There is a complicated answer and a simple answer to explain why the Timberwolves have struggled in recent years.
Complicated: They are a franchise that always seems to have something go wrong, leading to restarts and the sort of instability that never allows real traction.
Simple: Their best player, Karl-Anthony Towns, missed 22 of 72 games last season and 29 of 64 games the year before that, preventing the Wolves from getting more than a passing glance at how their most recent reboot featuring Towns, D'Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards looks on the court.
The convergence of both ideas arrived Monday when the Wolves met en masse with the local media in advance of the start of training camp.