Wolves notes: Coach doesn't regret taking 76ers job

The group of media at the Philadelphia 76ers' morning shoot-around was big, far bigger than you'd expect a struggling team to draw. But people like history, even if it's the kind of history most would like to avoid.

The 76ers entered Wednesday's game with the Wolves at Target Center having started the season 0-17. They beat the Wolves 85-77 and didn't get to 0-18, which would have equaled the worst start in history, put together by the New Jersey Nets in the 2009-10 season.

Still, coach Brett Brown was called on to explain that 0-17 mark, and he repeated what he's been saying for a while now. He has a young team. Inexperienced, made more so by injuries. Development is the key, and so short-term losses are a necessary evil. "We have the youngest team in the history of the sport," Brown said. "We have a team with the least experience in the history of the game. It's not a great combination."

Still Brown — who experienced nothing but success as a longtime assistant with the San Antonio Spurs — said he would take the job, the challenge, again. Not that all the losing hasn't been hard.

"I think when the lights go out, and it's quiet, you think a lot," he said. "This is hard. But you come back into the gym, and you see these young guys, and you're reminded why you took the job, and left Disneyland in San Antonio, and you have a new level of juice. … When do you have a chance to come in and put your thumbprint on a culture, and have a chance to grow it?''

His young, athletic team has a number of players who had never experienced an NBA win before Wednesday. To 76ers veteran (and ex-Wolf) Luc Mbah a Moute, that was the most amazing thing. "People ask me if it's hard to lose this many games," he said. "If we were a team with veterans, it would be totally hard. But these guys are positive, they come to work every day, they bring energy. That makes it different."

Both Brown and his players said they weren't using avoiding a historically bad start as motivate to play better. "That's the wrong way to put it," Michael Carter-Williams said. "It's just coming in, working hard every day."

Wolves rookie Andrew Wiggins got the first of what should be many honors to come when he was named Western Conference rookie of the month for November.

Wiggins, second among rookies in scoring (11.8) to Milwaukee's Jabari Parker, becomes the sixth Wolves player to win the award, joining Gorgui Dieng (March 2014), Ricky Rubio (January 2012), Kevin Love (March 2009), Randy Foye (December 2006) and Stephon Marbury (January 1997).

Wiggins averaged 11.6 points (second to Parker among league rookies), 3.7 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 15 games, all starts. Among Western Conference rookies, Wiggins was first in scoring, steals and minutes played, second in blocks and third in rebounding. He led all rookies in three-point shooting (44.0 percent).

Wiggins said he's gotten a lot more comfortable on the court, particularly with the pace of the game. Wolves coach Flip Saunders said that Wiggins had a solid month but that there is room for improvement. "I try to talk to him about hard all the time," Saunders said. "He knows that. I want him to run harder. I know that's something he can do. But overall, with what I've asked him to do, as far as defense, he has risen to every challenge."