Expectations are sky-high for the Minnesota Timberwolves this year. This, coupled with the early-season schedule featuring plenty of teams that are expected to be terrible, has led many to speculate that the team could and should start at least 5-0.
The Wolves raised expectations after adding vast swaths of talent this offseason via trade and free agency. This isn’t a team that should fall victim to these supposed “trap games” this season.
However, it’s unrealistic to think that things will gel immediately. Despite the optimism, Minnesota’s final preseason game against the Brooklyn Nets offered a first glimpse at the Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns pairing. The team had been bringing both of them along slowly on an individual basis, so this last game was the first time they could see live action together.
The results were mixed.
Gobert had a good game, scoring 16 points on 6 of 6 from the field and grabbing 8 rebounds. However, it appears that the other players will have to adjust to his presence. Towns shot 4 of 12 on the day and had a couple of mixups on the defensive end as he adjusts to a new position. Anthony Edwards continued his woefully inefficient preseason, shooting 4 for 14 in the game and exhibiting a new penchant for midrange shots as the two centers clogged up his driving lanes.
It will take time for these players to get used to each other, which many people are overlooking with Minnesota’s new roster construction. The Timberwolves are zigging while the league is zagging, as many are putting it, and it is unrealistic to assume that this team will play at the level its championship aspirations require. Sure, it was just one preseason loss, and the Brooklyn Nets are a good team, but there will be growing pains for the Wolves. These will likely manifest as some ugly losses in the early goings.
Winning is not as easy as putting a bunch of star players together and expecting them to win immediately. Chemistry and familiarity go a long way in the NBA. That’s half the reason that Minnesota overachieved as much as it did last year. With so many returning players, they could build upon past successes and failures to outwork teams that have them lapped in talent.
There is a little bit of historical precedent for this. The most blatant might be the 2018-19 Los Angeles Lakers, who added LeBron James to a roster that was budding with young and exciting talent in Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, and Lonzo Ball. The Lakers would miss the playoffs at 37-45 and completely overhaul the roster for the next season. They brought in former MVP Russell Westbrook, but that backfired; he hasn’t gelled with the team. The Lakers missed the playoffs again last season.
Beyond the Lakers, the Brooklyn Nets struggled last season despite having Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, two of the best players in the league. Irving’s venture to Boston also yielded mixed results, and he was out of there before enough time had elapsed to establish a cohesive culture. James Harden’s addition to the Philadelphia 76ers resulted in an early playoff exit for a team with similar championship aspirations. Nobody knows how adding Ben Simmons to the Nets will work out, either.
Of course, this isn’t to say that it hasn’t worked out in the early goings for every team to add a star player. The 2010-14 Miami Heat would undoubtedly take the crown for excellence in this regard. Kawhi Leonard did exceptional work winning a title during his one year with the Toronto Raptors, and the 2020 Bubble Lakers captured lighting in a bottle after adding Anthony Davis.
The difference between those teams and the current iteration of the Timberwolves is that these players, while they are good, are not yet championship-caliber. James, Irving, Harden, Davis, and Leonard are or were at least top-10 players at the time of their trades. Adding Gobert is great, but he is not a top-10 player. It remains to be seen if he will be a difference-maker to the degree that those players are. Fit is obviously a concern as well, but Gobert will have to make a sizable leap while elevating the play of the other stars around him for the Timberwolves to be considered true contenders.
That ascension could happen. And it likely will, although this season may be too early to tell. If Minnesota secures a top-4 seed and gets out of the first round of the playoffs, that is already exceeding expectations. The great thing about the current construction of this team is that, pending a D’Angelo Russell extension, this core will have that precious time to work together for the next 3-4 years and develop that chemistry that is so necessary to winning a championship. It looms in the future, but it would behoove fans not to get ahead of themselves in the immediate term.
Success will come this year, but more eyes must be turned to the long term. Appreciations of the building blocks this year will pay off in the stretch run of this core’s Timberwolves tenure. Wolves fans should be happy with a competitive team that makes the playoffs anyway, considering the years of ineptitude and failure that have become synonymous with the mention of professional men’s basketball in Minnesota. This season will be a ton of fun, but it is the years in the future that should draw the true excitement. Patience will pay off as the Wolves work through the growing pains this year.
