The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - NBA Power Rankings: #14 Minnesota Timberwolves led by Ant Edwards & Karl-Anthony Towns

Episode Date: September 8, 2022

Jason Timpf breaks down the Minnesota Timberwolves ahead of the 2022-2023 NBA season as they are guided by young stars Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns. #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host, Kear Games.

This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor? It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen and learn the hard way on the IHare radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. The volume. What's up guys?

It's Jason from Hoops Tonight, presented by Fandual. Football season is here. And there is no better place to get in on the action than with Fanduel. It's my favorite sports gambling app out there. It's safe, secure, and easy to use. They have exclusive offers, tons of ways. to play like spread and money line over unders, team totals. Same game parlays where you can combine multiple bets from the same game.

My favorite feature is that cash out feature. So if you already feel pretty good about your bet and you're in good shape but you don't want to lose whatever it is based on some stupid thing with garbage time at the end, you can cash out your winnings before the end of the game. Use promo code Jason T and download the Fanduel app today to make every moment more this football season. 21 plus and present Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, permitted parishes only, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Virginia, or West Virginia.

First online real money wager only. Refund issued as non-withdrawable site credit that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook. Fandul.com. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 next step or text next step to 533442 in Arizona. 1-88-7-89-77 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut.

1-800 gambler or visit fanduel.com slash RG in Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, and Virginia. 1-877-7-770 stop in Louisiana. 1-800-270-1-117 for confidential help in Michigan. 18778 Hope N.Y or text Hope N.Y to 467-369 in New York. In Tennessee, redline, dial 1-800-889-9-97889 in Tennessee. Visit www.1-800-gambler.net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight, presented by Fanduel here at the Volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great week so far.

We are moving on with their power rankings today. On to number 14, the Minnesota Timberwolves, a really, really interesting team to dive into because once again we have to throw away just about everything from last season because they traded out a bunch of their players for Rudy Gobert, which obviously changes fundamentally the identity of this particular basketball team. They should be a really, really interesting watch this year. They have one of my favorite young players in the league in Anthony Edwards. it was a lot of fun diving into this.

You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes YouTube channel, so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT, so you guys don't miss any show announcements. And last but not least, if you miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish them,

you can find them in audio form wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight. One last thing, please bear with me, guys. Last week on Thursday, when I said I had allergies. turns out I had some sort of upper respiratory illness was not COVID. I tested negative. It really took it out of me.

It's the most sick I've been since I had COVID, which was in the fall of 2020. And I'm kind of over it now, but it has destroyed my lungs and destroyed my voice. And I've been dealing with some coughing and stuff. So apologies in advance for just the lack of overall vocal energy. But I appreciate you guys bearing with me. All right. So last year, the Timberwolves, were seventh in offense, 13th in defense.

They were one of the teams, for those of you guys who were following the show at this point, as the season was coming to an end, the regular season, this is one of the teams that I was focusing on a lot because they were playing really, really well. Now, there was some context there. Like, they went 30 and 16 over their last 46 games. That was from January 3rd to the end of the season, but they did play a lot of teams that were, you know, good in the sense that they, it showed their strength of

scheduled to be strong because of the records of the teams they were playing, but like almost every night that they were playing a good team, somebody was sitting out. And this is classic MBA load management problems. You guys know I would love to see them cut the season down from 82 to 66 games. I know that's a non-starter for the owners and the players because they want money. But to me, it's pretty simple. I believe that right now the product is crap because almost every time you get a marquee matchup on national TV, at least one star is missing, if not both, because of the need that teams feel to prepare for load management throughout the season. If you shorten the schedule to the point where teams were only playing three times a week,

they'd have automatic baked in load management. They'd have at least one stretch every week where they'd have two consecutive nights off. I think it would lead to a league where only almost every one of these marquee matchups had all the stars playing. And not to mention an additional 20% of urgency in how much value there is in a win or how much pain there is in a loss. I believe that that 20% decrease in regular season volume of games would be replaced by at least a 20% increase in quality of play. But that's another separate soapbox for me there.

But the Timberwolves were a huge beneficiary of that last year. They ended up going, like I said, from January 3rd on 30 and 16. They had the number one offense in the league during that span, the number 16 defense, number 5 overall in net rating. They end up getting out of the playing tournament, and they make it to the Grizzlies. And a really bizarre series where they lose in six games, but they end up pretty much controlling five of the six games.

