A Minnesota Winter is Coming

The future best team in basketball hails from Minnesota. That’s right, you read that correctly, Minnesota. No there’s no expansion team on the way, and no I’m not talking about college. I mean the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wolves have began to hit their stride in the post Kevin Love era, with budding superstar Andrew Wiggins continuing to improve, and last year adding the already dominant Karl-Anthony Towns in the 2015 draft, the Wolves have themselves a pair of ROY winners, combined with the dunk king Zach Lavine and the wisdom of KG to help guide the young stars. On top of that, this off-season they went out and added one of the top coaches in the league, and possibly the best defensive coach in the league, Tom Thibodeau.
Here’s where my hot take gets even hotter: this years ROY will not be Ben Simmons or Brandon Ingram, it will be Kris Dunn, and here’s why - Dunn absolutely dominated the two summer league games he played in before experiencing a concussion, posting numbers of 24.0 ppg, 7.0 rebounds per game, and 2.0 steals per game. While I do believe his minutes right off the jump will not be overwhelming, I do expect him to take over the starting PG position by the All-Star break. With Kris pushing the floor with Andrew and Zach on his sides, and working the pick & roll with Big KAT, the sky’s the limit for these young fellas. Kris brings a strong defensive presence and a good 3-point shot to a team that needs both.
My predictions for this season for the Wolves are not anything too far fetched, and I don’t expect a deep playoff run just yet, but in a strong Western Conference, I see the Wolves winning 50 games and securing a 6-8 seed, with a possible first round battle depending on which powerhouse they get set up with. This is just the beginning as the Wolves will look to 3-peat with rookie of the year award, and watch as both Andrew and Karl-Anthony propel themselves into the league's best of the best, as I expect both of them to be strong candidates for the All-Star game and All-NBA teams, whether first or third, is up to them.

​- Muk