Once upon a time, there was a 27-year-old forward named Kevin Garnett who was named league-MVP and led his team, the Minnesota Timberwolves all the way to the Western Conference Finals after a regular season in which they finished 58-24, the second-best record in the entire NBA.
The Timberwolves came up just short of making the NBA Finals during the 2003-04 season and Kevin Garnett had his best season ever in the NBA, but since then, this Minnesota franchise has had minimal success. Since the 2003-04 season, the Timberwolves have had 15 losing seasons and have missed the playoffs in 16 of the last 17 seasons!
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Since becoming an NBA franchise ahead of the 1989-90 season, the Timberwolves as an organization have not been very satisfying, as they have made the playoffs just 9 times in their organization’s 32 seasons. Success has been hard to come by for Minnesota, but they may actually be trending upwards.
They improved from 19 wins last season to 23 wins this year, which is a plus, and for once, they actually have a somewhat sustainable core that they can begin building around. They drafted Karl-Anthony Towns 1st overall in 2015 and they drafted Anthony Edwards 1st overall this past year in the 2020 NBA Draft. With others like D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and some other young players, the Timberwolves look like a team that can begin trying to put the pieces together.
The only problem with the Timberwolves right now though is whether or not they can afford to be patient again. Karl-Anthony Towns just finished up his 6th season in the league and has been to the playoffs just once, D’Angelo Russell has had trouble staying healthy and Malik Beasley is currently serving jail time due to a gun charge.
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Talent wise, the Minnesota Timberwolves have a solid looking core in place and a roster that they could potentially do something with heading into next season, but personality wise and intangibles wise, the Timberwolves could be doomed for failure once again. At this point, we basically expect to see the T-Wolves near the bottom of the standings year-in and year-out, so what do they have to do to flip the narrative around?
This organization is still a far ways away from being anything special and it will take time for them to potentially get back to the playoffs, but this offseason could really help shape things for the Timberwolves over the next decade or so. With that said, let’s take a look at the latest intel surrounding the Minnesota Timberwolves franchise in terms of the NBA Draft and free agency this offseason.