They just completely fell up. part at the end of every single game. For those of you guys who remember when I did that series preview for that particular series, my biggest fear for Minnesota going into that series was late game decision making. And you're going to hear me talk about this a lot. Basketball games are won and lost at the end in a lot of cases because it's a lot easier in a smaller sample size for the better team to lock in and really truly, you know, become what

their basketball identity is. And if they're the better team than you, they're going to take care of business down the stretch of a game. Yes, for three quarters, you might be able to hang with them for one reason or another because maybe they don't truly feel threatened or whatever the deal is. But at the end of a game, you become who you truly are as a basketball team. And I was worried that Anthony Edwards, who I really like but is young, and DeAngelo Russell, who's a player that I don't particularly like, I had a feeling that they were

going to struggle with light game decision making. and they did in the fourth quarters of that series, the Timberwolves were outscored by 41.6 points per 100 possessions. They were absolutely terrible on both ends of the floor. In clutch time, so when the games were within five points with less than five minutes remaining, they had a negative 40.6 net rating, so they were outscored by 40.7 points every 100 possessions, terrible on both ends of the floor. So they were a terrible fourth quarter team and a terrible

clutch team, which was my biggest fear going into that series. And it cost them because you could argue that they were the better team. And they controlled throughout that series, they frequently had large leads and they just weren't able to do anything with it. Excuse me. So obviously in this offseason, the Timberwolves undergo a change in their basketball operations department. They bring in Tim Connolly. He immediately is very aggressive and makes the Rudy Go Bear trade flipping Patrick Beverly. They're starting point guard. Malik Beasley, they're starting two guard. Or three, depending on whether or not they were starting D-Lo in any given moment. And then Jared Vanderbilt, their best wing on the roster. They flipped those three guys, a couple of younger players,

four first-round draft picks and a pick swap for Rudy Go-Ber. I was truly shocked by that. I thought Rudy Gobert was a negative asset. Now, to be clear, there's a difference between negative asset and negative player. I just thought because of Rudy's offensive limitations and the fact that he was going to be making 40 plus million, you know, longer, you know, all the way to like 2026 or something that teams would be hesitant to trade for him. Clearly, I was wrong about that. There was at least one GM in the league who viewed him as very valuable. But so essentially what they did, if you zoomed out from that trade, they exchanged. three really good perimeter defenders for one great backline anchor. Arguably the best in the

league. I think Anthony Davis, when he's engaged, is a little better. I think Janus is a little better, but I think Gobert's right there as a top three defensive player in all of basketball. He's one of those guys that's kind of become the butt of the joke for a lot of basketball fans, but that's not actually backed up with what you see in tape. The defensive issues for the Utah Jazz had nothing to do with Rudy Gobert and everything to do with everybody else on their roster. I expect him to come in and immediately make Minnesota a great defensive team. They also signed Kyle Anderson, Austin Rivers, and Bryn Forbes. Kyle Anderson and Austin Rivers are both above average defensive players for their position.

Both of them are somewhat inconsistent offensively. We'll get a little bit further into them later. Kyle Anderson can do some stuff attacking smaller defenders and shooting over the top. Austin Rivers is capable as an on-ball creator, but obviously below average compared to some of his peers around the league. And then Brent Forbes is your textbook off-the-bench type of shooter. You know, NBA coaches are constantly obsessed with what they can do to run offense for periods of the game when their stars are out of the game. And they have the ability to run offensive players off of screens that's in their offense already. They did that a lot with Malik Beasley last year.

I think they'll run some similar sets like that with Bryn Forbes this year off the bench. They also drafted Wendell Moore Jr. He's a classic wing that can do a little bit of everything, but I don't think he'll play much this year. If we look at the depth chart at the guard position, they're guard heavy. They have DeAngelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, Jalen Noelle, Bryn Forbes, Awesome Rivers, and Jordan McLaughlin. Jalen Newell and Jordan McLaughlin are going to be two interesting guys to watch. I don't know a ton about them at this point. I need to watch more film. But those are two guys from what I've heard that Minnesota is depending on big time to replace a little bit of what Malik Beasley and Patrick Beverly did for them.

