way better season than we had this year. We just had a lot going on. We’ve got some new pieces. I think last year we could’ve beat any team on any given day. This year we need to be more consistent with it. We can make the playoffs. Nothing is easy, we gotta work and our coach is going to make us work.

Indeed, the Wolves’ season got off to a devastating start with the death of coach and team president Flip Saunders. Throughout the season, however, they showed flashes of that immense potential but were ultimately unable to play well consistently enough to earn a postseason bid. They finished with a 29-53 record but should be able to improve that number dramatically.

Still, a playoff berth is anything but assured, especially in the Western Conference. The majority of the eight teams that qualified for the postseason in 2016 appear poised to do so again. Minnesota is just one of a handful of teams on the outside looking in, including the Jazz, Pelicans, Kings, and possibly the Nuggets. It will require noticeable improvement in several key areas to meet that goal, as well as a significant decline in one or more of the top eight teams already entrenched.

(SI.com)

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