Playoff-tested veterans can only help Wolves

MINNEAPOLIS – The Lakers are beating the Timberwolves, 744-149.

No, that's not the score of a ridiculously long game of 5-on-1. It's not the all-time series record, either – Los Angeles leads that, 75-25 – or some kind of television market size comparison.

That margin, 744-149, quantifies the number of playoff games in which each roster has participated. It measures a tradition of winning as much as it gauges a team's expectations and ability to handle pressure situations, and in those metrics, it's easy to see a gap between the Western Conference's elite teams and its hopeful contenders.

As the Lakers' roster stands on Aug. 23, all but one of its players have competed in at least one playoff game. Fourteen Lakers have combined for a 387-357 record in 622 playoff starts. They've done the playoff routine, over and over, and it without a doubt gives them an edge.

That supposed playoff edge, no matter how real or imagined it might be, has been something of a focal point to Minnesota this offseason. Of the six players it has added to the roster, four have experience in the NBA playoffs, and the team is happy to tout that. In addition, one of the two without NBA playoff experience, guard Alexey Shved, has won two Euroleague championships, and when point guard Ricky Rubio returns, the team will gain his two FIBA European Championship gold medals and his 2008 Eurocup championship experience.

Rubio and Shved are young, but more than just a birthday is a factor when it comes to experience. While the Timberwolves concentrated on getting older this offseason, they also had to look for players who have competed at high levels and who could translate what they learned there to help Minnesota.

"We still have a young locker room, and we still have a locker room – with the exception of Ricky who has played professionally for a number of years and J.J. last year – (of) guys (who) haven't played on the highest level on the biggest stages," Timberwolves' president of basketball operations David Kahn said in July.

The Timberwolves seem pleased with their added experience, but by the numbers it isn't much of an improvement. Last season, their roster had a collective 147 games of playoff experience among six players, and next season will mark just a two-game improvement with the same number of postseason-savvy players. This year's bunch has a worse winning percentage than last year's, .477 to .497, but if it's possible to ignore those numbers, do.

Before crying foul, think of it this way: Any kind of boost players with postseason experience provide is largely intangible. It can't be measured or quantified, and it deserves a closer look than just the black-and-white metrics of number and record. The Timberwolves were never going to attract the years of playoff experience a Dwight Howard or Steve Nash would bring. They don't have the winning history to do so, and what they ended up getting, though not a huge numerical difference, is an improvement nonetheless.

Of the six players with playoff experience on the roster last season, only two remain: Luke Ridnour (40 games, seven starts) and J.J. Barea (18 games, 11 starts). Barea won a championship in 2011 with the Mavericks, and both players expressed their desire to win again on this team last season – Barea more vocally than his quieter counterpart. The other four players with such experience are gone, and for a reason. Brad Miller (50 games, 21 starts) boasted more playoff experience than any player on either last season's or this upcoming season's roster and was a mature force in the clubhouse. But he was a non-factor on the court, more than a decade older than most of his teammates, and he's now retiring. Besides Miller, Martell Webster (six games, no starts), Michael Beasley (12 games, five starts) and Darko Milicic (21 games, seven starts) were all far from clubhouse leaders, hardly the players to whom a team is going to turn for advice or improved focus.

It's not hard to see that what appeared to be playoff experience last season looked better on paper than in reality.

This year, the Timberwolves have retained Barea and Ridnour, which makes sense as they wait for Rubio to recover. They've also gained a wealth of experience in Andrei Kirilenko, who has started 36 of the 45 playoff games in which he's appeared. He spent the first 10 seasons of his career with one team, the Utah Jazz, and he's seen first-hand how to make winning a consistent priority. Brandon Roy (15 games, seven starts) has also seen his share of postseason play in Portland, and as one of the most respected players in the game, he'll be a mature force in the locker room. Dante Cunningham (12 games, no starts) and Greg Stiemsma (19 games, no starts) are too young to have impressive playoff resumes, but each has come to expect a playoff berth and must know how to comport himself in such pressure situations.

And then there's Kevin Love. The Timberwolves forward has been outspoken about his need to win soon, and his time with Team USA this summer only intensified those feelings. But the weeks Love spent mingling with the league's best and contributing in London did more than incite in him a rampant case of jealousy; they also added to his resume, bringing the Timberwolves a gold medal and a player who knows what it's like to compete with and against the best in high-pressure situations.

The backbone of playoff and high-level experience that the Timberwolves have assembled so far this offseason will likely remain unchanged as the season begins. Although comparing it with teams like the Lakers might cause them a massive inferiority complex, the Timberwolves need to get over it and realize that though their roster is far from perfect – and really, whose isn't? – it has improved.

They must take advantage of the experience they've gained. It won't guarantee them a playoff spot, but it certainly isn't hurting.

"I don't want to come out and put that pressure on a team," Roy said of the Timberwolves' playoff chances in July. "But we've got a lot of really nice pieces… With the pieces we have, we can definitely take that next step with getting to the playoffs. We want to work toward that. We don't want to talk it up. Guys have to come up here and work and prove it on the floor."

All of that, from the unwillingness to project to the demand for work, should be making Kahn salivate. If that kind of attitude pervades the team, it will be a sharp turn in the right direction. That's not to say the Timberwolves will make it out of the playoffs' first round or even that they'll make the postseason at all. But they have a chance, and with every playoff game the team can scrape through, its resume will look better and better.

The only way to handle a margin like that 744-149 one is to play. Forget about being underdogs. Forget about the injuries and bad luck that doomed them last season, forget that it could all happen again. Win, and experience goes from coveted to present. Win, and the margin closes.

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