On the wing, Kyle Anderson, Tori and Prince and Jada McDaniels. And then as Biggs, they have Rudy Gobert, Carl Anthony Towns, and Nas Reed. So on the offensive end of the floor, they run a lot of isolation. They were the seventh most frequent isolation team last year and the fourth most efficient. Now, generally speaking, isolation is kind of viewed as like a bad word in the basketball world, especially amongst coaches because they associate it with stagnation. And a lot of coaches don't like ISO because they think of it as like bad offense, essentially. To me, though, I think isolation is a little bit undervalued, especially in the modern NBA, for a couple of different reasons. First of all, in a playoff setting, in particular, a lot of teams do a lot more switching than usually.

And in addition to that, they scout your sets. And so your sets are far less likely to actually generate quality shots in a playoff setting than they are in the regular season. Because every coach has seen, advanced scouts have seen every single play you've run during the season. They've charted how often you ran those plays. And they've presented that information to the coaching staff. And the coaching staff coaches the players on how to jump in front of specific actions

to deny, you know, maybe an entry pass here or there to stop. the play from taking place or a pre-planned switch to take care of a shooter coming off of a screen or whatever the action is, they find ways to scout ahead of that stuff. And so a lot of times in playoff series, it does devolve into isolation basketball. And, you know, what it really comes down to with isolation basketball is physical advantages. And, you know, Anthony Edwards and Carl Towns have physical advantages over almost every single defensive player that they're going to face in this league, right? So it's not bad for them to do, to rely on a good amount of isolation basketball. I think it's smart for what their roster can do. And again, a lot of ISO, they were the

number one offense in the league for more than the second half of the season, a little bit over what I say, like 46 games or something like that. So that's pretty substantial. The other thing with isolation basketball, the second big advantage is it's avoiding bringing other defenders into the play. So, you know, if I want to pick and roll or some sort of off ball screening action or dribble or anything that involves multiple offensive players in some sort of exchange, what's going to happen there is I'm bringing other defenders to the play. So if I'm bringing the ball up the floor on the right wing and I call for a pick and roll and the other team is scared of me and they want to try to get the ball out of my hands or use second defenders or third defenders to dissuade me from

getting to my spots, if I bring a screener up, it's easy, I'm bringing a second defender up. and if their plan is to get the ball out of my hand, they can jump me on that pick and roll by trapping, right? Or if I'm running a dribble handoff or an off-ball screening action, by bringing that second defender into the play, I make it easier for the other team potentially to deny me the basketball. Even though, yes, it will lead to openings elsewhere. It does cause some problems for you as the ball handler.

In isolation, if they're going to offer help, they're going to have to straight up abandon their man to do so. which allows you to open up things in terms of drive and kick. So there are advantages to ISO. Don't let coaches and old-fashioned basketball minds convince you that it's a bad thing. It just, it needs to be done smartly. It needs to be done with the right matchups. It needs to be done when you have physical advantages.

And it needs to be done with the proper spacing. And it needs to be done while taking into account rhythm in the way that the other players on the floor are impacted. To make a long story short, isolation is fine, but just like any other thing, it's about balance and figuring out how you can have counters from that or mix things up so that you don't become predictable. I am not an anti-iso basketball guy. In terms of pick and roll, they did not run a lot of pick and roll last year. They were 24th in pick and roll attempts. That's to be expected. They didn't have a good role man.

Nasreid is a good big man and obviously Carl Anthony Towns is dynamic as a score and as a perimeter shooter, but he's not a good role man. He's not a vertical spacer. So it wasn't a thing that they were going to do last year because it didn't play into their strengths. But that is one of the very few things that Rudy Gobert is good at. You know, my my criticisms of Rudy Gobert mainly lie on the offensive end of the floor. I think, you know, I think his inability to punish switches and post-up situations is a problem. I think he's generally slow-making decisions, so he's not good in the short roll. Obviously he can't shoot from the perimeter,

but there are two things on offense that he's outstanding at. He's an outstanding screener, and he's an outstanding vertical threat. So what's one thing I can do on the offensive end of the floor that's going to properly use Rudy Gobert and what he does well, pick and roll? So even though they were 24th in pick and roll attempts last year, I expect a significant increase in the Timberwolves pick and roll offense this year.

I expect them to do it a whole lot more. One last note on Rudy, he is very good as an offensive rebounder as well. That's one of the things that he can do on the offensive end. But he is somewhat limited on that. He's straight up just a role player, even maybe less than that, on the offensive end of the floor. They ran a lot of off-screen plays last year. They were seventh most in the NBA. But again, that was a lot of Malik Beasley.

