Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Timberwolves' Four Consecutive Defeats

“Oh, man, who could have predicted that a team boasting Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Zach LaVine would win just one of their first six games this season!” At the Amway Center in Orlando, the ESPN commentator sounded utterly exasperated. “Before arriving in Orlando, they endured a four-game losing streak in Brooklyn. This is far beyond what anyone expected of this young squad at the start of the season.”

The Minnesota Timberwolves, since the departure of their leader Kevin Garnett for Boston, had not returned to the playoffs. During that time, Kevin Love, heralded as the hope for a Timberwolves resurgence, put up impressive numbers but failed to bring the elusive gene of winning to the team.

After trading Kevin Love for the 2014 first overall pick, Andrew Wiggins, and then selecting another top pick, Karl-Anthony Towns, the following year, and adding the electrifying dunk contest winner and scoring guard, Zach LaVine, the world’s media waited in anticipation. With a season of adjustment and a summer of growth behind them, the Timberwolves were expected to unleash a roar that would shake the NBA.

Yet so far, the young Timberwolves have been underwhelming.

In the season opener against the Memphis Grizzlies, Wiggins, Towns, and LaVine—the Timberwolves’ young trio—combined for 65 points, but still succumbed to defeat. Though they managed a win in the next outing, the four games that followed were nothing short of a nightmare.

Towns was thoroughly outplayed by Cousins, and the Timberwolves fell in Sacramento. The trio combined for 71 points, but they narrowly lost to the Denver Nuggets. These close losses exposed numerous issues within the young team.

In the two subsequent defeats, their tactics became increasingly simplistic. They suffered a crushing loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, despite Towns exploding for 33 points and 8 rebounds—yet the team was still soundly beaten.

After that game, Karl-Anthony Towns—a talented young big man—faced the press looking visibly distressed, vowing to help the team climb out of their rut.

Yet even against the struggling Brooklyn Nets, the Timberwolves wandered like lost lambs. Andrew Wiggins set a new personal season high with 36 points and added 7 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Nets, who had seven players scoring in double digits, from claiming victory on their home floor.

“This feels awful. I never thought we’d lose in Brooklyn,” Wiggins, usually so modest, was visibly frustrated as he faced the cameras after the game. “Everyone on our team wanted to win this one, but the reality is we lost. Our opponents played better than we did.”

“We’ll give it our all in the next game. Losing really stings!”

No one can accept repeated defeats, least of all these prodigies who entered the league as number one picks. This was Wiggins’s third year in the NBA—the season he needed to deliver results.

Recalling his 36-point effort in the previous game that still ended in defeat, Wiggins, now at the Amway Center practicing his shots, grew increasingly agitated. He grabbed the ball, took two dribbles, and exploded to the rim for a soaring, powerful dunk.

“Andrew, you’re in great form today!” Towns, who had been practicing hook shots under the basket, retrieved the ball for his teammate and tossed it back.

“Karl, I’m always in top form,” Wiggins replied, securing the ball tightly in both hands, his arms taut and muscles well-defined—a clear testament to his hard work during the offseason.

But the team’s current predicament weighed heavily on the young star. The Timberwolves had traded Love for Wiggins, staking their future on him. As the franchise cornerstone, all criticism and responsibility would crash over him like waves if the team failed to perform.

In competitive sports, there is no forgiveness for the defeated.

“Michael, come here a moment.”

While the two top picks exchanged a few words on the Timberwolves’ side, the home team’s coach, Frank Vogel of the Magic, appeared calm as he issued instructions to his players. He motioned for Michael Wu, who was warming up nearby, to come over.

Pointing to the two Timberwolves under the basket, Vogel asked, “See those two young men over there?”

“Andrew Wiggins and... Karl-Anthony Towns?” Wu’s eyesight was good enough; following Vogel’s gesture, he immediately recognized the pair under the basket. He was a bit puzzled, though. “Coach, you don’t think I wouldn’t know who they are, do you?”

“Oh, those are back-to-back number one picks—superbly talented prodigies who will change the face of the NBA!” As soon as Wu started talking about formidable opponents, he became animated. “They’re the representatives of the new generation!”

“Michael, do you really think I need you to tell me that?” Unmoved and a little impatient, Frank Vogel cut in after Wu’s passionate speech. “My point is, just like Joel Embiid, the other side has talent of the same caliber.”

“I want you to watch this game closely. Watch and learn.”

With that, Vogel, wary that Wu might launch into another monologue, quickly signaled for D.J. Wyllie-Cauley-Stein to join him, sending Wu back to continue warming up.

“Watch closely... Learn carefully...” Though Vogel’s instruction was brief, Wu couldn’t stop muttering those words to himself as he warmed up, keeping a constant eye on the other half of the court, observing what those two top picks were doing.

Of course, as Towns was a big man, Wu only glanced his way. Instead, he focused on Wiggins, who, like him, played at the forward position.

It had to be said: Andrew Wiggins was every bit worthy of his status as a number one pick. At least during the warm-up, Wu could see that Wiggins possessed exceptional athleticism and a solid shooting touch, and his physical prowess was simply explosive.

In the short time Wu spent observing, Wiggins threw down three or four dunks in a row—his athletic gifts left Wu practically drooling with envy.

He had undergone his own physical assessments, and had felt reasonably good about his abilities, but Vogel had never given him the exact numbers. The only evaluation he’d offered was a dismissive “average.”

This made Wu look on with envy at others’ aerial feats. If only he could dunk as easily as Wiggins, he thought, then at least he could contribute something on offense, for now.

At that thought, Wu couldn’t help but recall Vogel’s words: Watch closely. Learn carefully.