The Minnesota Timberwolves are in the midst of their best season since Kevin Garnett, Sam Cassell, and Latrell Sprewell led them to the conference finals in 2004. At 41-30 and sitting in seventh place in the Western Conference, the Wolves have already smashed preseason expectations. Everything seems to be going right for one of the most snake-bitten franchises in American sports. Karl-Anthony Towns just erupted for 60 points, Anthony Edwards is on his way to superstardom, and the supporting cast has been on point all season.
With all the good vibes flowing in Target Center, most basketball sickos see the Wolves as an upstart team that might survive the play-in games. However, it doesn’t seem likely that they will win a playoff series. But what if the Wolves are actually a stealth contender hiding in plain sight?
Placing the words “Timberwolves” and “contender” in the same sentence is as close to blaspheming the basketball gods as you can get. The Wolves have only made the playoffs nine times in 32 seasons. They’ve fielded a squad that could truly contend for an NBA Championship once. In 2004 Garnett won MVP, and the Wolves pushed the Los Angeles Lakers to six games. Since then, things have been bleak in the Twin Cities, but KAT, Ant, and the boys are finally starting to earn some respect around the league.
After starting the season 4-9, the Wolves are 37-21 (.638 win percentage). That would put them in fourth place in the West behind the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, and Memphis Grizzlies. The Wolves are the sixth-best team in the NBA with a 25-11 record since the calendar flipped to 2022. They have the best offense in the league in that span and are 10-2 since the All-Star break. They’re hitting their stride before the playoffs get underway. Over the entire season, Minnesota is one of only three teams with a top-10 offense and defense. The Suns and Grizzlies are the other two. If you take away the first few weeks of the season and the mid-December COVID crisis, the Wolves would be one of the best teams in the league.
However, they’ve made their playoff push by beating up on bad or injury-riddled teams. The six-game win streak included victories over the Cleveland Cavaliers without Darius Garland, and a Klay Thompson and Draymond Green-less Golden State Warriors squad. Then they took two games each against the tanking Oklahoma City Thunder and Portland Trail Blazers. After the Orlando Magic broke Minnesota’s streak, they beat the Miami Heat without Jimmy Butler, the 11th place San Antonio Spurs, and the tire fire that is the Los Angeles Lakers. The last time the Wolves beat a good team at full strength was on Feb. 24th, when they beat the Grizzlies in their first game after the All-Star break.
The Wolves have had their fair share of big wins over playoff teams. They’ve beaten the Milwaukee Bucks, survived a double-overtime thriller against the Philadelphia 76ers, and have two wins over the Denver Nuggets. But the Wolves are just 17-20 against teams above .500 and are 24-10 against teams with a losing record. If Minnesota wants to contend for a title, they will have to start beating good teams with their entire stable of stars. And oh boy, are we going to find out what the Wolves are made of over the last 11 games.
The schedule is a gauntlet the rest of the way. The Wolves have the second-toughest schedule the rest of the way, according to Tankathon. Games against the Bucks, Suns, Nuggets and two against the Dallas Mavericks will decide if the Wolves can push for the sixth seed or will be relegated to the play-in tournament. The good news is the Wolves don’t have any back-to-backs left on their schedule and six of their 11 remaining games are at home, where Minnesota is 23-12 on the year. But a four-game road trip against the Boston Celtics, Nuggets, and Houston Rockets could be a backbreaker.
Every time we think the Timberwolves are about to fall off a cliff and remind everyone that they’re the Timberwolves, they respond with a huge win or go on a surprise winning streak. If the standings hold and the Wolves survive the play-in, they would match up with a Grizzlies team that they’ve split the season series with in the first round. Both are upstart teams with young cores that some believe are overachieving this season. If Minnesota shocks Memphis in the opening round, they’ll play the winner of the 3-6 matchup. Currently, that would be Golden State or Denver, two teams the Wolves have already beaten this year. Phoenix would likely be waiting in the conference finals and probably end any Wolves championship talks.
In a year as chaotic as this NBA season has been, with the weakest Western Conference we’ve seen in years, things could be in place for a wild NBA Playoffs. Nothing would be wilder than seeing this upstart Wolves team ascend from the ashes of the past and make a surprise run through the playoffs. Nobody is saying the Wolves have a real shot at hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy at the end of the season. But if they keep playing as they have for the last three months, the NBA world will have no choice but to take the Timberwolves seriously.