The vast majority of their off-screen actions were Malik Beasley flying off-of-screens and pin-downs to look. to shoot or to curl around and try to make a play with him being gone. I expect that to kind of go by the wayside. So just kind of think like a lot, a lot, there were a lot of ISO last year. There will be a lot of ISO. They were not very much pick and roll last year. I expect a lot more pick and roll. They were a lot of off-screen stuff last year.

I expect a lot less of that. But I do think they'll do a lot of that with Bryn Forbes off the bench, just not enough to make up for what Malik Beasley was doing. So I expect them to be somewhat low volume in that regard. So kind of zooming out, this is a mismatch attacking isolation team that has two players that can constantly have physical advantages around the floor, Carl Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards. And then I think they'll supplement that with a lot of high pick and roll with Rudy Gobert, either with DeLoe and Angelo Russell or, excuse me, DeAngelo Russell or Ant. Those are the two guys that I expect to run a ton of pick and roll with Gobert. When it comes to their isolation play with Carl Towns and with Ant, it's going to all be about spacing.

the issue is Rudy Gobert. Because he can't shoot from the perimeter, because he's basically just a vertical spacing threat who can screen well, he's going to be in the dunker spot a lot, which is going to flat out affect their spacing. The driving lanes are not going to be as good for Anthony Edwards as they were last year.

That's simply a fact of that trade. As soon as you made that decision to flip a five-out team with Carl Towns as your floor spacing big to now having a non-spacing center, it's going to change the dynamic of driving lanes for this team. The other guy that I'm worried about them in terms of their spacing is Kyle Anderson. He's a good defensive wing, and they lost a good defensive wing with Jared Vanderbilt,

so I expect them to play him quite a bit. He was 32% on catch-and-shoot threes last year. If they have Kyle Anderson and Rudy Gobert on the floor at the same time, things could really get clogged for them in the paint. One of the benefits about this partnership of having two bigs on the offensive end of the floor, We're going to talk about the defense end. I think the having two bigs thing could present some problems for them there. But on the offensive end of the floor, you know, Carl Towns' shooting ability makes it so that, in theory,

if you have the other guys that can shoot, it could work out and still have some, you know, usability. Uniquely what Carl Towns does so well is he's amazing shooting above the break. The vast majority of role players around the league shoot pretty well from the corners and not as well above the break. simple math, it's a further shot, right? But Carl Towns attempted five above the break threes per game last year and shot 42% on them. So you can tuck him further away from the basket. And, you know, especially with him and how quick his releases, he's going to pull a pretty

big defensive player really far away from the basket. That will, that part will make some of the Gobert lineups, at least usable. But I think in the aggregate, the overall spacing of that lineup, will not be as good as it was last year. I think Rudy Gobert is going to, in pick and roll, as the natural counter to their spacing problem. So, again, it's just going to keep him more involved in the offense. If he stands in the dunker spot, any really good defensive big

is going to be capable of helping on drives while still dissuading Rudy around the rim. That's going to be a problem for them. But in pick and roll, he's going to have a head of steam going downhill. It's just going to be harder for his defender to devise to devise. deal with him in a pick and roll situation than he is in the dunker spot. So again, pick and roll is going to be their counter to their spacing issues. The number one issue I have with them on the offensive end of the floor is going to be their clutch offense and decision making, like we talked about earlier.

So in clutch time, in 18 minutes against Memphis. So again, that's 18 minutes in the series where there was less than five minutes remaining on the clock and the scoring margin was five points or less. DeAngelo Russell and Anthony Edwards combined to go three for 16 from the field. including one for eight from three. I don't see that problem going away. You know, Anthony Edwards, again, I really like him, but he's probably several years away

from being a good clutch basketball player. Again, at the end of basketball games, like we talked about, teams really flashed their true identity. So when you get into late playoff settings and you're going against a really good defensive team and there's a great deal of scouting involved, they're going to find ways to pack the paint on Anthony Edwards and really test his decision-making as a passer

and his willingness to settle for pull-up jump shots. Now, for those of you who remember when we did our player rankings video, I had Anthony Edwards pretty high. I think I had him 21, and his pull-up shooting was one of the big revelations of that playoff run. He shot the ball extremely well off the dribble, but he does have a tendency to settle even when he has physical advantages. So again, it's going to, teams packing the paint,

