After dropping Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals to the Dallas Mavericks, the Minnesota Timberwolves had a five-point lead with a minute and a half left in Game 2. ESPN listed their win probability at 86.7%. The Wolves desperately needed to even the series at one game apiece before they traveled to Dallas for Games 3 and 4.
Target Center roared as the Wolves came closer to their first Western Conference Finals win since 2004. Fans could practically taste it. However, Kyrie Irving canned a three-pointer with just over a minute remaining. Then, Luka Dončić hit the game-winning step-back triple that fans saw globally, leading some pundits to question Rudy Gobert’s legacy.
With their heads held high, the Mavericks marched out of the Twin Cities two wins away from their first Finals berth since 2011. Their 109-108 win in Game 2 sealed Minnesota’s disenchanting fate. The Wolves lost Game 3 at American Airlines Center and staved off the sweep with a 5-point win in Game 4. However, Dallas eliminated them with a 21-point win in Game 5.
Before the series, Las Vegas favored the Wolves -170 to beat Dallas and advance to the Finals for the first time in franchise history. Minnesota went 6-0 to start the postseason and pulled out a Game 7 thriller on the road over the defending champion Denver Nuggets. Therefore, fans didn’t know how to process the Wolves losing in five WCF games after their team’s historic season.
However, losing is part of the process; the ultimate goal is to be the last team standing in June. Most championship teams have gone through postseason heartbreak and failure before they reached the pinnacle, and the Wolves aim to be the next team to do so.
“To get to that next step, I think it is the experience,” Karl-Anthony Towns said on Podcast P with Paul George in July. “You have to pay for it. You have to come up with the money and pay for it emotionally. You have to have failure to succeed. We had to pay for our right to win a championship, and that’s what we did this year.”
The Wolves were underdogs heading into Round 1 against the Phoenix Suns after the Suns had beaten the Timberwolves by 19 points in the final game of the regular season. Minnesota’s past playoff failures weighed on people’s minds, and their expectations were low.
Minnesota had many young players with limited postseason experience, matching up against a team with one Hall of Famer and two elite scorers. It felt like the worst-case scenario, but the Wolves didn’t let outside narratives derail their season. They knew how good they were.
“I was telling coach Finch early on that if we could get past the first round and get that monkey off our back … I think we have a shot at winning a championship,” Towns explained with George. “For us to come out in the first round and sweep them, it’s a testament to all of us who said that Game 82 wasn’t going to define us and who we were as a team.”
Everyone knows about Minnesota’s lack of playoff success. The Wolves drafted Towns No. 1 overall in 2015. Before this season, they went to the playoffs only three times with him on the roster, and they never made it out of the first round.
Fans mostly blamed Towns for Minnesota’s lack of success because of his high draft selection, his expectations coming out of Kentucky, and his multi-time All-Star status. However, the Wolves never built a consistently competitive roster around him. When they broke through in 2022, the Wolves were inexperienced and lost a first-round series they probably should have won against the Memphis Grizzlies.
However, it’s the dawn of a new day in the Twin Cities.
The Wolves quickly became one of the NBA’s juggernauts, and it began with Gersson Rosas selecting Anthony Edwards No. 1 overall in 2020. Three years later, Edwards started blossoming into a star so captivating he needed a team built around him. Therefore, Rosas’ successor, Tim Connelly, made a win-now trade to bring in Gobert in 2023 and followed that up by trading D’Angelo Russell for Mike Conley at the mid-season deadline a few months later.
Connelly used those trades to overhaul the roster and change the team’s complexity. Since then, Minnesota’s front office has been fine-tuning Chris Finch’s roster, giving him a collection of players capable of bringing consistent winning to a franchise deprived of it for decades.
It was up to the coaching staff and players to put it all together in 2023-24, and they did that. The Wolves went 56-26 in the regular season, amounting to the second-most wins in franchise history. They finished third in the Western Conference after holding first place longer than any other team and had homecourt advantage in the first round for the first time since 2004.
Minnesota swept the Suns, stole the first two games on the road in Denver, and beat the Nuggets in Game 7 to reach the WCF. For the first time in 20 years, Wolves fans had a team they felt confident could hang a championship banner in Target Center. It felt like the entire state of Minnesota was driving around with Wolves flags hanging off their cars. You could not go out in public without seeing Wolves jerseys on everyone’s chests and hearing people talk about the team glowingly.
“Everyone got the chance to recognize that this isn’t the Minnesota Timberwolves that they have known for a long time,” said Towns. “We are a true contender and someone who can compete at the highest level every single night and be tough to beat in a seven-game series.”
It was pure euphoria; then Dallas cut down just five games later. The Mavericks stunned Minnesota, but the Wolves added one intangible that is the most hard to achieve to their inventory – experience. Now, they must find a way to make their fanbase proud again.
The Wolves retained most of their roster from last year. They lost Kyle Anderson (Golden State Warriors), Monte Morris (Phoenix Suns), Jordan McLaughlin (Sacramento Kings), and Wendell Moore Jr. (Detroit Pistons). Still, they added Joe Ingles, No. 8 pick Rob Dillingham, No. 27 pick Terrence Shannon Jr., and P.J. Dozier. Minnesota has one of the most expensive rosters in the NBA, nearly $17.1 million over the second apron, which may force the front office to make hard decisions next summer.
“We showed a lot, did a lot, and achieved a lot [in the 2024 playoffs],” Towns concluded. “Now we get to cash in even more on those lessons.”
The Wolves have a championship window open right now. It won’t be their only window with Edwards on the roster, but it may temporarily close after 2024-25. Despite relying more on their youth, having limited resources to work with to bolster the roster this summer, and teams around them in the West getting better, the Wolves have a chance to go deeper than last season. They experienced postseason success, defeat, and heartbreak. If Minnesota doesn’t skip any steps in the regular season, they will put themselves in a great position come June 2025.
