Monday’s contest between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Utah Jazz featured two teams who have been in the bottom of the pack in the West for quite a number of years.
The Jazz have been trying to find a way to re-identify themselves since trading away Deron Williams in 2011. The Timberwolves have essentially failed to recover since trading away Kevin Garnett in 2007, although their downfall began even with Garnett on the team.
It was a bit of a surprise, then, to see what former player and analyst of the Jazz Matt Harpring had to say about these respective teams:
I have a hunch you will see Minnesota and the Jazz in the near playoff future. Both teams have great young talent — matt harpring (@mharpring15) March 24, 2015
Harpring actually has a case for his own team. The Jazz have a 12-5 record since the All-Star break – one of the best marks in the league. It’s no fluke either, given the emergence of center Rudy Gobert and his rapid rise to utter dominance on the defensive end. With Alec Burks returning next season, the growth of Rodney Hood, the continued development of core figures like Gobert, Dante Exum, Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors and more draft picks on the way in the summer, the future looks truly bright for this team.
The Timberwolves, on the other hand, still look ways away from making serious noise in the West any time soon. Maybe it’s something in the water in Minnesota, but this team has been riddled with injuries for seemingly an endless number of years. Rubio is always suffering from some kind of significant injury, Nikola Pekovic always seems to have sore ankles, and Kevin Martin has been in and out of the lineup for most of his career.
The good news is that the hype on Andrew Wiggins coming into the season certainly turned out to be real, and that is something to build on. The Timberwolves will need a much better foundation than that to seriously compete in the West, though, so Harpring’s prediction will likely have to wait a while, unless drastic changes are made with its current core rotation.
Jim Park is a blogger and editor of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.