There are two reasonable ways to assess the Minnesota Timberwolves As they enter the offseason of 2025, freshly released Another defeat of the western conference finals.
- This team has reached the consecutive final of the Western Conference. The only other team to do so in the past decade was the dynastic Golden State WarriorsAnd the Timberwolves did it around a 23 -year -old Anthony Edwards. There are many young people around him, like Jaden McDaniels,, Naz Reid And Nickeil Alexander-Walker are all rotation devices that are 26 or less, and Jaylen ClarkTerrence Shannon and Rob Dillingham are all promising prospects between 20 and 24 years old. This is one of the best and most reliable teams of the Western Conference and figures to stay competitive for the years to come.
- The team that reached the finals of the Western 2024 conference died when he exchanged Cities of Karl-AnthonyAnd the 2025 team did not go back to it due to a weak support. The Timberwolves beat a Lakers team without center and a team of warriors without Stephen Curry To win his first two series, then, when they tried to play with the big boys, they got a slap in the face of a real competitor at Oklahoma City. Even if there are young people in the team, he is offset by older players who seem ready to decrease. Mike Conley is 37. Rudy Gobert is 32 years old, was unplayable in attack in the playoffs and should now start a three -year contract extension. Julius Randle is 30 and, thanks to its player option, has the lever to demand a long -term agreement that the Knicks I didn’t want to give it. This team culminated.
The truth, as for most things, is probably somewhere between the two. What is so worrying here is that it might even have no importance because of who beat them in five games. THE Thunder has raised the bar. For all discussions on parity and seven champions in seven years, Oklahoma City does not disappear.
We already know that the Timberwolves, as currently built, are not equipped to beat thunder. They are probably not equipped to beat them to go ahead either, because thunder is not divided between youth and age. Everyone they have figures to improve, they are responsible for choice of recovery that Minnesota does not have, and they are much further from financial respect.
Avoiding this crunch was the interest of the trade in cities. The idea was to escape his long -term supermax contract and maximize their flexibility in the long term with the shorter hike agreement. It was not only the flexibility they needed for future improvement. It was the flexibility they needed to keep the rest of this nucleus together.
Deputy Timberwolves until their guaranteed contracts for next season (and their favorable team options), and they have $ 150.1 million to 12 players. Not bad, right? Well, that does not include Randle or Reid, who have players’ options, or Alexander-Walker, who is a free agent without restriction. The second deck planned for next season is $ 207.8 million. This leaves them less than $ 58 million to sign the three under the line, or about $ 27 million if Randle resumes its $ 30.9 million option.
Timberwolves are not necessarily linked by the second apron. They could overcome it. For the moment, we are only talking about getting a signation of their own players with the rights of birds. They are not (yet) hard. But the Timberwolves have already exceeded the second apron this season. A team can do this twice during a five -year period without penalty. Make it a third time and a choice of first frozen tower – in this case, the selection of Minnesota in 2032 – automatically falls to n ° 30 in total. This system was designed by assuming that the teams would not be willing to risk this, and Minnesota would probably not do it. If the Timberwolves go above the second apron next season, they will probably not be able to do it again for several years. The western conference finals suggested that they are probably not close enough to risk their last APRON season still shelter.
Even if they are, will this new property group led by Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez will he be willing to do so? In 2024, Espn Said that the Lore-Rodriguez group plans to try to fully push the luxury tax for the 2024-25 season, an almost incredibly cheap maneuver. As they fought with former owner Glen Taylor for the control of the team, they would have Adding several high -level investors: Michael Bloomberg, Eric Schmidt and Blue Owl Capital. We do not know how much investors like it will be on the budget compared to the goal on the field to try to compete for the championships. In short, we have no idea the height of their very pay, regardless of basketball concerns.
So, even if the Minnesota wants to make it go back, it would make him any likelihood with someone who leaves. He may be a younger player like Reid or Alexander-Walker in a free agency. Maybe they exchange older like Conley or Divincenzo instead. But the chances that the eight of Core all come back next season, for purely financial reasons, are quite weak. If this group was not good enough to beat the Thunder, a weakened version will not be either next year.
Only time will tell us how ambitious these Timberwolves are. Some teams are content to drag the second or third round each year and hope that the circumstances take them above. An ankle woven here, a cold shooting sequence there, make it so far away and anything can happen.
But no fact that Tim Connelly did by directing this team suggests that he will be comfortable sitting on his hands. Between the offers of Gobert and Towns and his night swing on Dillingham, there has not been a more aggressive basketball director in recent years. You must be aggressive in a market like Minnesota. Edwards is still far from the free agency, but this clock always starts to check faster than a team does it. The moment he feels that he cannot compete realistically for titles in Minnesota is the moment that all that this organization has built around him begins to collapse.
If the team here and now is not good enough to compete with the Thunder, something drastic will have to be done to change this. They will have to push even more tokens here and now to try to make up for Oklahoma City, or they will have to step back to give themselves a chance to do it later.
Given the little capital reduces the Timberwolves, the winning-time upgrade options will be limited. They do not receive Giannis antetokounmpo. They don’t get someone healthy And to their peak. If they want to get a big name now, it will be the one that will have an associated risk. There is really only one name that makes sense on this front. Timberwolves were linked has Kevin during on the deadline. During was Edwards’ childhood idol, and the two played together for Team USA last summer. The Timberwolves are likely to snap again around.
McDaniels is probably completely out of the table. The question is whether Phoenix would demand Rudy Gobert in an agreement or not. He is the NbaThe boosting of the ultimate defensive floor and their defense is a waste. Of course, Minnesota would be too much without him. Reid is not a full -time rim protector and part of the reason why the Knicks exchanged Randle because they knew that he could not play in the center. If the Sun Did he cooperate on an exchange built around, for example, Randle, Conley and Divincenzo? It could make sense. It would be a high risk bet on young people who replace the lost depth, but it would be a way to considerably increase their offensive advantage without sacrificing the defensive identity that Gobert gives them.
Of course, any potential trade trade significantly shortens the minnesota window. He is 37 years old. At best, he still looks at a few years as a star. Is it really the window on which the Timberwolves want to bet? At the top of Oklahoma City powers? Or could it be logical to take a step here and go in the other direction. What if the Timberwolves went to all on the young nucleus, exchanged Gobert and chose not to give Randle a long-term agreement?
It is yet another risk, but a different kind. The maneuverability that this approach would create could be quite beneficial. If the young players shine, they may even sufficiently fill the chests to make another swing in a younger star all over the line. But this approach will not be paid immediately. As frustrating as Gobert’s attack was in the playoffs, it is not a team of finals of the Western Conference without him. Remove it and suddenly, the Timberwolves could be a game team – a spell they have avoided by a single victory this season. It is a precarious place to be as Edwards mature. Would he accept the decline for a few years? What happens if they do not argue in a few years, as his free agency approaches? Avoiding the Oklahoma City window is quite useful with the San Antonio balance afterwards?
These are difficult questions, but there are no easy answers to a Timberwolves team which is much further from the assertions that are suggested by its final places for the Western Conference. To reach the top of the mountain means to beat teams like the Thunder, and if the series we have just looked at is an indication, this is not possible for Minnesota at the moment. There will be changes here. They can be maneuvers to reduce minor costs where they could be roughly, but this year’s team is not going to its entirety. It is up to Timberwolves to understand what it means exactly going ahead.
