MMBets: Minnesota belongs in the top tier of the West

Between the Anthony Edwards human highlight reels & the frequent appearances on “Shaqtin’ a Fool” by certain tall individuals, Minnesota is League Pass royalty

The Minnesota Timberwolves just had their best season in 20 years, going 56-26 and making the West Finals for the first time since 2004. They have taken massive steps forward in the Anthony Edwards era, similar to how Dallas did in the first few years of Luka’s career. To that point, both Ant and Luka made the Western Conference Finals in their 4th season in the league. The Mavs lost in 5 games back in 2022, and you can ask Rudy Gobert how the 2024 West Finals went.

Minnesota is widely seen as an elite level team, for good reason: The Wolves return their top 7 rotation players from last year. They clearly belong in the group of inner circle contenders, alongside Dallas, OKC & Denver. However, in a Western Conference that has upwards of 12 or 13 teams who will be competing for postseason spots, nothing is guaranteed.

Off the court, the Wolves ownership situation remains unsolved. Current Governor Glen Taylor and the new minority ownership group of Alex Rodriguez, Marc Lore & Michael Bloomberg continue to fight amongst themselves in court. While some of us were focused on the NBA Finals, our friends over at Canis Hoopus wrote an excellent article explaining the situation back in June. It sounds like the legal battle won’t be resolved before the season begins, and it isn’t known if the situation has any bearing on the franchise’s ability to spend money.

Minnesota Timberwolves (over/under 52.5 wins)

Additions: Drafted players, Joe Ingles

Drafted: Rob Dillingham (Kentucky), Terrance Shannon Jr. (illinois)

Losses: Kyle Anderson, Jordan McLaughlin, Monte Morris, Shake Milton

Outlook

The Wolves understood that they were limited in their roster building abilities, and they used the draft well to get two young players to add to the core of this roster for a combined $9 million. Minnesota traded a 2030 1st round pick swap and their own 2031 1st round pick to San Antonio to get the #8 overall pick in the 2024 draft. They selected Rob Dillingham, an elite scoring guard out of Kentucky, at that spot. Dillingham is a great shooter and can be a microwave type scorer. The Wolves then used their own first rounder to draft rangy Illinois guard Terrance Shannon Jr. at #27 overall. Shannon Jr. possesses good size at 6’6” and shot the 3 at 36% for the Illini last year. He’s also one of the better defenders in this rookie class and Minnesota will need him to live up to that. Losing the future draft assets is unfortunate, but with the draft being the only way for this team to add meaningful depth to this roster, the move is understandable.

Losing Kyle Anderson to Golden State is a sneaky tough loss for Minnesota, as his playmaking had real value for them in the regular season. Without him, there is a lot of pressure on Anthony Edwards to take ownership of some playmaking responsibilities, along with Mike Conley and the two rookies. We’ll find out early on if the Wolves have enough playmaking to get by, or if they’ll need to make a trade to fill in the gaps. However, trades will be complicated, as the Wolves are nearly $18 million above the second apron even after the salary dump of “Slomo”.

Whoever has the Governor title will need all the funds they can get with some of the salaries they have on the books. Rudy Gobert, Karl Anthony-Towns & Edwards are all on max contracts and Jaden McDaniels is starting year one of his 5-year, $136 million rookie extension that he signed last offseason. This is a franchise that has avoided the tax for nearly the entirety of Glen Taylor’s ownership tenure, so it’d be rare to see them so deep into the second apron.

Prediction: Northwest Division exact finishing position: OKC 1st, Minnesota 2nd (+280)

OKC has clearly upgraded their roster, to the tune of having a win total that is 4 wins higher (56.5) than the next highest total in the West, Minnesota. It’s a safe assumption to say they will be the winner of the division, if healthy.

I fully subscribe to the theory that Minnesota will be a better regular season team than Denver, which is why I’m specifically going here on the prediction. Denver’s lack of reliable depth scares me, and Minnesota’s defense will be good to great once again. Not to mention, with a top 6 of Edwards, Towns, Gobert, McDaniels, Conley and reigning 6th Man of the Year winner Naz Reid, the floor for this team can only be so low. They’ll beat Denver straight up on the win total this year to finish runner up to OKC.

Odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook & are subject to change.