The Minnesota Timberwolves have for a very long time been a basement-dwelling franchise in the NBA. They have the lowest winning percentage among teams in the league today, at just 39.99%, and have only ever won 2 playoff series. Both of those also came in the same year in 2004, when Kevin Garnett led them to the Conference Finals.
Apart from the Garnett years, they have pretty much been a train wreck for the most part but things finally seemed to change for the good last season. In head coach Chris Finch’s first full season, he led them to the playoffs as the team won 46 games but they failed to win a playoff series once again. That prompted the front office to make a blockbuster move as they traded for three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert to pair him with Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards.
The Minnesota Timberwolves Are The Only Team To Have 3 Players In The Top 25 On ESPN’s Top 100 List
While there are questions raised regarding going with a Twin Towers approach in today’s NBA, the Timberwolves certainly feel that it will work. Their Big 3, so as to say, also seem to have gotten very high marks from a panel of experts at ESPN, as they are the only team to have 3 players in the top 25 in the network’s list of the top 100 players for the 2022-23 NBA season as pointed out by Jon Krawczynski of the Athletic.
One thing @ZachLowe_NBA brought up on the pod: ESPN is releasing its top 100 players in the NBA as voted by a panel. 100-26 were revealed today. No KAT, Gobert or Edwards. That means all 3 are in the top 25.
Q: How many teams have 3 players in the top 25 of the list?
A: 1. https://t.co/x9AdMVqhGC
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) September 20, 2022
“One thing @ZachLowe_NBA brought up on the pod: ESPN is releasing its top 100 players in the NBA as voted by a panel. 100-26 were revealed today. No KAT, Gobert or Edwards. That means all 3 are in the top 25.
Q: How many teams have 3 players in the top 25 of the list?
A: 1.”
ESPN released their rankings from 26-100, with none of those three in it, which means they are surely in the top 25 unless ESPN just made a massive blunder by excluding one of three. Towns and Gobert making it to the top 25 isn’t too surprising, as they are two of the best bigs in the league today but Edwards being ranked that high is quite interesting.
Edwards improved across the board in his second season in the NBA and the panel clearly believes he will take another big jump. If he does, then the Timberwolves will be a major threat in the Western Conference and will finally win another playoff series. For now, though, Edwards has found himself in hot water as the NBA fined him $40,000 following his homophobic Instagram story and we’ll soon find out if all the backlash that has come his way will affect him in any way on the court.
There were some other surprises on ESPN’s list too, as they ranked Andrew Wiggins over Kyrie Irving which did not sit well with a lot of NBA fans. We are sure that the debates will only intensify when they release the rest of their rankings.
