I’ll give them this: they get an A for effort. Even so, it’s hard to say that they’ve gotten better. Their recent success has relied heavily on star Anthony Edwards and a three-headed big man rotation that consisted of Rudy Gobert, Reid, and Karl-Anthony Towns\/Randall.\n<\/p>\n
Now, they have Edwards, Ball, and Gobert as their new Big Three. That would seemingly be an upgrade but perhaps not.\n<\/p>\n
The Minnesota Timberwolves sacrificed their identity to get better <\/p>\n
The Wolves had a big man rotation seemingly tailor-built to counter the Denver Nuggets and it worked with a charm. They eliminated them in back-to-back postseasons, forcing the then-defending champions back to the drawing board.\n<\/p>\n
Now, they are more guard-heavy and don’t have the same identity. Ball is a massive upgrade over Mike Conley, though he is injury-prone. There is also a concern that he could take the ball out of Edward’s hands, potentially making the Wolves easier to stop offensively.\n<\/p>\n
That’s a valid concern, as are the Wolves potentially being worse defensively next season. Gobert is entering his age 35 season and will have to continue to anchor the Wolves’ defense.\n<\/p>\n
The Wolves are different but not necessarily better<\/p>\n
Even despite a strong defensive season from him last year, the Wolves had some signs of slippage. Those are some potential weaknesses that could become larger issues in the playoffs.\n<\/p>\n
Remember, they lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA playoffs. The Spurs seem well equipped to slow down Ball and limit Edwards, while Gobert struggles to defend Victor Wembanyama.\n<\/p>\n
The same could be said for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are more than equipped to stop the Timberwolves. If that’s the case, then Minnesota ranks as more of a fringe Western Conference Finals team than a favorite<\/p>\n
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