2023 Timberwolves Season Review

Its been long enough for me to process what this season was. So lets take a look at how this season went and what it means for this franchise going forward.

My Predictions from early on
I wasn't completely correct, or very close. I had predicted the Wolves would finish the season 56-24 and a 4 seed in the Western Conference. Neither of these were very close. Weirdly enough, that 4 seed was still achievable until 3 weeks to go in the season. I also predicted Minnesota would finish 2nd in the division behind Denver, that was correct. It is Minnesota's highest division finish since 2004. 

Season Recap
Minnesota started the season with some bumps in the road, but largely average. They were exactly 5-5 after the first 10 games of the season and it didn't seem the twin towers experiment was going very well, Towns and Gobert weren't the best duo. However, it started going the right way on November 13th. The Wolves would win their next 5 games, including three against the likes of Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Miami who would wind up being playoff teams. 
Unfortunately, disaster struck during that last win against Indiana when Karl-Anthony Towns left the game with a right calf injury. This was initially told to be a 6-8 week injury, it ended up spiraling into a 4 month injury. So now the Wolves, who sat at the time 10-8, had to play for several months without one of their best players and biggest contributors. Between this time and the new year, the Wolves would struggle quite a bit. They were quite streaky, losing 3 straight games after losing Towns. Then they won 3 out of their next 4, lose the next 3 after that, win 3 after that. To make matters worse, they then hit a 6 game losing skid through Christmas right into the new year. But after the new year began, things started to change. Edwards and company started to learn how to play and win with each other. While Ant is definitely still too young to completely carry a team for a long stretch of time, he did his best to keep Minnesota afloat. The Wolves went 11-5 in the month of January to propel them back into the playoff conversation. After that, the team kind of coasted into the All-Star break. But just at the beginning of February, Wolves president Tim Connelly traded ever-struggling PG D'Angelo Russell to the Lakers in a three team trade, in exchange for aging veteran PG Mike Conley Jr and young G Nickeil Alexander-Walker. This reunited Rudy Gobert with his point guard from his days in Utah. 
After the All-Star break, the Wolves didn't really rebound how many were hoping they could. Part of this could be due to the March 17th loss in Chicago, that saw Anthony Edwards leave the game midway through the 1st quarter with what appeared to be a bad ankle sprain. Only a few days later though, Karl-Anthony Towns returned from his 4 month long absence to lead the Wolves to a win over the Hawks at home. Minnesota would win a couple more in that stretch, including a win at the Warriors in Anthony Edwards' surprising return to the lineup.  Things would go downhill though after a win in Sacramento, when the Wolves lost 3 straight must-win games to stay out of the play-in tournament. However, they would save things in the last 3 games that they won to ensure a play-in tournament berth. 
The play-in tournament didn't go great though. Minnesota came out swinging in LA against the Lakers. But an awful 10 minute shooting drought at the end of the game gave the Lakers the win and the 7 seed in the playoffs. The Wolves would end up dismantling the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second play-in game at home to clinch the 8 seed.

Playoffs Review
Minnesota locked into a series with top-seeded Denver Nuggets, or tried to anyway. Game 1 was a complete disaster for the Wolves from start to finish, which was a blowout in Denver's favor. Fortunately, that would be the worst game of the series for Minnesota. They competed with the Nuggets for the rest of the series, finally finding a win at home in game 4 to avoid a sweep. Even game 5 in Denver was closer then others, with the Wolves just coming up short of forcing a game 6 in Minnesota.

My Overall Opinion
This Wolves team is a lot different then I thought they would be this year. The season was very underwhelming, partly due to Towns' extended absence. Because of that absence I don't think I can confidently say one way or another whether Minnesota's all-big lineup works or not. Something else I didn't mention in the season summary, is that the Wolves lost two other big contributors late in the year. Towards the end of March, Minnesota lost bench stalwart and fan favorite Naz Reid to a broken wrist. Reid was essential in helping the Wolves stay afloat since the new year began, and was very obviously the best bench player in the league for the last 3 months of the season. He played seamlessly with Rudy Gobert, which started to give fans hope that the all-big lineup has a chance to work in Minnesota. Then in the last game of the season against New Orleans, lots of things went wrong for the Wolves. Rudy Gobert and Taurean Prince got into a scuffle on the bench that wound up sending Gobert home and suspended for the play-in game against the Lakers. Then, just before halftime, Jaden McDaniels took his frustration out on a tunnel wall in Target Center. This resulted in a fractured hand that took him out of commission until at least the 2nd round of the playoffs, which the Wolves would never reach. McDaniels made a very serious third year jump in his career, and is largely regarded as the fiercest defender in the NBA today by his peers. Even Jaden's shooting was starting to come around, as he shot in the high 30% range on average. These two players would have made a huge impact in the play-in games and in the playoffs. One could imagine they would have helped Minnesota to maybe a 7 seed berth.

Future
This team has a lot to figure out amongst themselves this summer. I don't think anybody big on the team will get traded. Although the Wolves may have to let go of a couple prized possessions to continue to next season. Next season will be big indicator of where the team will go in the distant future, as the hope would be to see the majority of games with KAT and Gobert playing together. It could very well decide if the Wolves move on from this lineup and get rid of either player or both. 
Given how the playoffs have played out, I feel better about the Wolves appearance this year. The West was a complete mess, with the 7th seeded Lakers making it to the conference finals to face Denver. Both teams Minnesota faced wound up making a deep run, I think that says something to the Wolves' resolve. Besides, the Nuggets wound up sweeping a team this postseason and it wasn't Minnesota. Next season could be very fun, and it will interesting to see where this team goes.

Until next time Wolves fans,

​#RaisedByWolves