Frederick: This is Timberwolves basketball? Minnesota better hope not

Brooklyn is good at the moment — as in, one of the best teams in the NBA this month. Despite a rotation that’s 40% rookies, the Nets are 7-3 in December with the NBA’s second-best net rating in the span.

Yet, because they entered Saturday’s game in Minneapolis with only nine wins, they didn’t get the respect and effort the Wolves often reserve from the league’s elite.

The ensuing result was predictable, as Minnesota was embarrassed by the Nets, falling 123-107 on its home floor. Par for the course for the Wolves, who pick and choose — from quarter to quarter, night to night —when to do the little things necessarily to win.

On Saturday, the Wolves issued a “hard pass” on championship standards. They were out-worked and out-disciplined by a young, scrappy, engaged Nets roster. The local supporters were disgusted with Minnesota’s performance, which they demonstrated via audible boos in the final minute.

“I’m with the fans. I would’ve booed us, too,” Wolves guard Anthony Edwards said. “Lack of energy, I don’t know what’s going on. I guess this is just Timberwolves basketball.”

It’s not supposed to be. The Timberwolves’ identity should be rooted in consistent, aggressive tenacity, with defense that turns into offense and hustle and effort plays that set Target Center ablaze. That standard was set during the 2023-24 campaign, which resulted in a Western Conference Finals berth.

It’s slowly slipped ever since.

In the last three weeks alone, Phoenix, Memphis and now Brooklyn have come into Minneapolis and simply out-worked the Timberwolves to secure victories. Also included in that stretch was a seismic win over the defending-champion Thunder.

On that night, the Wolves flashed their teeth and possessed substantial amounts of both bark and bite. It’s clear they deem *that* opponent to be worthy of such efforts, but not others.

The Wolves have played with their food against substandard opponents for much of the first 40% of their season. But oftentimes, they’re so talented they’re able to rally and win games with as little as a quarter of effort-filled basketball.

On Saturday, they had paid the price. Because the Nets were one of the more disciplined teams Minnesota has battled this season. They wouldn’t crack, nor demean themselves with anything less than their best basketball.

“They just played with more physicality, they played with more energy,” Wolves guard Donte DiVincenzo said. “And that’s the type of team that they are.”

And who Minnesota only idealizes itself to be.

“We have spurts that that’s what we can do. That’s not necessarily who we are,” DiVincenzo said. “That’s what we need to become.”

That’s always the problem for Minnesota. It picks its spots to deliver complete-game performances that remind the masses who the Wolves can be — usually against a Denver or Oklahoma City in nationally-televised contests — before retreating back into hibernation with designs of re-emerging on a more consistent basis in April and May.

DiVincenzo and Rudy Gobert both noted Saturday that Minnesota tends to overly rely on its talent level. The Wolves can walk into the gym with less than their best and beat a number of NBA teams. But that doesn’t help them develop habits required to beat the league’s best four times in a seven-game series.

Gobert noted Minnesota’s roster is probably better than those of the best teams he played on in Utah. But the Jazz were more consistent, particularly in executing their non-negotiables, regardless of any game’s particular circumstances.

The Wolves don’t have that. If the moment doesn’t specifically call for high levels of urgency, they don’t bring it. And, in the long run, that won’t cut it.

“We want to be champions. With champions, it doesn’t matter who you play, it’s who you are. You don’t pick and choose. You play every night to … define who you are on the team,” Gobert said. “We have to be conscious about it. … Whatever switch we find that can make us realize that we don’t just compete with OKC, Denver. … We compete with them also when we play, everybody else. We also, more importantly, compete with ourselves.”

One of the more interesting facets of the situation is the players recognize and admit their shortcomings in the department of consistent energy and performance..

“But if you’re really self aware,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said, “then you do something about it.”

That, Finch said, is on the players. He added the Wolves need someone to “galvanize” the roster and spark urgency and intensity on a night-to-night basis.

“It’s where our leadership needs to step forward,” he said.

Perhaps that’s Rudy Gobert, who so frequently is the knight who rides in to save Minnesota from bad losses via his interior dominance. Maybe it’s DiVincenzo, who has an increasingly large voice in the locker room. Ideally, it’d be Edwards — the best teams are led by their best players.

Whoever is going to raise their hand needs to do so in short order.

The Wolves may still be in sixth place in the West, but true championship contenders establish themselves as such by the midway point of the season. The clock is ticking.

“We can’t just look at the season like it’s a failure, but we have to address it of what it is and we have to become what we know we can,” DiVincenzo said. “We can’t rely on talent. We have to come in and use our talent, but every night the energy has to be there. Every night, the competitive spirit has to be there, and it can’t be up and down on a night-to-night basis.”

“I guess we’ve got to change something,” Edwards said. “I don’t know what it is.”

Frederick: This is Timberwolves basketball? Minnesota better hope not

Tags: