I think the public perception of these guys is much higher than the reality. Towns looks every bit the part of a generational offensive player, but he has no defensive awareness. And that's too bad because he has all the physical tools there. He's young, but most young players show some improvement there and he just hasn't. We may be looking at a Dirk like situation where he just really needs to be covered by an elite rim protector next to him. I still have hope here. It always looks to me like he's just trying to hard. Leaves his guy often to try and give weak side help but that just leaves the rest of the defense exposed if it's not handled with a little more finesse.
Wiggins? Who knows. He's not very efficient and he's absolutely shitty on defense, but he makes plays often enough that show you his all world potential. Does he realize that? I don't know. I think there's a chance the Wolves end up regretting that contract, at the same you understand that they had to give it to him.
Butler is great. Thus far he's taken a bit of a back seat in scoring, but he's that guy that does all the little things that make the team better.
The biggest difference in this team compared to years past is that despite some really fucking ugly basketball through 8 games, they have enough talent on the court finally to make some crunch time buckets and swing those 50/50 games their way. This has legit happened in all 5 of their wins. Two of their losses their got blown out by Detroit and Indiana. Jimmy didn't play those games, but it's still pretty inexcusable. They should be 7-1 right now. That said, they're not going to win every crunch time game and really need to figure out how to not squander leads down the stretch. Crawford's falling over 3 pointer against Utah, Wiggins half court buzzer beater against OKC, on Wednesday Jimmy had this nutty and one at the end of the game that sealed that one. You're not going to win 50 games relying on shit like that all season.
They should make the playoffs this year, but there's a ton of questions as to if they actually reach their potential or not. 29th in the league in Drtg isn't going to get us there either.
