Let’s back up a couple months for a moment; back to just before the playoffs began.
The Wolves slid into the postseason with their second consecutive 49-win total, and their second consecutive 6 seed in the Western Conference. They were faced off against the Denver Nuggets for the third time in four postseasons. Despite the somewhat uninspiring character of the Timberwolves 2025-26 regular season campaign, there was intrigue surrounding this matchup. This was for a few obvious reasons: Star power in Anthony Edwards and Nikola Jokic; the history of the teams’ previous playoff (and regular season, for that matter) battles; and the simple fact that the first round doesn’t normally include two clubs of this caliber — normally a team as strong as Joker’s Nuggets is facing one less formidable than Ant’s Timberwolves have been.
I cannot pull the quote, but I distinctly remember listening to a Zach Lowe podcast (probably with Bill Simmons) where he said two things about the upcoming Minnesota-Denver matchup, without any doubt in his voice: (1) The Timberwolves can absolutely win this series; and (2) The Timberwolves absolutely cannot advance past all of the Nuggets, and then the Spurs, and then the Thunder, the required path to the Finals.
That combination of realities really defined last season, and in a way it defines where the team had come over the last 3-year journey that began with the apex 2023-24 run to the conference finals. The combo can be described as such:
The Timberwolves are a team that can rise to any occasion, and nobody would want to face them in a single playoff series. But also: the Timberwolves screw around too much in the regular season, and the 6 seed is not a reliable path to the NBA Finals.
Tim Connelly decided that changes had to be made, and those changes would not be small ones. First he announced to the media that they’re not good enough, they will be aggressive in the offseason, and that, “If we mess up, we will mess up loudly.” After talking that talk, he got on the phones and the next thing you know he traded away both of his power forwards and his last remaining future draft equity for LaMelo Ball.
Message received.
Acquiring Ball already now stands next to trading for Rudy and trading away Towns as a defining move of the Connelly Era. It’s been severely criticized by several national pundits, while (luke?) warmly received by others. Ball himself is polarizing for reasons on the court and off, and sending out not only Julius Randle, but Naz Reid + another unprotected future 1st is a high cost.
That transactional fall-out plus the new and oversized contract for Ayo Dosunmu (5 years, $112 Million, player option on the 5th year) has left the team seemingly without a power forward. That is, unless LeBron James decides that he wants to end his career as a Timberwolf? (Unlikely.)
Keeping in mind that Donte DiVincenzo will miss all of next season before his own unrestricted free agency (Wolves will have his Bird rights and apparently intend to keep him, but that’s a long ways out), the new-look Wolves are going to be built around the backcourt. No more Twin Towers, no more Bully Ball, no more Naz Reid for 6th Man of the Year coming off the bench. Instead, it will be Ball running and gunning, Edwards playing a truer version of “shooting guard,” and Ayo aiming for 6MOY honors. It isn’t clear that they’ll employ anybody who could even be categorized as a modern “stretch 4,” let alone a “power forward.”
The offseason is not yet complete, and yet another Connelly trade could surprise at any moment. But just with what we know or think we know (let’s stipulate that Ball-Ant-Jaden-Rudy are all Timberwolves starters next year, and Ayo is playing big minutes in some capacity) I think there’s enough settled to unleash a few takes.
The LaMelo Ball Trade was a good idea. Some people say that the Hornets “sold high,” on LaMelo after he finished what was for him an unusually healthy season. (He played 72 games, after a string of seasons where ankle and wrist injuries cost him large chunks of games.) If he cannot stay relatively healthy, then those takes will be proven correct. But if the Timberwolves and their partner Mayo Clinic (Andy Bernard voice: “Ever heard of it?”) can keep Ball’s ankles together and keep him on the floor, he’s a better basketball player than Naz Reid, and the draft equity sent out in the deal will not become a big factor in how the trade is viewed in the end. There is a certain type of player that you want in today’s NBA, and he is tall and good at passing, with enough shooting and scoring ability to keep defenses honest. The Timberwolves did not have one of those a week ago, and they do now. Ball plays point guard like a point guard. The last time the Wolves had a good one of those was three years ago before Conley started flirting with Father Time, and the results were the best in team history, and legitimately “championship contending.” Ball will reorient the entire Timberwolves approach by dictating a faster pace, and initiating offensive sets with dynamic stuff instead of stagnant stuff. Edwards will perhaps be influenced more than anyone, which brings me to my next take.
