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Slowly (And Fiercely) Making A Name For Himself

Dane MizutaniWeb Editorial AssociateEmail / Twitter

Shabazz Muhammad has been the best player on the Wolves this season — and whether that’s because of circumstance (the team is without three of its five starters) doesn’t really matter at this point.

Muhammad is here to stay.

“He might be the hardest playing guys in our league on a consistent basis,” Flip Saunders said.

There’s no question about that. Muhammad checks into the game and doesn’t stop hustling until Saunders takes him out. He can be seen diving for loose balls, soaring for rebounds, running with guys on the fastbreak, taking charges. You name it. He does it. That’s just the type of player he is on the court — and fans love it.

“He’s turning into one of the crowd favorites just because, especially in Minnesota, people love guys that play hard and give everything,” Saunders said. “There’s not one time I’ve had to say to him, ‘You’ve got to play harder.’”

That’s a far cry from the perception people had of Muhammad when the Wolves selected him out of UCLA a year and a half ago. That pick was met with mountains of backlash as fans questioned his heart after a mediocre freshman year at UCLA capped with a brutal loss to the Gophers in the NCAA Tournament. In a span of 40 minutes in that game against the Gophers, the perception of Muhammad unfairly shifted.

“He was probably the most misunderstood player … just because people thought he was a prima donna and everything else when he’s pretty much the total opposite of that,” Saunders said.

It didn’t help matters that Muhammad played sparingly as a rookie and even got sent to the NBDL for a few games midway through the season.

That’s the main reason his critics, those that have doubted Muhammad since the Wolves picked him with the No. 14 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, have eagerly awaited a drop off in his game this season.

How could a player change so much in a matter of months? This has to be a flash in the pan. This success isn’t sustainable.

Those critics might be right to a degree — he likely won’t average 18.3 points per game this year like he has over the last 10 games. Those critics, however, should stop hoping for him to fall off completely. That’s not going to happen.

His recent success, in reality, didn’t come out of nowhere. It started back in the day when he was “The Next Big Thing” as he tore up the AAU circuits in California, and picked back up on a beach in California this past offseason. 

Muhammad was admittedly out of shape last year and wasn’t ready for the grind of an 82-game season. That contributed to his struggles on the floor and he knew it.

So this offseason Muhammad changed. He spent about two months working with trainer Frank Matrisciano and got into the best shape of his life. Muhammad said he dropped more than 20 pounds amid his intense training sessions that consisted of “a lot of work with medicine balls” and running up and down the Santa Monica stairs, among other workouts. 

“This is the best I’ve felt in my NBA career,” Muhammad said at Training Camp in Mankato a few months ago. “I’m ready to get rolling.”

Muhammad hasn’t stopped rolling since the season started. His new body did come with a brief adjustment period, though.

“It feels like I’m shooting from halfcourt because all I’ve been doing for the last month and a half is messing with a 50-pound medicine ball in the sand,” Muhammad said a few months back. “I know everybody has been saying I look a lot stronger and that's something I'm going try to build on this season.” 

He has.

Muhammad clearly has adjusted to his new body at this point in the season and he’s using it to his advantage. He admitted he doesn’t get as tired in games and that allows him to hustle every minute he’s on the floor — a trait that’s becoming a trademark of Muhammad.

Muhammad is definitely here to stay — and he’s only going to get better.

“He wants to be a great player,” Saunders said. “There are a lot of people say they want to be great. He’s willing to make that commitment. He’s already signed up to go back there next year for eight weeks. He knows that it’s something that really helped him.

“He understands the opportunity he has and what he’s trying to do is he’s trying to set his position and his role in stone.”