Despite what the NBA standings wish to insist, not all wins are created equal.
On Saturday afternoon, the Minnesota Timberwolves played their most complete game of the season, thumping the Denver Nuggets by 29 points, a longtime rival that had won eight of their previous nine games.
The Wolves led wire-to-wire, increasing their advantage in every quarter, dominating at both ends of the court. They exploded for 40 points in the first period and limited Denver to just 13 in the final stanza. They scored a whopping 37 points off 19 Nuggets turnovers. Denver’s three-time MVP Nikola Jokic was strikingly helpless in all three of his rotations, his team outscored by 24 points in his 32:24 of playing time.
On Monday night, against an Atlanta Hawks team missing its three best players, and four of its top five, the victory was grotesque. Gazing at the ragtag starters opposing them – backup center Onyeka Okongwu was the only one even on the roster last season – the Wolves immediately went into cruise control and were still up 13-2 five minutes into the game.
The Hawks eventually brought in two capable subs, but the caliber of the foe didn’t provide as much resistance to the Wolves as their own arrogant nonchalance. They were shorn of purpose, discipline and the legitimate effort bruited by ball clubs who give a damn in order to keep their edge to face more rugged competition.
Consequently, a 17-point lead was fumbled down to six by the end of the third quarter and it was still a two-possession game with less than two minutes left to play. After the final score came in 100 – 92, Wolves Head Coach Chris Finch was clearly peeved during the postgame presser.
“We made it close, they didn’t make it close. That was a totally unacceptable second half of basketball,” Finch began. Asked for specifics, he replied, “Sloppiness, turnovers, approach.”
Finch actually gave his players a little too much credit when he said, “I thought we played really well to start the game, collectively. But yeah, we (don’t play hard) against short-handed teams and we bullshit. And it starts with our top guys.”
That would be Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle, the alpha leaders in committing to the shrug on Monday. Ant logged all 12 minutes in that dreadful third quarter, jacked up nine shots (making three) while doling out just one assist. Randle missed both his shots, had zero assists and three of his five turnovers in his 8:20 on the court in the third period.
Ant’s disinterest matters more. Where Randle is a laudable but seasonal ornament on the roster – acquired as a means to facilitate the Karl-Anthony Towns trade last September, it will be awkward if he is still with the Wolves for the 2025-26 campaign. Ant is a cornerstone, a charismatic talent who has become appointment viewing for a nation of basketball fans. His habits, attitude and dedication set the meter on the Wolves resilience and reveal skylights in any preconceived ceiling on their achievements.
On a night when he was a wet match against the dry tinder of inferior opponents, it was disappointing to hear Ant keep his distance from any meaningful self-critique after the game.
Rebutting Finch’s scathing portrayal of the second half, and third quarter in particular, Ant said, “I don’t think it was (that) we weren’t taking them seriously. I just think we weren’t making shots.”
But what about the nine turnovers in the third quarter?
“Trying to be aggressive,” Ant replied, but knew it was a weak response, so he pivoted to, “I don’t know, man. It’s part of the game. I can’t sit here and downplay the Hawks like they (were) just trash.”
Finch understands that this is a critical point in the Timberwolves season. He noted during his postgame press conference that the team’s play that night had “already been addressed in the locker room.” Or, as Ant put it, “He came in and cussed us out.”
But that’s because the team has been maddeningly inconsistent. Per John Schuhmann, the excellent writer and analyst at NBA.com, before Monday night, the Wolves had been three games over .500 on six occasions this season and had lost every time. It took a decrepit Hawks outfit to help finally hoist them to four games up in the win column, at 25-21.
Finch himself noted that he is grading his team’s play on a curve, which is why when it comes to simply beating the Hawks, in terms of, “What we’re trying to be as a team, where we’re trying to go, that not good enough.”
A proper thrashing of a weak opponent would have sustained the momentum generated from the way the Wolves blew out the Nuggets on Saturday, as they go into Phoenix Wednesday night to play a Suns team that has won eight of 10 is just a half-game behind the Wolves at 24-21.
Finch’s exasperation Monday night was almost certainly heightened by the fact that the Wolves entered the Hawks game closer to realizing their goal of being a legitimate championship contender than at any point during this lackluster season.
With 14 games played and two yet to go in January, the Wolves rank in the top 10 in both offensive rating (10th) and defensive rating (eighth) for the first time in a calendar month since an abbreviated four-game slate in April 2023. The last full month of games-played where they were top ten occurred back in March 2022, before the Gobert trade.
Obviously, since Rudy Gobert’s arrival, the Wolves defensive rating (fewest points allowed per possession) has been a monthly fixture in the top 10. The current reason for optimism is not only that the offensive efficiency (points scored per possession) has risen to better balance the team’s virtues, but that three of the primary catalysts for that rise are the trio of “second timeline” players on the roster: Ant, Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid.
