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Wolves and their fans endure the growing pains of winning

The Timberwolves reached their season's midway point Saturday with a 24-16 record, on a pace to approach 50 victories.

Yet sometimes it has been difficult to decipher if Wolves Nation is more miserable now than when its team lost 50 games almost annually.

They play too slow and play no defense. The NBA passed coach/president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau by his season away from coaching two years ago. Young star Andrew Wiggins' guaranteed max contract is salary-cap space spent foolishly. Their starters play too many minutes.

Considering the franchise lost at least 50 games nine times since it last reached the 2004 playoffs, all the chatter seems a bit overboard.