The Minnesota Timberwolves are a team on the rise, but do they have what it takes to put an end to the longest active playoff drought in the NBA? Andrew Wiggins thinks so.
“I think we’re going to have a way better season than we had this year,” Wiggins said in an interview with SI.com’s Omari Sankofa. “We just had a lot going on. We’ve got some new pieces. I think last year we could’ve beat any team on any given day. This year we need to be more consistent with it. We can make the playoffs. Nothing is easy, we gotta work and our coach is going to make us work.”
The Timberwolves haven’t made the playoffs since the 2003-04 season. Led by MVP Kevin Garnett, Minnesota finished with the best record in the Western Conference that season (58-24), but ultimately came up short in the Conference Finals against a Los Angeles Lakers featuring Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Gary Payton and Karl Malone.
Fast forward to 2016, the Timberwolves are a very young, but talented team with a new head coach in Tom Thibodeau, who led the Chicago Bulls to five playoff appearances in six seasons. The roster boasts two Rookie of the Year award winners—and No. 1 overall picks—in Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns, a two-time slam dunk champion in Zach LaVine, and the Timberwolves selected Kris Dunn with the fifth overall pick in this year’s draft. Dunn won Big East Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons at Providence.
Wiggins is not wrong about Minnesota’s playoff chances. The Timberwolves are poised to get there under Thibodeau, but it’s uncertain if it will happen as early as next season.