it's going to test Anthony Edwards in his willingness to pass to open shooters and his willingness to avoid difficult pull-up jump shots. So that's going to be my biggest concern for them. Again, if you're going to win the title, if you're going to just come out of the Western Conference, you're probably going to have to out-execute a Steph Curry in a playoff series. You're going to have to out-execute a Nicolioch in a playoff series. You're going to have to out-execute a Kawhi Leonard in a playoff series. Hell, if the Lakers figure it out, you might have to out-execute a LeBron James in a playoff series, you might have to do that anyway in a first round series. So at the end of the day, like decision making is going to be the biggest question mark for this particular team on the

offensive end. So kind of zooming out, I think Rudy Gobert is legitimately going to mess with their offense. I think they'll take a step back on the offensive end of the floor. And I do think they'll continue to struggle at the end of the game, at the end of games. So I expect them to finish somewhere, they were seventh in offensive rating this year. I expect them to finish somewhere closer to 10 this year. Let's move on to the defensive end of the floor. Let's move on to the defensive end of the floor. Last year, like we said, they were an average defense. They finished 13th. Even when they got hot towards the end of the year, it wasn't their defense. It was their offense that got going. But again, we have to give Chris Finch a lot of credit here because

when you really look at what they were working with, you know, with Carl Towns, who for his position is one of the worst defensive players to play big minutes in the league, right? And then DeAngelo Russell, who throughout his career, has been a bad defensive player, he got both of them to have the best defensive seasons of their career. DeAngelo Russell became a serviceable defensive player, obviously not a great defensive player, but a serviceable defensive player. And in general, on the roster from the top down, there was a ton of buy-in, especially from their perimeter defenders and their willingness to slide their feet and keep people in front. Again, we've talked a lot about this concept on the show, but it's quickly becoming

one of the most important aspects of NBA basketball, your ability to contain ball handlers. Because think of it like this. We think a lot about help schemes, and we think a lot about backline defenders and things like defensive rotations, but those things aren't necessary if a defender can contain the dribble.

If you can contain the dribble and prevent ball handlers from getting into the paint, then you don't have to offer as much help. You don't have to be in rotation as often, and your foot speed on the backline matters less, right? And that was a clear identity from this particular team. They were a team that sat down in a stance and got stops. Malik Beasley did an outstanding job in perimeter contained.

Patrick Beverly, one of the best in the league at it. DeAngel Russell had the best defensive season of his career. Anthony Edwards' best defensive season of his career. I just wanted to give a shout out to Chris Finch there because I think he did a really good job with this particular group. Again, this team is going to be completely different defensively than they were last year. Last year, they were an average defense because they had great perimeter defensive players, but their backline was weak.

This year, I think they've taken a step back, a significant step back in perimeter contain, but they brought on arguably the best backline defensive player of this era, depending on who you ask. So at least the top three, right? So top four, if you count Draymond. So from that standpoint, they're going to be a very different defense. than they were in the past. My guess is they will prioritize taking away the three-point line with their

perimeter players, knowing that they have a lot more help on the backline with Gobert and probably adapt some sort of funneling scheme where the intent is to try to just get people to drive into Gobert, get terrified because they don't want to get their shot blocked and then kick it out to defenders that are waiting. That's typically the way that teams will structure their defense when they have outstanding room protectors. expect the Timberwolves to do the same. The start of the NFL season is here and the best place to practice your touchdown dance is on Fandual, America's number one sports book. Fandual is kicking

off week one with a no sweat bet for everybody. It doesn't matter if you're a new customer or already have an account. You'll get free bets back if you don't win. Just log in and see for yourself. Now if I had a free bet, I'm going to be fading the Dallas Cowboys all year. I don't like their head coach. And I think the Tyrant Smith injury is catastrophic for them. So I will be in week one betting on Tampa Bay minus two and a half in the Sunday night game. New to Fan Duel Sportsbook, just signed up with promo code Jason T to get started. That's promo code Jason T. Either way, celebrate the return to football season with a no sweat bet during week one.

Make every moment more with Fandual, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, And the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music.

The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.

Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jett. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it.

Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because. of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Then you're finishing that sentence.

Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your Obviously losing Jared Vanderbilt on the wing is big. I actually really like Jaden McDaniels of the hot take,

but I actually think he could be a little bit better in the long run. So I didn't hate that exchange. Austin Rivers and Kyle Anderson, like we mentioned earlier, are both above average defensive players for their position. They're just not as good offensively as the players that they lost. And then, you know, the big thing is going to be looking at the difference between what this defense is going to look like in the regular season versus the postseason. I'll just skip ahead right now.

I think the Timberwolves are going to have a top five defense this year. That's kind of a staple of the Rudy Gobert process, and he's got better defensive players around him than he ever had in Utah. So flat out, I expect the Timberwolves to be a top five defense this year, provided that everyone stays healthy. The conundrum there is going to be the difference between what their defensive ceiling is in the regular season versus what it is in the playoffs. again in the regular season drop coverages work pretty damn well um especially in the day

in day out grind of the regular season it's a it's you know generally speaking the scouting isn't as in depth as it is in the pose season there's a little bit more of like we're just trying to get through this kind of thing right and gobert's the kind of guy that it's difficult to scheme him away from the rim but you can do so it's just hard to do in a one game sample size. Sometimes it takes three, four games to kind of figure out how to keep him away from the rim. That's why his defensive abilities to clean up messes for his teammates goes down in the playoffs compared to the way it is in the regular season. So for instance, having a DeAngelo Russell on the floor, having Carl Towns on the floor, those two guys potentially on the floor at the same time,

losing Patrick Beverly, losing Malik Beasley, that might not matter as much in the regular season because of Gobert cleaning up messes. But when you get to the postseason and teams find out how to keep Rudy Gobert closer to the perimeter and make him guard more in space, it's not that Rudy Gobert loses his value as a defender. He's every bit as good defensively in the postseason as he is in the regular season, but his ability to clean up his teammates' messes goes down significantly in a playoff setting. And so from that specific standpoint, I do think there will be somewhat of a drop-off when they get into the postseason. Because once again, you have Carl Towns on the floor who doesn't guard well in space.

You have DeAngelo Russell, who's a decent help defender but doesn't guard well in space. So in a playoff setting, teams are going to find a way to attack those guys while keeping Gobert away from the rim. The other thing is transition defense, and this is where having two bigs hurts. I don't want to need to get all into the weeds again, but you guys know how I feel about big men and the limitations they have in terms of foot speed. And Carl Towns and Rudy Gaubert are two of the more mobile bigs that we have in this league theoretically, right? You know, Carl Towns isn't very laterally quick,

but he does have a good first step and he can beat people off the dribble on offense and he can run the floor pretty well, right? But the reality is, is with both of them on the floor, they will be slower-footed, especially in the open floor and in five-out situations than they were last year. You know, last year, they were the eighth best transition defense in all of basketball.

I expect them to take a significant step back in transition defense this year because of them playing with too big. So when you factor that in and some of the playoff stuff, I expect them to have a top five regular season defense that functions and translates to the postseason more like a 10th best defense in the league type of deal. again because of the fact that they're going to have two defenders on the floor that teams are going to try to attack all the time. One of the interesting counters here that I'd like to see them try, especially since I have a feeling they might end up trying to trade DeAngelo Russell in the long run, but it might be worth benching him, especially in big moments and in playoff series,

and going all in on length with a second wing, like going with Jaden McDaniels and Kyle Anderson, or Jaden McDaniels and Torrey and Prince alongside Cat, Gobert and Ant, and kind of going in on defense and understanding that, yes, you're lacking shot creation, but, you know, DeAngelo Russell's shot creation didn't translate super well to the postseason anyway. That would be what I would do if I was coaching this team. I'd go all in on defense and just count on Ant and Carl Towns to be able to physically bludgeon the opponent to get enough offense.

