The Timberwolves are slated to start their season at 9:30 p.m. (local time) in Los Angeles against the Lakers. The stunning death of coach/President Flip Saunders has rightfully taken much of the recent focus off of basketball; that will start to shift in the coming days, bringing at least a partial focus back on the roster at hand and the building process that the Wolves are attempting.
As such, two things from a recent Rukkus NBA infographic caught my eye as they relate to the roster that was very much assembled by Flip.
1) In terms of average age per player, the Wolves, at 27.52 years old, are actually not young. The narrative is that they're young, but it doesn't match the reality. The average age of an NBA player this season is 26.92 years. And only 9 teams have an older average age than the Timberwolves. Much of that, of course, is a result of having two 39-year-olds (KG and Andre Miller) as well as a 35-year-old (Tayshaun Prince) to go with a ton of recent draft picks, including four guys who still can't legally buy a drink in the United States (Tyus Jones, Karl-Anthony Towns, Zach Lavine and Andrew Wiggins). This speaks to the interesting mix of old and young on the team — a move made by design by Saunders, who recruited those veterans to mentor the young guys.
2) Wolves players have the highest average draft position of any team in the league. That isn't surprising, again, with so many high picks on the roster (though it is impressive since they jettisoned former No. 1 overall pick Anthony Bennett this offseason). The talent is there; we'll see how it all fits together starting tonight.
