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Why Wolves sent D-Lo to Los Angeles last week

Once more stuck in the slums of the West, Minnesota does not seem ready to see the playoffs again anytime soon. Next to the fields, on the other hand, the franchise is very active. She recently sent D’Angelo Russell to LA for a very specific purpose.

The seasons go by and look the same for the Timberwolves. Again extremely mediocre, the Minnesota men finished 13th in the West (23-49), light years away from being able to play even the Play-In-Tournament. The franchise reconstruction cycle is far from over …

As a result, the leaders and the coaching staff have chosen to use slightly less conventional methods, in order to advance the group. In order to familiarize the players with the playoffs, they decided to send them there, in order to follow the matches from the stands. Even D’Angelo Russell was no exception:

The Timberwolves took star guard D’Angelo Russell and Jaylen Nowell to Game 1 of the Lakers-Suns series to show them what it’s like to play in a hectic playoff series, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.

The plan is to continue sending players to big playoff games to get a feel for what to do to play at such a high level, the sources say.

A rather ironic choice of opposition, when we know that D-Lo made his NBA debut in LA… and that it did not go very well, to the point that he took the powder in the direction of Brooklyn. Nonetheless, Minnesota’s tactics are far from silly.

Indeed, seeing things rather than hearing about them is often much more productive. And when we know that the franchise has only played the postseason once in the last 18 years (2017-18, 5 games), we cannot say that it is the experience that suffocates the Cubs. Hence the decision to send the players as spectators to the current matches.

If they remain attentive, they will be able to draw interesting lessons from them, and put them into practice in 2021-22. With the Russell – Anthony Edwards – Karl-Anthony Towns trio, there is already an interesting foundation to build on (provided everyone stays healthy). Adding veterans to the squad during the offseason could therefore be a more than welcome move.

Failing to be able to play in the playoffs, the Wolves decided that their players had to go there themselves, in order to learn from the stands. We have known more stupid as a method of learning. Let’s just hope that it will bear fruit …

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