Despite a conference semifinals victory in seven games over the defending champion Denver Nuggets – with three wins on the road, no less – the Minnesota Timberwolves could not sustain it in the Western Finals. A loss in Game 5 against the Dallas Mavericks sees their 2023-24 NBA season come to end, one that promised so much but which ultimately did not amount to winning anything.
Nonetheless, considering the long stretch of mediocrity that had gone before – one could say, throughout the franchise’s entire history – the Timberwolves this season raised the standard of expectation for basketball in Minneapolis. The Wolves won 56 games in the regular season, only one less than the conference leaders, and had the best season for any Timberwolves team since in 2003-04. They were good, and they came close.
To get this good, though, the Timberwolves accelerated their timeline. They forwent the bulk of their future draft capital in the summer of 2022 when they traded with the Utah Jazz for Rudy Gobert, and then went back to Salt Lake a few months later to get Mike Conley, one of the oldest players in the league. Rather than waiting for Anthony Edwards’s career apex, the Wolves sought to establish a timeline of competitiveness more in line with the prime years of Karl-Anthony Towns.
They were right to do so, as evidenced by how far they went. But this does mean that there are a smaller number of bullets in the chamber. Be in terms of finances, flexibility, draft assets and the age of the roster, the Timberwolves need to keep making significant moves in the near future to justify the dual deals with Utah.
There follows a look at the Minnesota Timberwolves’ roster and spending heading into the 2024 NBA offseason.