CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Minnesota Timberwolves’ Western Conference finals implosion against the Oklahoma City Thunder has raised a fascinating hypothetical: Could Darius Garland be the missing piece that pushes Minnesota over the top?
On the latest Wine and Gold Talk podcast, Chris Fedor delivered a definitive take on how Garland’s skillset addresses Minnesota’s most glaring weakness: “I think Minnesota is a team that needs the stuff that Darius does well.”
As OKC dismantled Minnesota in Game 5, expanding their lead to as much as 39 points, the Timberwolves’ offensive limitations were painfully obvious.
Anthony Edwards, as talented as he is, simply didn’t have enough help creating offense when OKC’s swarming defense collapsed on him.
“Every time anybody but him put the ball on the floor, it was like a pack of hyenas going to the basketball,” Fedor explained. “Nobody else on the Timberwolves knew how to handle that pressure. Nobody else was able to consistently step up and alleviate some of that responsibility and some of that load from Anthony Edwards.”
This is exactly where Garland’s elite playmaking and shot creation could transform Minnesota’s offense.
Imagine Edwards, freed from the burden of creating everything, able to pick his spots more effectively or even work off-ball occasionally.
“Putting Darius next to Anthony Edwards puts an opposing defense in more of a bind all of a sudden. They have to make different decisions all of a sudden,” Fedor said, highlighting how Garland’s presence would force defenses to make choices about who to focus on.
The fit makes even more sense when you consider what Minnesota was relying on instead – a 37-year-old Mike Conley as their secondary creator. As Jimmy Watkins pointed out: “That’s just not the answer.”
The potential Garland-Edwards pairing is particularly intriguing because Minnesota has been eyeing Garland for years.
“They wanted Darius in 2019. They tried to trade up in the Cav spot to take Darius,” Fedor revealed. “They moved up, they were sitting there sixth and the Cavs went with Darius and they had to end up with Jarrett Culver and that was a disaster. But the whole goal was try and trade up to get Darius.”
While some question whether Garland’s defensive limitations would be exposed in the playoffs, the offensive upside might be worth the tradeoff.
Minnesota’s biggest failure against OKC wasn’t on defense – it was their inability to generate consistent offense against an elite defense.
Would adding Garland be enough to overcome the Thunder juggernaut? That’s debatable. But it certainly would have given Minnesota a fighting chance instead of the lopsided affair we witnessed.
Here’s the podcast for this week:
_Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from the Cleveland Wine and Gold Talk Podcast by cleveland.com. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions._