The Minnesota Timberwolves have made the playoffs exactly one time in the last 15 seasons.
I know, I know, we didn’t break any news with that statement. But it’s the perfect set-up to the problem that we’re about to try and solve.
In that one season, the Wolves had two stars — two All-Stars, in fact. At no other point in those 15 seasons did the Wolves have two legitimate All-Stars playing together anywhere near their respective primes.
Sure, Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell were on the 2004-05 team that won 44 games and missed the playoffs, but Cassell was a shell of himself in just 58 games and 34-year-old Sprewell was far from being a star, averaging just 12.