On Tuesday, the NBA released the schedules for the newly-announced In-Season Tournament. It featured all the dates and specific broadcasts that the games will be featured on. Strangely, the Wolves do not have a single game that will be nationally televised. You would assume that a team with Anthony Edwards, one of the most marketable young stars, would be able to gain some more attention around the league.
While national recognition for your team is always beneficial to gain more of a reputation, the deciding factor will always be the play on the floor. Therefore, the Timberwolves have a perfect chance to prove themselves in more of a competitive atmosphere after sniffing the playoffs in the past two seasons. However, each playoff appearance has yielded similar back-to-back results. The Wolves were eliminated in the 1st round after successful play-in performances in the past two seasons. While we expected those seasons to be the introduction for more of a deeper run and extended playoff notoriety in the league, having more structure within the schedule to perform in elimination games can only be more fortuitous for Minnesota’s future.
It only helps that the NBA gave the Wolves a more advantageous group to play against. The Timberwolves will face the San Antonio Spurs, Golden State Warriors, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Sacramento Kings. The Warriors and Kings are legitimate threats to the Wolves, but the Thunder and Spurs’ young cores are not to be taken lightly. Taking care of business and showing up for each one of these in-season games will only hone Minnesota’s identity as the season moves on. The Wolves went 10-6 against these teams last season, including 3-1 against the Kings, who ended the regular season as the 3-seed.
Another meaningful benefit of this schedule is all four teams in the group play games coming in November. That will give the Wolves even more experience in the regular season that can further translate into the rest of the season and the playoffs.
You can make a strong argument that other teams will have the same benefits of growing more throughout the season and recognizing strengths and weaknesses. However, the Wolves looked shaky at times in the Denver Nuggets series, especially the play-in game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers game was a nightmare. The Wolves didn’t score a field goal for the last 6 minutes of regulation and lost. The Wolves easily could have gone on to face the injury-riddled Memphis Grizzlies in the first round instead of Denver, the eventual champions. It’s also hard to not mention the 2021-22 team that faced Memphis lost the series after blowing a 26-point lead and other double-digit leads, eventually losing the series in 6. The Grizzlies series was two years ago and many players have improved or play elsewhere. Still, Minnesota is still seeking playoff success in the Edwards era. The growing pains can only last so long.
Much of this too applies to the DNA of the Wolves roster. Much of Minnesota’s roster faces uncertainty pertaining to how its talent will translate to the postseason.
Rudy Gobert was shown what can happen to his effectiveness if his team’s defenses cannot guard on the perimeter. He got bombarded and exposed out of position when his Utah Jazz team couldn’t hold up against the Los Angeles Clippers’ perimeter attack. Similarly, KAT has also shown his own inconsistencies in scoring the ball and being the efficient shooter he is in the regular season.
The Wolves have made significant investments in Gobert and Towns, hoping they’ll bring playoff success. We didn’t get to get much of a glimpse of what Tim Connelly and the front office’s vision was because they only played 27 games together.
Some factors still will determine how successful the Timberwolves can be in these games. They will give us an idea of what they are building, which is valuable to a team still seeking playoff success. While shooting for the championship in this new format should be the goal, the early competitive atmosphere will benefit the Wolves significantly and it’s in their hands to be able to control the game better than they have in the past. With more experience, they do not have as many excuses as in past seasons.
Given how tight they are on cap space, even before extending Jaden McDaniels, the quicker the Wolves can adjust and adapt the better. Last year, their fatal flaw was they didn’t beat losing teams, costing playoff seeding. Finding ways to learn early on will only help them in the regular season and help them develop the ability to adapt within the season, which will benefit them in the playoffs.
