Pat yourselves on the back, Minnesota Timberwolves fans. We finally did it! After 33 long-suffering years watching basketball in the cold wasteland of the Upper Midwest, our team finally matters again, and it’s all thanks to you. Okay, perhaps the thanks belong to the guys putting our butts in the seats. The guys on the court making the magic happen: Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, and the big addition of Rudy Gobert. Plus, the guys behind the scenes putting it all together: Tim Connelly, Chris Finch, Alex Rodriguez, and Marc Lore. Whomever you credit, the Wolves are officially relevant again, and the proof is in the schedule. The Timberwolves have 16 nationally televised games this season — six on ESPN, four on TNT, and another six on NBA TV.
National TV exposure is a win for basketball fans outside Minnesota and the die-hard Wolves fans around the Twin Cities. We know how awesome Edwards is and consistently good Towns is when he doesn’t hamper himself with foul trouble. Now we get to share that with the masses. But with added exposure comes added pressure, or whatever uncle Ben said before his untimely demise. I’m sure his last sage advice to Peter Parker was actually about the Timberwolves. Therefore, to honor uncle Ben’s legacy, the Wolves need to step up and earn the recognition we all think they deserve.
For the first time since trading for Jimmy Butler, the pressure is really on for the Timberwolves this season. We all know how everyone involved handled the pressure back then. But things might be different this season. Towns is older, more established in the league, and taking an active leadership role in the organization. Edwards might be the most congenial person on the planet and can capably diffuse tension.
By all accounts, Gobert isn’t an asshole and is pretty beloved around the NBA. And Finch isn’t sitting on the sideline yelling nonsense for 48 minutes. But the eye of Sauron is upon the Target Center this season, and this fellowship of basketball players must band together to prove their worth. Otherwise, they’ll be banished to the fiery depths of Bally Sports North for the rest of their careers.
The schedule gods were very generous to the Timberwolves, giving them a relatively easy slate to start the season and time to coalesce as a team. But the beginning of the nationally televised slate is daunting. They start easy enough with a nice little warm-up at an already tanking San Antonio Spurs squad on Oct. 30 on NBA TV. But then they fly to Phoenix for an early season tilt against the best team in the West the last two years (Nov. 1 on TNT)
The very next game, the Wolves return to the Target Center to host Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks Friday night on ESPN. Then they’ll battle with the hated Memphis Grizzlies on ESPN in Memphis a week later. It’s quite the baptism by fire for a team that’s made the playoffs twice since 2004. Still, the excitement around this Wolves team is sky-high, and the Wolves could be tailor-made for a primetime national audience.
By all accounts, Edwards is having another magical summer and could make his superstar leap sooner rather than later. Towns is coming off his best season in the NBA, in which he was named to the All-NBA Third Team. D’Angelo Russell looks cool as hell on Instagram. He’s also saying all the right things while trade rumors swirl above his beautiful hair. And Gobert is looking to grab his fourth DPOY award to tie Ben Wallace and Dikembe Mutombo for the most in NBA History. It’s a recipe for instant success. If the Big 4, Jaden McDaniels, and Kyle Anderson fire on all cylinders, the Wolves could become the overnight darlings of the NBA, similar to how Ja Morant and the Grizzlies became everyone’s second team last year.
But the doubt always creeps in when you are a Minnesota sports fan. It’s easy to be skeptical when nothing outside of the WNBA has gone right for more than 30 years. The Wolves might have even more pressure on them to produce in the spotlight right away because if they falter even a little bit, the hometown fans will be the first to lose faith. The Timberwolves stumbled out of the gate last season, starting 4-9 before rattling off five straight wins to get their season back on track. The expectations weren’t nearly as high as they are this season. Therefore, if the Wolves have a similarly slow start, things could get ugly in a hurry.
Schedule release day had become an annual Hey, what about us? day in Minnesota. But this year is different. Sixteen national tv games show the league believes the Timberwolves could be one of the marquee teams in the league. With the eyes of a nation finally on Minnesota, the pressure is on for the Wolves to show they deserve this kind of national recognition every year. With a hot start and one of the best rosters in franchise history, the Timberwolves could go from an afterthought to must-see tv.
