Minnesota Timberwolves 2021-22 Season Preview

Well Wolves fans, the 2021-22 Season is just about upon us! Some of us are eagerly waiting for the Wolves to tip off the season at Target Center against the Rockets, and some are dreading another potential year of disappointment. 
I would like to continue myself a member of the former. 

Lets start off with what the national media thinks of the Wolves this year (hint: its not much different then years past)
National Media Impressions
Yea the Wolves are dead to the national media. Yet again Minnesota enters the year expected to finish outside the playoffs. According to ESPN, the Wolves projected win loss is 31-51 and a long shot for the playoffs or play in tournament. I strongly disagree with this, but hey what's life as a Wolves fan without being an underdog?
However, the folks over at FiveThirtyEight and their NBA stat model have something else to say. Their model predicts the Wolves will finish at 40-42 and have a 42% chance at making the playoffs. This outlook I see is very fair. While I will go into my expectations later, this outlook seems to define the team pretty well.

Keys To Success in 2021-22
In order for the Wolves to find success this season a few things need to go their way. 
First, they need to stay healthy. If this means that the starters miss a game every few weeks, I don't care. As long as the team is winning is all that matters.
Second, this team needs to start off hot. This team needs to play with fire this season in order to have any success. All of us Wolves fans know that this team has the talent to reach the playoffs, the question is can they put together a good enough season to do that. As much as I loved the second half of last season, the season is 82 games long, not 41. This team has a lot to prove this year, and while I hype them up to sound like playoff contenders, they haven't even shown this yet. I do think the best is yet to come and this season its possible it shows up, but time will tell.

My Expectations and Predictions
This year my expectations for the Wolves are probably too high as always. I think they need to win at least 38 games to have a chance for a play in spot. I think this team's ceiling is 45-38 which would land them most likely the 6th spot in the playoffs, just above the play in bracket. Their floor is 31-51 which is well out of the playoffs. I think they will land somewhere around 41-41 or 42-40, which would line up with a play in spot. I just don't know if they will be able to put a good enough season together to make it into a playoff spot outside the play in.

They start the season on Wednesday, October 20th when the host the Houston Rockets at Target Center! Tipoff is at 7 PM CT.

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