So best case scenario. If Anthony Edwards takes a leap to Superstar, and we're going to get a little bit further into that when we get to the X factor. If Rudy Goldberg finds a way to not completely screw up their offense and be somewhat productive there, if Carl Towns plays with consistency, if you guys remember when we did our power rankings, that's one of my biggest issues with Carl Towns is like one night he's dialed in and he's focused, and he's making all the right decisions, and he's punishing teams with physicality, and then the next night he's just hacking people and getting in foul trouble, or just like kind of emotionally pulling away from the game

and not being as aggressive physically. And it's just, he's just kind of like an up and down type of personality on the basketball court. If Carl Towns plays with consistency, that would be a huge upside for them. If the team somehow manages to maintain their perimeter defense from last year, that counts on some of these younger players like Noel and McLaughlin coming in and playing well, Austin Rivers coming in and playing well, Kyle Anderson coming in and playing well. if they do that and they replicate their perimeter defense from last year, in combination with what Gobert can do,

they could have a great defense, a defense that could be problematic in a playoff series. With their physical mismatches, with what Carl Towns does and Anthony Edwards does, in terms of the predicament they put you in as the other team, and who's going to guard those guys, I think they're capable of beating anybody in the West except for the clippers and the Warriors.

They have the physical matchups to handle those guys. Draymond Green would eat Carl Towns alive in a playoff series. Andrew Wiggins would give Anthony Edwards some problems, you know, with the Clippers with Kauai Leonard and Paul George, similar type of deal. So from that standpoint, I think with exception of those two particular teams, they are capable if they hit their ceiling of beating any of those teams, of being a top four seed, getting home court advantage in the playoffs.

It's just, I just don't see them beating those two particular teams. Their worst case scenario, if Gobert comes in and just butchers everything on offense, and again, they were number one in offense from January 3rd to the end of the season, I expect them to take a little bit of a step back at least on that end, but it could get ugly with Gobert, especially with how much Carl Towns and Anthony Edwards like to drive the ball to the basket. Them having two bigs. If teams find ways to kill them in transition or spacing the floor,

A really good team like the Clippers could put them in a five-out situation where Carl Towns and Gobert are playing more like perimeter players guarding people in a driving kick system. That could be a problem. Obviously, we talked about bad late-game decision-making from DeAngelo Russell and Anthony Edwards. Injuries could always be an issue. If those things all crop up, this is a play-in team again. And that would be an absolute disaster with how much they paid for Gobert in that trade. The biggest X factor on this team, in my opinion, without question, is Anthony Edwards.

So last year he was something like the 25th best player in the world. I ranked him 21st because of what I value from him in particular, but that's kind of where I see him at this exact moment in time. But he's a young player that has a great deal of potential. Not just a great deal of potential. He's like true superstar potential, like top 10 player in the world. potential. Like look a Luca-Luca Donchich type of player in the face and play every bit as good as him, if not better, in a playoff series type of potential. That's what he's capable of. That's what I see

from him five years from now. So then it becomes about timeline. Is it going to be now? Does he take that leap this year? Does he take it in two years? Does he take it in four years? That becomes the question. He's built for the playoffs because he's big and strong. That's why he's scoring and efficiency went up. when he got into that stage. Obviously, he flashed a ton as a pull-up jump shooter in that playoff run. It remains to be seen if that's real or if that was just a hot streak. We will find out during the season. He gets to the rim a lot.

That translates well to the playoffs. And as an athlete, his tons of defensive potential. If Anthony Edwards takes a leap to become a top 10 player in basketball, all of a sudden, then they're a contender. You know, coming into this show, I had them in that tier below as non-contenders. You know, the Bulls, the Pelicans, you know, this particular Wolves team, I didn't see them as a team that was capable of winning a championship.

And I still don't. But if Anthony Edwards is not the 21st best player in the league this year, if he's the eighth best player in the league this year, then you're damn right there a contender. And that absolutely puts them in a situation where they could be a dominant defensive team built around Gobert with a super duper star in Anthony Edwards that could squeeze out a playoff series or win a big matchup against a great superstar in this league. And so he is the biggest X factor of this team because of his upside.

His upside is so high that this Timberwolves team is capable when he reaches whatever that point is. Some point in the next couple of years, Ant's going to become that guy. And when he does, this is going to be a dead. am good basketball team. And it's always a risk that it could be this particular season. Obviously, if he's a couple of years away, they could be a play-in team, they could be a six or seven seed, they could lose in the first round, they could lose in the second round. But that's the big, that's the big swing factor in this particular season, is how good does Anthony Edwards get. All right, that is all I have for tonight, guys. That's all I have on the Minnesota Timberwolves.

We'll be back with number 13 tomorrow. As always, I appreciate your guys of support, and I will see you guys Is that? The volume. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all?

You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host Keer Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor? It signals to the world that you're not to be played with.

And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to, Listen to learn the hard way on the IHard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed human.