It still comes as a shock to people around my age when a new NBA season arrives, and they are genuinely excited about the Minnesota Timberwolves.
For many years, the Wolves trotted out a top-five player in the league, Kevin Garnett, and surrounded him with players from the 2000s and aging semi-stars often past their primes. After shipping KG to Boston, the Wolves relied on a smattering of failed high draft picks, flawed stars, and a weak supporting cast.
ESPN’s NBA rank debuted in 2011, the middle of Minnesota’s dark ages. Since then, Wolves fans have been able to mostly skip over the annual list-making exercise.
But not this year.
NBA Rank has become appointment-reading for the franchise, which is coming off back-to-back Western Conference Finals appearances. Five Wolves made the cut for ESPN’s top 100 players heading into the 2025-26 NBA season.
- Naz Reid clocks in at number 90.
- Jaden McDaniels is 75th.
- Bald Rudy Gobert is 49th.
- Julius Randle is at 42 heading into his second season with the Timberwolves.
- And Anthony Edwards is up to 6th in the ESPN ranking, only behind Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Victor Wembanyama.
It’s a good spot for the Timberwolves, who have the second-most players cracking the top 100, behind six players from the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder. But after the five established stars, who is the next player on the Wolves roster who could jump into the top 100 next season?
The quick answer would be to say that Donte DiVincenzo will regain his rightful place in the top 100 after an uneven first season in Minnesota. Before the 2024-25 season, ESPN ranked DiVincenzo as the 75th-best player in the league. DiVincenzo was coming off a magical playoff run in 2024 with the New York Knicks, during which he stepped up after injuries knocked out player after player. He averaged 17.8 points in 13 playoff games as the depleted Knicks took the Indiana Pacers to seven games in the conference semifinals.
However, DiVincenzo forgot how to shoot for the first three months of his Timberwolves tenure and injured his big toe. Still, he found his footing down the stretch and helped the Wolves beat the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers in the playoffs. At his peak, DiVincenzo is one of the better combo guards in the league and could easily regain his top 100 status with a good second year in Minnesota.
Mike Conley also cracked the top 100 last year, coming in at No. 98 on the list. It’s hard to believe that the soon-to-be 38-year-old will bounce back after arguably playing through the worst season of his illustrious career last season. He averaged 8.2 points and 4.5 assists per game last year and will likely cede playing time to his younger compatriots this year.
If everyone is healthy, there’s likely not a path for Rocco Zikarsky, Bones Hyland, Johnny Juzang, Leonard Miller, and even Summer League sensation Joan Beringer to get enough playing time to get enough attention to be a top 100 player heading into next season. That leaves Terrence Shannon Jr., Rob Dillingham, and Jaylen Clark as the next three up.
Dillingham has the highest pedigree as the eighth pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. However, of the three, Dillingham had the least successful season last year.
The highs were high, and he showed why the Timberwolves traded for him to be Conley’s heir apparent point guard. Still, there is much work to be done for Dillingham to become a go-to ballhandler on a team with championship aspirations. He looks like Allen Iverson one minute, and the next, he’s throwing an ill-advised skip pass that gets intercepted or bricking a pull-up three. He has the most pressure as the de facto backup point guard to a 38-year-old who could be in the last year of his career.
Clark is already a top 100 defender in the NBA. With Nickeil Alexander-Walker in Atlanta, Clark will be asked to step up in the backcourt and team up with Ant and Jaden to form a formidable defensive threat. He’s likely starting the season as Minnesota’s fifth guard behind Edwards, Conley, DiVincenzo, and Dillingham, so playing time might be hard to come by. However, Clark has shown that he has the dog in him to be an all-world defender and has enough offensive game that it’s not impossible to see him in the top 100 at some point in his career.
Shannon is the answer for next season. The 27th pick in the 2024 NBA draft took a few months to find his footing in the NBA during his rookie season. However, once he caught on, TSJ looked like a future star in the making.
It took injuries to DiVincenzo, Randle, and Gobert to get TSJ into the regular Wolves rotation, but the 25-year-old made a significant impact. He scored 17 points and snagged 10 rebounds in Minnesota’s furious fourth-quarter comeback win over the Thunder in February. Shannon then scored a career-high 25 points against the Lakers a few days later. He was quiet in the playoffs until he scored 15 points in the Wolves’ game three blowout win against the Thunder, and he scored 11 points in the garbage time of the deciding Game 5 loss.
Shannon has the perfect blend of size, strength, and speed to be an open-court menace and score in any situation. His age and experience should catapult him ahead of Clark and Dillingham for immediate playing time in Year 2. It wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see TSJ average more than 10 points per game this season, especially if he improves on his 35.5 percent three-point shooting from his rookie season.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are loaded with talent heading into the most anticipated season in franchise history. Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore already employ five of the 100 best basketball players in the NBA. Still, if things break right for Minnesota’s young talent, that number will rise even higher after this season.
