#CrystalBasketball: Ranking the Minnesota Timberwolves for 2018-19

How does every NBA player stack up heading into 2018-19, based solely on the level at which we expect them to play during the upcoming season?

That’s the question NBA Math staff members and a select group of site friends are seeking to address, ranking each and every player in the sport’s premier league on a 1-to-12 scale and then seeing who emerged with the highest averages. The distant past was irrelevant. Long-term potential doesn’t matter. Only what could come to pass in 2018-19 is factored in, assuming health for those currently healthy and full recoveries from those presently injured. For example, DeMarcus Cousins will still be included in this analysis; we just assumed he’d already completed his rehab for the ruptured Achilles and now has that as a prior portion of his overall injury history.

All players were graded on the following scale by each evaluator, and ties between players with identical averages were broken by sorting the scores from best to worst and propping up the men who had the highest mark at any point in the top-down progression:

  1. Shouldn’t Get Minutes
  2. End-of-Bench Pieces
  3. Depth Pieces
  4. High-End Backups
  5. Low-End Starters
  6. Solid Starters
  7. High-End Starters, Non-All-Stars
  8. All-Star Candidates
  9. All-NBA Candidates, Non-MVP Candidates
  10. Lesser MVP Candidates
  11. MVP Frontrunners
  12. Best Player in the League (only one player could earn this grade on each ballot)

Journey with us team by team as we unveil the entirety of these rankings, culminating in a look at every player set to suit up for the 2018-19 campaign.

Today’s featured squad? The Minnesota Timberwolves.

Shouldn’t Get Minutes: 1.00 to 1.49

16. Jared Terrell, 1.07 (Not graded after 2017-18)

End-of-Bench Pieces: 1.50 to 2.49

15. James Nunnally, 1.52 (Not graded after 2017-18)

14. Aaron Brooks, 1.78 (0.05 up)

13. Justin Patton, 1.89 (0.34 up)

11(tie). Luol Deng, 2.04 (0.05 down)

11(tie). Keita Bates-Diop, 2.04 (Not graded after 2017-18)

10. Josh Okogie, 2.38 (Not graded after 2017-18)

9. Derrick Rose, 2.44 (0.35 up)

Depth Pieces: 2.50 to 3.49

None

High-End Backups: 3.50 to 4.49

8. Gorgui Dieng, 3.56 (0.17 down)

7. Anthony Tolliver, 3.85 (0.4 up)

6. Tyus Jones, 4.41 (0.14 down)

Low-End Starters: 4.50 to 5.49

5. Taj Gibson, 4.67 (0.42 down)

4. Andrew Wiggins, 5.25 (0.43 up)

Solid Starters: 5.50 to 6.49

3. Jeff Teague, 5.52 (0.21 down)

High-End Starters: 6.50 to 7.49

None

All-Star Candidates: 7.50 to 8.49

None

All-NBA Candidates: 8.50 to 9.49

2. Karl-Anthony Towns, 8.93 (0.16 down)

  1. Jimmy Butler, 9.18 (0.46 down)

Lesser MVP Candidates: 9.50 to 10.49

None

MVP Frontrunners: 10.50 to 12.00

None

Many thanks to Adam Fromal, Adam Spinella, Alec Nathan, Andy Bailey, Arjun Baradwaj, Ben Leibowitz, Ben Taylor, Bryant Knox, Dan Favale, Dave DuFour, Eric Spyropolous, Frank Urbina, Jacob Bourne, Jacob Goldstein, Joel Cordes, Jordan McGillis, Josh Eberley, Justin Carter, Matt Way, Nate Wolf, Nicholas Sciria, Rory Breasail, Ryan Blackburn, Sean Highkin, Simon Cherin-Gordon, Tim Stubbs and Tony East for their grading contributions.