The national basketball media is in Indianapolis this weekend to cover the NBA All-Star Game, which, strangely, features two Timberwolves players and the Wolves head coach.
Here’s a cheat sheet for the national media members, to help them catch up on the best story in pro basketball:
• The Timberwolves, sometimes referred to as the “Wolves” or “former laughingstocks,” are located in Minneapolis. Which is in Minnesota. Yes, it’s cold. Don’t make fun of us or we will write passive-aggressive anonymous social media posts about you.
• No, the Wolves are not a coastal or massive-market franchise, so, yes, you can continue to obsess over teams that will get your stories more clicks, such as the Lakers, Clippers, 76ers and Knicks. The Wolves, at 39-16, have a better record than all of them.
• You were almost all wrong about the Rudy Gobert trade, and you were wrong because you thought that the modern NBA has to be all about guard and wing play.
The pendulum is always swinging when it comes to sports trends. As soon as small lineups became a trend, someone was eventually going to try to capitalize on that trend by building a dominant front line. The Wolves, with Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns and Naz Reid, have a dominant front line.
Admit this, too: You assumed the Gobert trade was a joke because the Timberwolves made it, even though the individual who closed the deal, Tim Connelly, assembled the team that won a title in Denver.
• Your Karl-Anthony Towns slander was overdone, in a classic case of blaming an individual for a franchise’s failings.