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Austin Rivers believes struggling Timberwolves will be just fine

jace frederick, pioneer press
·3 min read

Veteran guard Austin Rivers has played on bad teams before.

“So I know what it looks like,” he said.

And he does not believe this Timberwolves team belongs in that category.

“I don’t see it here. I just don’t see it. I don’t see this getting worse. I just don’t,” Rivers said. “It’s hard for me to see with the talent we have here, the competitiveness we have here, I don’t see this getting worse. I really don’t. We’ll be all right.”

That was Rivers’ overwhelming sentiment from his media availability Monday morning, hours ahead of Minnesota’s game against Denver. Yes, Rivers noted there was palpable frustration within the team following the Timberwolves’ loss Saturday to cellar dweller Detroit — Minnesota’s sixth straight defeat. When it rains, Rivers noted, it pours.

“But perspective is everything. I think the main thing for us right now is keeping perspective. Things could have easily been different in the past six games. We could’ve won three of those games. The Miami game, the New Orleans game, even the Boston game we were up for a certain amount of time late in that game. It’s just the way it works,” Rivers said. “But right now, sometimes in the league, when things aren’t going right, it just starts to pour, and it’s very easy to let negativity start to climb in. Everybody has this in their ear where they go back home, and everyone has the solution, everyone has an opinion, everyone is the smartest player in the world. That type of stuff can’t creep in. You’ve got to stay the course.”

Minnesota held a meeting in the locker room immediately following the Detroit loss. The Wolves likely shared many of the same sentiments that have been expressed publicly — the effort and execution all has to get better. Rivers said Minnesota has had enough team meetings, player meetings and film. At some point, actions have to speak.

“This isn’t rocket science. It’s basketball. We have professionals here. We’ve talked enough, you know what I mean. It’s just a matter of going out, doing it instead of saying it,” Rivers said. “Third quarters have been our thing this year where we’ll get up by 10 or 11 and things change a little bit. So, we got to just clean stuff like that up. Got to go get a win, man. Get the morale back, the spirit here. We have it here. Everyone enjoys working with each other. Everyone’s friends. We have more than enough on our roster. That’s not the issue, our roster. It’s a matter of us coming together and starting to pile wins together.”

It’s that camaraderie that has Rivers still believing in this team. Minnesota, he noted, is only a couple games out of a play-in spot at the moment, and still well within reaching distance of a top-six seed in the West. River said the Wolves are just one big win away from turning the tide and shifting the energy.

“This is that type of team we have here where if we’ve lost six in a row, you can win eight in a row or win five in a row,” Rivers said. “We have 47 games left in the season, we’re four or five games out from being the fifth spot or sixth spot. But it doesn’t give room for this margin to get wider. It’s not always going to be that case. So, these next 10, 20 games are very important for us.”

But Minnesota needs to realize that while also not placing added pressure on its own shoulders that will cause the team to tighten up, as has often happened when opponents austin riversmake runs in the second half of games.

“Everyone wants to win. Everyone wants to win right now. We’re trying to get this monkey off our back,” Rivers said. “We have a good team, we’ll be alright.”

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