Shabazz Muhammad matures into a piece of the Timberwolves' future

Some players enjoy breakout seasons on great, visible teams, leading to a season-long coronation of hot takes and praise.

Others suddenly morph from disappointing rookies to promising sophomores in a far away land the casual fan only learns about through highlights and boxscores, like a a 16-win team in Minnesota, for example.

Enter Shabazz Muhammad.

Cynics could be forgiven for casting Muhammad aside coming into the 2014-15 season, as after a slightly controversial ending to his lone collegiate season at UCLA, a 21-year-old Muhammad averaged less than eight minutes and four points as a Timberwolves rookie in 2013-14.

The young swingman wouldn't go away quietly, though, and despite oblique and finger injuries that limited him to only 38 games, he now appears to have earned himself a place in Minnesota's exciting future.

With Kevin Love's departure initiating a necessary T-Wolves rebuild and questions at the wing, Muhammad got a chance to log consistent playing time from the onset of the season. It did him wonders, as while he again struggled at times through the campaign's opening weeks, he quickly figured things out.

The first sign was a 28-point, 12-of-17 shooting performance in a Nov. 30 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. In the previous 51 games of Muhammad's career, he had cracked the 20-point mark only once. Beginning with his 28 in Portland, Shabazz would go on to score more than 20 seven times in his next 16 games, culminating with a career-high 30 points on 10-of-17 shooting Dec. 30 in Utah.

He played in only eight more contests the rest of the way due to his aforementioned injury issues, but small sample size be damned, Muhammad made his mark on what was to be a season of development in Minnesota.

With the Timberwolves dealing with injury issues of their own before Muhammad went down with an oblique strain, he also made the most of a brief stint as a starter, averaging roughly 17 points, five rebounds and two assists on a 46-45-84 shooting line in more than 32 minutes per game over 11 consecutive starts in late December and early January.

Again, we're dealing with extremely small sample sizes, Muhammad has yet to even crack the 40-game barrier in a season yet, and he's a defensive liability, but the T-Wolves don't necessarily need him to be as good as he was in that stretch as a starter.

With Andrew Wiggins, Ricky Rubio, and one of Karl-Anthony Towns or Jahlil Okafor likely incoming by the way of the No. 1 overall pick (not to mention Gorgui Dieng and Zach LaVine), Minnesota will soon have something legitimate to work with in terms of a core going forward, and a solid defensive one at that.

If Muhammad can simply be the more consistent scorer and shooter he appeared to mature into this season, the T-Wolves will be thrilled.