The Minnesota Timberwolves were good last season. They were a fun team that had a lot of heart and had a lot of scoring. They finished 7th in the West and after beating the Clippers in the Play-In Tournament they took on the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the playoffs. After splitting the first 4 games the Wolves blew 4th quarter leads in games 5 and 6, after blowing multiple big leads in game 3, and were sent home in a disappointing turn of events. As a result, they made a big trade and are all in in 2023. The Wolves are loading up for this season and they are going to be really good.
On July 1st, the Wolves acquired 3-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert from the Utah Jazz. They sent Patrick Beverly, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Walker Kessler, Leandro Bolmaro, 3 unprotected first round picks in 2023, 2025, and 2027, a top 5 protected pick in 2029, and a pick swap in 2026 to Utah for the Frenchman. That is a whole lot of stuff and many questioned if Gobert is worth it, did the Wolves overpay. The answer to the question on if the Wolves overpaid is yes, to trade all those picks along with talented young players and veterans who helped their team is a lot and a trade that I would not have had the stomach to make. However, I do not think it matters that they overpaid. Rudy Gobert is really good, the man was the entire Utah Jazz defense over the past few seasons. The Jazz finished 10th in defensive rating last season and if you watched that team in the Dallas series you know that they had zero perimeter defenders. In 2020-21 they finished 3rd in defensive rating in the regular season and that team also got embarrassed off the court on the perimeter. Rudy Gobert is so good at defending the rim and that all a team needs to do is funnel players to the paint and Gobert is going to ensure a top 10 defense in the regular season. Last season the Wolves finished 13th in defensive rating so adding Gobert to a team that has guys that can actually defend the perimeter like Anthony Edwards, Tauren Prince, Jaden McDaniels and newly signed Kyle Anderson could lead to a team that finishes in the top 5 defensively and is a regular season wins machine.
There are some people who have questions about the Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert front court but I have none. Towns essentially played the four on offense last season with Jarred Vanderbilt playing the 5. He has always been more comfortable playing on the perimeter, as many have made the argument that Towns is the greatest 3 point shooting big of all time. Karl-Anthony Towns is a complete offensive player, he is a good passer, can put the ball on the floor, is an elite shooter, can score in the post, and is a really good screener. Playing him at the 4 allows you to not have him protect the paint and avoid taking the beating that centers take on a nightly basis. Acquiring a center to play next to Towns makes a lot of sense, acquiring arguably the best defensive player in the sport to play next to Towns is a really good move. Rudy Gobert also gives D’Angelo Russell an elite pick and roll partner. Last season Rudy Gobert led the NBA in screen assists per game at 6.3 per game. Though I do not know the exact definition of what a screen assist is, I can tell you that a screen assist is when someone sets a screen that is essentially like a wall that stops the defender from continuing to guard the player who the screen is being set for. If there is one thing D’Angelo Russell is elite at on a basketball court it’s being the ball handler in the pick and roll so now you give him the best screener in the sport, Russell has a chance to have a monster season in a year when he is set to hit free agency.
The starting 5 of the Timberwolves will likely be D’Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Rudy Gobert. That is not a good starting 5, it is an elite starting 5. It has 3 players who have been All-Stars and the best player may not even be one of those 3 players. Entering year 3, Anthony Edwards is coming off of a season where he averaged 21.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 3.8 assists on .44/.36/.78 shooting splits. That guy is going to be a superstar and is a player that should take a step this season and will have a monster season. Jaden McDaniels is a really good perimeter defender who can guard positions 1-4 and should fit like a glove with the rest of the starting 5. Off of the bench Kyle Anderson, Jaylen Nowell, Taurean Prince (assuming all of his legal stuff is okay), Naz Reid, Wendell Moore Jr., and others will provide Minnesota with quality depth that will help them in the regular season. I think the Wolves are going to pump out wins in the regular season, 50 plus wins seems likely in my eyes and a top 3 seed in the West is certainly possible and something I think I am going to pick.
The Wolves are in the hunt to be one of the best teams in the West. They are worried about the teams at the top of the conference like the Warriors, Clippers, Nuggets, Suns, Mavericks, and Grizzlies. I think Golden State and the Clippers are in a tier by themselves in the West and are the clear cut favorites to win the conference and go to the NBA Finals. However, I do think that pending on how Russell and Edwards play this season that the Wolves can enter that conversation. They should have beat the Grizzlies 1st round last season and now that they have gotten better, I think they have a better roster than Memphis does. Dallas lost Jalen Brunson and did not replace him so that team has taken a step back even with the additions of Christan Wood and JaVale McGee and the return of Tim Hardaway Jr. I am not betting on the Suns to win much of anything in the playoffs next season because I look at the game 7 loss they had similarly to what the Jazz entailed when they blew the series against the Clippers in 2021 and I was burned for picking Utah to bounce back. The Nuggets are frisky. They have a legit case that they can win the West with the team they have. With Nikola Jokic coming off of back to back MVP seasons and the return of Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., to go along with the depth that they have added, Denver has a case they should be one of the favorites to win the West. As a result of this I think Minnesota is worse than Denver is but I can see a world where they have a more successful season than the Nuggets because I do not trust Michael Porter Jr. and Jamal Murray is coming off of a major knee injury. The Western Conference is a gauntlet but the Timberwolves are legit and have a chance to do some real damage in the Western Conference playoffs.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are really good. They should have one of the best defenses in the NBA and have an offense that could also be one of the best in basketball. Although I do not think they are as good as the Warriors or Clippers, the path to get to at least the Western Conference Finals is there and trading all of those picks to become a perennial playoff threat in the West is worth it. This is a franchise that has been out of the first round once in their existence, a franchise that has won 50 games just four times, a franchise that has watched their best players have to leave to go win elsewhere. The Timberwolves have not done a lot of winning in their history, and adding Rudy Gobert gives them the opportunity to win a lot of games. They have been one of the laughing stocks of the NBA for years now and now not only are we talking about them making the playoffs but making noise in the playoffs for years to come. The Minnesota Timberwolves saw last season as a stepping stone and knew they needed to continue to build off of that and that is what they are doing, so let’s not worry about championships for a minute and get excited for this new era of Timberwolves basketball, one that hopefully has a lot of winning involved.
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