MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES DOMINATE END-OF-SEASON AWARDS WITH 4 WINNERS

The Minnesota Timberwolves are among the favorites to win the NBA championship, but this season is a success regardless of the postseason outcome.

The Wolves were one of the league's feel-good stories this season, winning 56 games and emerging as a legitimate contender.

As if that wasn't impressive enough, Minnesota claimed four of the nine end-of-season awards: Defensive Player of the Year (Rudy Gobert), Sixth Man of the Year (Naz Reid), Teammate of the Year (Mike Conley), and Social Justice Champion (Karl-Anthony Towns).

Gobert's Defensive-Player-of-the-Year award was the fourth of his career. The French center averaged 2.1 blocks and 0.7 steals as the anchor of Minnesota’s lockdown defense. Their defense is holding steady in the playoffs thus far, even against the defending champion Denver Nuggets.

Reid took home Sixth Man of the Year over Malik Monk (Sacramento Kings) and Bobby Portis (Milwaukee Bucks). Reid thrived behind Gobert and Towns, but the honor came with some controversy as he started more than a dozen games down the stretch. 

Conley and Towns each received an honor, but not for on-court production. Conley was named the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year for the second time in his career, previously winning in 2019. Meanwhile, Towns was named the Social Justice Champion, an award handed out in honor of all-time great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Although Anthony Edwards did not obtain any hardware, it’s safe to say that if Minnesota wins the title, he will likely be the NBA Finals MVP.

The Wolves are leading the Nuggets 2-0 in the Western Conference Semifinals.

2024-05-10T16:44:07Z dg43tfdfdgfd