Ant’s majestic skill set will always serve as a ballast for the Wolves at the offensive end of the court and while we can rightfully carp on a lazy game or two this month, the issue is more pertinent on the defensive side of the ball.
That said, even by Ant’s standards it has been quite a month. He has splashed at least seven more three-pointers than any other NBA player in January, due to 42.9% accuracy on ten attempts per game.
Yes, Ant has a career-low shooting percentage on two-point shots this season, but in January he has buttressed that aspect of his game by getting to the free throw more than anyone but the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo and making more free throws than anyone but Oklahoma’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. (even though Ant is shooting 84.2% at the line this month, SGA is 106 for 109, or 97.2%).
And yes, Ant leads the Wolves with four turnovers per game in January. But he also leads the team in assists this month, at 5.4 per contest.
Naz also is well-known for showcasing an array of potent skills on offense, but he too has upped it a notch in January, mostly by joining Ant in the bombardier club. Among players who have launched at least 50 treys in the month of January, nobody has been more accurate than Naz, who has gone 42-for-75, which is 56%. That puts him 51st in the NBA in the number of three-point takes, and 12th in the number of three-point makes. That has fueled his average of 16.4 points per game while logging just 26.8 minutes per contest thus far this month.
The revelation here is McDaniels, whose comprehensive ascendance during the month of January is the single greatest reason for optimism about these Timberwolves during the remainder of the 2024-25 season.
Few things were more discouraging than watching McDaniels spend the first three months of the season being appropriately ignored by defenses, who loaded up the gaps while guarding Ant and thus granted the Wolves wide open looks on three-pointers in the corner for Jaden. In the 32 games of the 2024 calendar year this season, McDaniels launched 119 treys and made 36, a measly 30.2%.
In January, boom! With a seismic show of aggression that Finch primarily credits to McDaniels himself, Jaden started moving without the ball, moving the ball when he got it, and making quick decisions – the three tenets of Finch’s flow offensive philosophy.
His corner treys are about the only things that hasn’t improved thus far in January – he is shooting 31%, 11-for-35. But on three-pointers above the break, he is 11-for-20, a robust 55%, giving him a monthly accuracy of 40% from distance in January so far.
That’s just the beginning. Because he’s being aggressive – taking the corner pass off the bounce to get to the rim or draw defenders and dish – McDaniels is determining his own shot selection, to marvelous results. Through December, he sank 53% of his two-pointer. Thus far in January, it is 61.3%. Throw in his 86.4% accuracy at the free throw line and you get a gaudy true shooting percentage of 63.4. For Jaden McDaniels, whose true shooting percentage in October, November and December were 50.2, 52.4 and 49.1, respectively.
Meanwhile, Finch has begun to tinker with occasionally taking McDaniels off the ball on defense against the other team’s best shooter, and choosing some spots to play him at power forward in smallball lineups with Randle or Naz as the other big. This has unlocked his ability to roam more effectively for rebounds, steals and blocks, while providing with more non-exhaustion energy otherwise spent trying to wear out ace opposing scorers.
(A cautionary note: Donte DiVincenzo is already out with a significant toe sprain, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker had to be helped off the court late in the game Monday with, as of Tuesday afternoon, was an undisclosed leg injury. If both of those staunch wing defenders are out, McDaniels may soon be back to logging more duty as a wing-stopper, limiting his versatility.)
Nevertheless, McDaniels is making his mark on the boards. Here are his rebounding per-game averages by month: October, 2.8. November, 4.0. December, 5.8. Thus far in January, 6.6. That puts McDaniels third on the team, behind Gobert and Randle, in rebounds per game this month. He is first in steals and second in blocks.
Best of all, as mentioned, Ant, Naz and McDaniels are all second-timeline players, meaning that they are the supposed core of the future Timberwolves when the first-line veterans such as Gobert, Mike Conley, and presumably Randle are gone.
Ant and McDaniels are both signed through the 2028-29 season, the year the qualifying offers on the rookie deals for Rob Dillingham and Terrence Shannon Jr. kick in. A central reason KAT had to be traded is to figure out a way to keep Naz in this contingent, as his contract expires with a $15 million player option for next season that represents maybe 60% of his market value.
If you are going to be a perpetually successful team, you have to make sure your long-term investments are sound. Along with losing KAT’s salary, a motivation for the trade with the Knicks was getting DiVicenzo, who is making “just” $12 million per season this year and the two beyond it.
So long as the Wolves have Gobert on the roster, defense will remain the identity for this team. But the remarkable recent growth in offensive efficiency exhibited by Ant, Naz and McDaniels indicates that the offensive may be able to share more of the load in the remaining three months of the season, and beyond into the second timeline.
Britt Robson
Britt Robson has covered the Timberwolves since 1990 for City Pages, The Rake, SportsIllustrated.com and The Athletic. He also has written about all forms and styles of music for over 30 years.
