The Minnesota Timberwolves have been a laughing stock of the NBA for years. Those fans had to endure so much losing, the Jimmy Butler practice, the failed Andrew Wiggins experiment, the failed Kevin Garnett trade, and did I mention the losing? Those fans, that city, and this franchise have waited so long for a team like this that they can grab onto and they have one. Anthony Edwards is a star, Rudy Gobert is the Defensive Player of the Year, and the Timberwolves are a threat in the Western Conference.
After losing to the Suns by double digits all 3 times they played in the regular season and looking like they did not have an answer defensively, the best defense in the NBA locked in during this series and turned off the Suns water during the first 2 games before a pair of Anthony Edwards explosions in the desert pushed the Wolves over the top in the sweep. Their offense was great throughout the series, scoring over 100 points in each of the 4 games and scoring over 113 points per 100 possessions in all 4 games. The Suns had no answer for anything Minnesota did offensively. After the Suns had their way with the Wolves in the regular season, they had no answer for the Wolves in this series and it was not a fluke. It really felt like Anthony Edwards was the best player on the court for the entire series, scoring over 30 points in 3 games, including 40 points in the close out game, where he absolutely ended Kevin Durant with a massive dunk in the 4th quarter. Over the 4 games, Edwards averaged 31.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 2.0 steals on shooting splits of .51/.44/.84. Edwards was dominant and this series was not a fluke for him or Minnesota, the Timberwolves are a really good basketball team with a lot of weapons on both sides of the court and Edwards is blossoming as a superstar.
Everything Minnesota does offensively runs through Edwards but Karl-Anthony Towns is such a matchup nightmare for teams. As he has gotten more comfortable returning from his injury, the better Minnesota’s offense has looked, scoring 126 and 122 points in the last 2 games of the first round. Mike Conley has come in and become the perfect connector for this team after he was acquired at the 2023 deadline for D’Angelo Russell. Rudy Gobert has turned a good defense to one of the best in recent memory, he is one of the best rim protectors of all time and has moved very smoothly on the perimeter this season. Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker play such elite defense on the perimeter, making Gobert’s job so much easier on the backline. Naz Reid is the 6th Man of the Year and he was so deserving of it. The way he impacts winning, how he allows the Wolves to remain big so they can continue to protect the rim, and the way he keeps the ball moving on offense is a huge key for Minnesota, he is such a good player. Chris Finch is such a great coach as well. He has done a great job at turning what a lot of people thought would be a failure with the Towns and Gobert double big experiment and he has them as a contender to not only win the West, but to win the whole thing. The Minnesota Timberwolves are really good but this is bigger than just about how good the Wolves are, this sweep signals that the Wolves have turned to a new page.
For 20 years, the Timberwolves have been laughed at. They have been one of the laughing stocks of the NBA that always came through. We all remember the Jimmy Butler practice, his conversation with Rachel Nichols right after, and the Game of Zones episode that followed that spring. We remember when they passed on Stephen Curry twice, to draft 2 different point guards, Johnny Flynn and Ricky Rubio. When they traded the greatest player in franchise history for Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff, Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes, Sebastian Telfair, and 2 first round picks. When they fired Gersson Rosas just 6 days before training camp started. All the jokes made about Towns, how Butler treated him, his voice, how he is not a winner, and so much more. All the jokes about the Gobert trade and how they paid too much. That is what makes this day all that much sweeter, that the Timberwolves fan has been through so much misery, been laughed at so many times. All the losing was building up for a moment like this, that the Wolves could finally break through and win a playoff series.
There is still a lot of work to be done, one playoff series is very quickly forgotten if the team plays poorly in round 2. For the Wolves, it is likely the defending champion Denver Nuggets they will be facing in round 2. There are a lot of questions. How will they deal with the Jamal Murray-Nikola Jokic pick and roll? What happens if Michael Porter Jr., Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Aaron Gordon get going? How much can they win the non-Jokic minutes by? The job is not finished, not even close but that does not mean that the Timberwolves fans can’t enjoy this moment. Today is not about what comes next. Today, the Wolves fans should celebrate not only that they won a first round series but they humiliated the Suns in the series, it was not even close. The Nuggets (or Lakers) are coming and Minnesota will need to bring their A game every night to beat them but that’s tomorrow’s problem because today is about celebrating what the Wolves just did and how far they have come to do it.
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