Grading Timberwolves season right now is premature and pointless

More than halfway through their first season with Rudy Gobert, the Minnesota Timberwolves are an average team.

Even after their dramatic, 128-126 victory over Toronto in a surprisingly loud Target Center on Thursday night, they are failing mathematically and optically.

That's both an accurate assessment, and the easy story of the moment.

The Wolves are one game behind the pace set by last year's Wolves, who did not have Gobert and took much of the season to figure out how to play together.

If we decide that this year's team is underachieving, then the architect, Tim Connelly, and the coach, Chris Finch, should be held responsible.

This is the way criticism cascades — from fact to perception.

But we should all take a breath before we decide that the Gobert trade, and this team, are failures.

The NBA is a league of stars. You can't win big without them.

The Timberwolves on Thursday were again without their best player, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Gobert, the player who was supposed to fix what ailed the franchise.

Yes, Towns remains the Wolves' best player, at least until Anthony Edwards completes his transformation into a superstar, a process that is incomplete and uncertain.

That's why grading the Wolves at this point is premature and pointless.

It's not that I'm certain the Gobert trade is going to turn out well. It's that I don't know how it's going to turn out. You don't either.

The idea behind the trade was that Gobert, Towns and Edwards would give the Wolves a chance to win playoff series for three or four years.

That's still in play.

Even after a disappointing first 47 games, the Wolves aren't far from where they should be relative to their competition.

They are one winning streak away from contending for the fifth seed. With Sacramento and New Orleans holding the third and fourth seeds, that would position the Wolves to win a playoff series for the first time since 2004.

A playoff victory in Gobert's first season would erase whatever consternation was felt during the regular season.

Minnesotans aren't just paranoid about their sports teams — they revel in their paranoia.

They want to compare the Gobert deal to the disastrous Herschel Walker trade, because that's the worst of all possibilities.

They want to conflate every daily disappointment caused by any local team with years of postseason failures.

Here are the ways the Gobert trade and this season could be a success, even if the current iteration of the Wolves continues to stumble:

-Towns returns with full health and fresh legs and the Wolves make a late season run and maybe even win a playoff series.

-By the end of the season, Towns, Edwards and Gobert look like the threesome Connelly, their basketball boss, envisioned them to be, even if that trio doesn't produce immediate playoff success.

-The Wolves take another calendar year to become one of the best teams in the West, and then defy franchise history by embarking on years of success.

The current team's problems are undeniable.

They commit far too many soft turnovers and fouls.

They aren't physical enough.

D'Angelo Russell usually makes too many casual mistakes and is a liability on defense, although he was excellent in the clutch on Thursday.

They lack interior defense when Gobert is sitting.

But we still have no idea what this team will look like with its best player available, and with its best player having acclimated to a new lineup and dynamic.

Let's see what this offense looks like with Towns shooting corner three-pointers. Let's see what Gobert looks like, long-term, now that he seems determined to dent some rims and foreheads.

The Wolves have remained in contention despite all of their problems and moving parts.

"When KAT went down, we had to find a new rhythm and keep our heads above water,'' coach Chris Finch said. "We've certainly done both. I love the way we're competing. The spirit in the locker room is great.''

Not only is the Wolves' season not over — in some ways it's barely begun.