A Look Back at the Timberwolves’ Best Start in 14 Years

October & November: Jimmy Butler Defers

The 2017-18 Wolves tipped off the season confronting playoff expectations for the first time in over a decade. After trading for Jimmy Butler on draft night, the rest of the team anticipated fitting around one of the league’s most brute high-volume scorers; a player who whose 4.3 points on average in clutch-time situations - defined as a game within five points with less than five minutes to play - was third in the NBA last season.

To start the year, Butler did bare great responsibility within the game plan, but it was with a different style than the one that made him an All-Star in Chicago. Instead of waring opposing defenses down with his incessant…