Philadelphia 76ers fittingly face Minnesota Timberwolves to earn playoffs

The Rivaly renews

Thanks to the media attention over that first meeting of the 2016-2017 season, the rebuild rivalry of the two teams renewed. Philadelphia 76ers fans, still hoping for better days to come, pointed to the Timberwolves as a team the Philadelphia 76ers could emulate. After all, the Timberwolves won 29 games on the year following their addition of Karl Anthony Towns.

After onboarding Saric and Embiid, the Philadelphia 76ers won 28 games. So the Timberwolf template was sound, to a degree. The model was a solid comparison of placing top rookie NBA talent onto a roster, and right-setting win estimates based on the young players learning curves.

Timberwolves Tom “Terrific” Thibodeau

But Minnesota experienced a hiccup in the 2016-2017 season  A team many thought would compete for an NBA Playoff spot did little to improve. And that forced Philadelphia 76ers fans to question their own potential for this season. The change at head coach to Tom Thibodeau reset the T-Wolves learning curve. Implementing the new scheme diverted energy from progress on wins towards transforming the team’s mechanics.

Thankfully, the comparisons were debunked by our own Jason Blevins.  But the Philadelphia 76ers did improve, and now this season are as successful as the Timberwolves. Today’s game, in addition to being a win which sends the Philadelphia 76ers a guaranteed invite to the NBA Playoffs, had the added bonus of ranking which team has come farther.