To the surprise of nobody in Minnesota, TNT analyst Charles Barkley has jumped off the Timberwolves bandwagon at the earliest possible chance.
It took two consecutive losses for Barkley to lose faith in the team that has sat atop the Western Conference since November.
Minnesota was the final team in the NBA this season to lose twice in a row, and it took until the turn of the year to “accomplish” that. That was still enough for Chuck to say he doesn’t believe in Minnesota.
Here’s the extent of the conversation from Thursday night’s Inside the NBA:
“I don’t believe in Minnesota,” Barkley said.
“You don’t?” asked Shaq.
“I do not,” Barkley replied.
“You said if they kept it up by Christmas you might believe in them,” Kenny Smith noted.
“Well I don’t. They’ve lost two in a row and I don’t believe in them,” Barkley said.
Barkley then proceeded to claim the scariest team in the West is the Los Angeles Clippers, which left Shaq exasperated, saying, “You’ve been saying this for the last seven years in a row.”
Barkley doesn't believe in the Wolves because they lost 2 in a row pic.twitter.com/qA522Tbgmt
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) January 5, 2024
It’s no question the Wolves are in a funk of late, but to doubt them because of two losses in a row is weak.
Are there things the Wolves need to fix? Absolutely. Does that mean they’re not a legitimate contender? Absolutely not.
For the season, the Wolves have the best defensive rating in the league (109.1) but over the last 10 games, in which they have gone 6-4, Minnesota has dropped to the 10th best defensive rating (116.2). That’s still top 10 and can conceivably improve with still (checks the schedule) four months left in the season.
The Wolves are fifth in defensive rebounds per game this season with 34.3; over the last 10 games that’s dropped to 30.4 per game, good for 29th in the league.
Certainly there has been a dip in performance from the team that was running some of the best teams in the league out of the building on a nightly basis. The Wolves are still a full game up on the Oklahoma City Thunder for best in the West, just two games behind Boston for best in the entire league and just lost only their second home game of the season.
Let’s be honest though. If all it took to say you don’t believe in the Wolves is them losing two in a row, you never believed to begin with.