Anthony Edwards needs to change his approach. Last season, Edwards took a step back as a competitor. That is not to say that he was bad, or even not extremely good. He averaged career-highs in points per game (28.8), three-point percentage (39.9), and overall field goal percentage (48.9). His shotmaking is unquestionably better than it’s ever been, and continues to ascend to heights of only the game’s very best. There is no doubt whatsoever that he’s dedicated to becoming the best player that he can be. But time, circumstances, and perhaps coaching has led him to play a style that is not the idealized version of himself and his talents. Simply put, he plays too much of each game like he’s in the gym with just his skills coach and nobody else, and he plays too rarely like he’s obsessed with stopping the other team from scoring. A perfect version of Ant would allocate a great deal more of his energy to defense, and be more comfortable taking possessions “off” on offense, if only as a standing spot shooter. An Anthony Edwards Heater is the thing that gets the most attention, but I think most close Timberwolves viewers would agree that he seems closest to “the best player in the world” on those rarer nights when he gets physically engaged in the game as a rebounder and even a shot-blocker. There’s few things that make basketball players feel more comfortable and confident than having a teammate that they know is going to physically dominate the game. The word “makes his teammates better” is overused and misused quite a bit, but guys who just seem to occupy more of the court – guarding more people at once and coming up with more deflections, blocks, and boards – can actually “make their teammates better.” Ant will never do this in the way that someone like Victor Wembanyama or Rudy Gobert does, but he can do it in his own way. We’ve seen it in sprinkles, and it almost seems like the games where he’s most locked in defensively are also games where he brings it as a scorer. All of this is to say that LaMelo grabbing the keys to the offensive car from Edwards (a terrible analogy for all things LaMelo, I realize) might reallocate Ant’s energy to more useful ends. Less step-back jumpers with 8 guys watching, and more superhuman blocks, transition dunks, and catch-and-shoot threes. Let us hope.
Connelly took Finch’s crutches away from him. Mike Conley is gone to Boston. Kyle Anderson is off to Toronto. And Julius Randle is a Brooklyn Net. This next season is going to test Chris Finch, because he has no choice that I can see, but to play his young guys and tolerate some of their brand of mistakes. (It would be wrong to suggest Finch is a “control freak.” He’s not at all. He tolerates a LOT of mistakes, but only from his vets in his Circle of Trust.) Finch will have to play Clark, and he’ll have to play Joan. He’ll have to play TJ. We’re all going to sink or swim together. It would not shock me if Finch wins Coach of the Year. It would not shock me if Finch gets fired before the All-Star Break. The nature of the roster overhaul will radically change his relationship with his own team.
Something has to be done about the hole at forward… when the opportunity arrives. There is only so much a team can do with minimum-contract offers and zero future first round picks to trade, so it’s understandable that the Wolves have been quiet as all of the free agent forwards are gobbled up by other teams. (Well, except LeBron…) You cannot just will or tweet a great transaction into existence, and a worst-case default option would be to start out the season with the players they already have. Small-ball, basically. If they were to go that route, my hope would be that they’d NOT force Ayo into the starting lineup as some type of shooting guard, but instead play Clark or Shannon as an undersized forward, with Ayo boosting up the bench with on-ball playmaking and speed. There was a Phoenix Suns team in the late 90s that won a whole bunch of games sometimes playing 3 or even 4 guards surrounding Antonio McDyess in the middle. Some guys you probably heard of like Kevin Johnson, Rex Chapman, Jason Kidd (!), and Steve Nash (!!). That was a truly wild experiment with Danny Ainge coaching, and they did flame out in the playoffs right away, but not before winning 56 games. They Wolves small guys are not as good as Kidd or Nash, and this is not any sort of direct comparison, but just one example of a team that won a ton of games without much size on the floor. If the Wolves open the season in some type of 4 smalls + Rudy mad science experiment, my guess is that Connelly will be dialing up every GM 8 days a week until he finds more frontcourt depth for the playoffs.
Ayo is essential. Last point is a quick and simple one. They needed to re-sign Ayo as part of this broader reconstruction project, because they will play a lot of games without LaMelo Ball, and probably some without Anthony Edwards too. In the regular season, he’ll start a lot of games when those guys rest or recover. In the playoffs, in the ideal setting, he’ll be the overqualified role player that every championship contender needs. It’s better to overpay him a little bit to keep this strength intact rather than saving a little bit of money to try to patch up weaknesses. Make the opponent respond to what you’re bringing to the game.
Lots of words, and I don’t think LeBron has signed with the Wolves yet. We’ll see what’s next.
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