Opponent Profile: Pace: 97.3 (10th), Offensive Efficiency: 103.7 (14th), Defensive Efficiency: 100.4 (13th)
The Timberwolves have been a pleasant surprise to start the 2014-15 season. They beat the Pistons in their home opener and stole a win against the Nets in Brooklyn, and both of their losses have been solid showings as well. Minnesota lost their season opener on the road against the currently undefeated Grizzlies by just four points and they lost to the Bulls by just one a week ago (Rose did not play, however).
This is obviously a new-look franchise now that Kevin Love is a Cleveland Cavalier, but Flip Saunders, the GM/Coach, has assembled himself an interesting young team that would probably be in playoff contention in the Eastern Conference. The Timberwolves may end up netting three core players from the Love trade in Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and Thaddeus Young, and they took care of their homegrown star in Ricky Rubio with a massive extension earlier this season.
Through four games, Wiggins has flashed the dynamite athleticism that earned him top status in the 2014 Draft and Bennett, who shed a lot of baby weight this summer, looks like a solid NBA player, which is a massive improvement over his sluggish rookie season. Young has been the best of the newcomers, which isn’t a total surprise since he has already figured out his place in this league as one of the most versatile forwards in the league. Saunders has done well to fit Wiggins and Young into the same starting line-up, sliding Young to the four while Rubio, Nikola Pekovic and Kevin Martin round out the starting line-up.
Martin is Minnesota’s go-to scorer and though he’s probably still an anonymous figure to the masses despite being the key player in the James Harden deal, he’s an efficient offensive weapon that can hit from deep and draws more quirky fouls than anyone else in the league. The catch is that he’s one of the worst wing defenders in the league, although the Wolves have supplemented him quite well with long, athletic and rangy forwards in Wiggins and Young, which is why Minnesota has rated above average defensively in the early going.
The Magic are coming off of their first win of the season that was capped off by Tobias Harris hitting a game-winning shot. It’s tough for a young team that lost four straight games to build up confidence, but a moment like that can inject some extra life into the team, particularly as they return home tonight. Minnesota will present a stiff challenge, though. This is an athletic team that can get up-and-down and play above the rim that can also slow things down by playing through Pekovic in the post. The Timberwolves are also off to a blazing start from the three-point line, so they can come out at you from a lot of different angles.
As always, the battle of Nikolas in the post should be fun. Pekovic is a devastating bruiser, so Vucevic will have to be careful with his foul situation and just as aggressive when attacking Pek on the other end. Watching Payton go up against Rubio should also be really fun to watch. Payton reminds me a lot of Rubio in a lot of ways, particularly in his ability to control the game with his passing and his incessant and nagging presence defensively. Both players are still trying to incorporate a consistent jumpshot and a bit of range to their game, but as it stands Rubio is a very effective player without being a dominant scorer, which describes Payton quite well also.
The perception of Minnesota coming into the season seems to be that they are rebuilding, which is often the case when you trade your franchise player for two first round picks. But since those first round picks have already been made and because Saunders made sure to bring in veteran talent so Flip the GM didn’t leave Flip the coach with a laughing stock of a team to coach, they are actually a pretty decent squad. Orlando should be able to hang with them the way they have in every one of their games this season, but I think Minnesota has a bit more quality and fluidity at this point in time.