Ever since the Minnesota Timberwolves acquired Rudy Gobert, everyone across the NBA has been attempting to figure out how he would fit. Turnover is normal for any NBA roster. Luckily for the Wolves, that is one of the only significant changes on their roster. They return their three most crucial players from last year in D’Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, and Karl-Anthony Towns.
The next step is building around those key players. That’s pretty normal for teams on the rise, especially after a successful season. Fringe rotational players always come and go, especially when there is team success, and they can get more money elsewhere.
Consider this from the standpoint of the 2022-23 Wolves. It will take a little time for them to acclimate on the floor against other NBA competition. They have plenty of time in the offseason and the preseason to get more comfortable together. Still, nothing compares to the impact of a regular season game.
Luckily, the Wolves have a favorable schedule to start the season.
The NBA has packed Minnesota’s first seven games into the first 12 days of the season, including a home-and-away back-to-back. The Timberwolves’ schedule has set them up to start the season with a promising record. These five teams combined to win an average of 35 games last year.
- The San Antonio Spurs are supposed to regress this year. They traded Dejounte Murray, and look like they want to secure a high pick in the 2023 draft.
- The Utah Jazz will be playing without Rudy for the first time since 2012-13 and will have to rely heavily upon Donovan Mitchell.
- Coming off a disappointing season, the Los Angeles Lakers are still looking to find a balance between Anthony Davis, LeBron James, and Russell Westbrook.
- The Oklahoma City Thunder will have the youngest roster in the NBA to begin the season. They will be prioritizing their youth development over winning this season, especially with Chet Holmgren out for the season.
That puts the Timberwolves on a comfortable path to figuring out their roster chemistry early in the season. Their competition to begin the season is either looking to find their identity or are a young team focused on development over winning. Therefore, the Wolves could win their first seven games.
Minnesota will be focused on rotational development, court pairings, picking up lost bench usage, and fitting Gobert into the flow of the offense. Defense should not be an issue for him. Fortunately, that dovetails with the favorable schedule. The Wolves will be able to figure out who they favor in the guard rotation with new veteran additions Austin Rivers and Bryn Forbes. They can also work in Jaylen Nowell, a returning guard looking to make his presence known in a contract season.
Chris Finch could also use this time to tinker with the starting rotation. Kyle Anderson and Jaden McDaniels may vie for the starting 3 job. Finch could play with that spot early on to see how it benefits the individual players and the team. Anderson is a low-usage player who Finch could either place alongside the starting staples, DLo-Ant-Rudy-KAT. Or he could help other players, like Nowell, get touches off the bench. Jaden could get a lot of defensive on-ball reps with the first team as a starter. However, his usage would increase dramatically if he played with the second unit. If McDaniels came off the bench, he still would be able to close the game as a point-of-attack defender.
Regardless, the beginning of the season should be a must-watch. The Wolves have an opportunity to get ahead in the standings while developing chemistry early. That will be key for them moving into the first full slate in November with tougher matchups ahead. It should be fascinating to see early adjustments and growing pains as the Wolves look to build off of last season’s success and become a regular playoff team.
