The Wolves are so close, but still so far

Looking back and ahead

The NBA Finals are less than a week away, tipping off next Thursday. I’ll be providing a meatier preview next week after I rewatch both of OKC’s regular-season games against whichever team emerges from the East.

Before that, though, I had some scattered thoughts about our dearly departed Wolves that I haven’t really found the space to discuss yet.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have made consecutive Western Conference Finals. Being in the top two of the harder conference is quite a feat! Unfortunately, they’ve never had much chance of advancing beyond that, suffering 4-1 defeats to first the Dallas Mavericks and then the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Wolves are really good! But they’re evidently not quite good enough.

Any team with this much potential and talent would have an interesting offseason, but the Timberwolves face more questions than most. Let’s review what went well, what went wrong, and what the future holds.

Anthony Edwards improved but needs further growth

Edwards earned his second straight Second Team All-NBA berth this season. He set career highs in points (27.6), three-point attempts (a whopping 10.3 per game), and three-point percentage (39.5%), turning himself into one of the best long-range bombers in the league. He’s somewhere on the back end of most Top-10 player lists at just 23 years old, jetpacking up a steep trajectory the same way he bounds over defenders for monster dunks.

But (and perhaps this is a personal problem) every improvement from Ant leaves me wanting more.

He’s become an excellent on-ball defender… so I want to see him become one off the ball, too. His shooting is elite… but his finishing, despite his acrobatic slams, is subpar for such an elite athlete (he shot a worse percentage at the rim than players like Russell Westbrook, Royce O’Neale, and Duncan Robinson). He’s become a leading candidate for this weird “face of the league” conversation people keep wanting to have… but he’s still prone to bouts of visible frustration and poor body language.

There’s a lot to love about Edwards’ game. He’s already improved so much in his five years in the league, but there’s a lot more he can do, much of it mental. The good news for Wolves fans? He knows it.

“Nobody is gonna work harder than me this summer,” Edwards said after the Thunder eliminated Minnesota from the playoffs. That’s a scary proposition for the rest of the league. I just hope he focuses his energy toward the right things — quicker decision-making, better off-ball awareness on both sides, and more leadership. Intangibles are harder to improve than physical characteristics, but just as important.

What happens with Julius Randle?

Do you have a clue? Because I’m genuinely asking. It’s arguably the most interesting non-draft roster decision in the league, give or take a (potentially related!) Kevin Durant trade.

Remember, the Wolves largely made the Randle/KAT trade to escape Towns’ forthcoming monster contract. Randle’s secondary playmaking and scoring proved a better fit next to Edwards than I was expecting (particularly once Randle settled into a lower-usage role in the second half of the season). Randle’s stinkers in the conference finals have made him a bit of a target, but we aren’t far removed from analysts proclaiming he outplayed LeBron James in Round 1. It’s safe to say the Wolves wouldn’t have made another conference finals without him, and I don’t want the final glimpses to erase what had been an excellent playoff performance.

And yet, the Thunder series proved how much more Minnesota needs from a second banana. Perhaps that’s unfair, given how good OKC’s defense is. There’s no guarantee that Towns (to pick a name totally at random) would’ve been any better in Randle’s position. But it’s a reality that isn’t going to change, given the likelihood of a half-decade of Thunder dominance.

Randle is 30 and has a player option for $31 million. He won’t likely play better next year, barring a sudden surge in three-point accuracy (Randle’s only had one year shooting 35% or better from deep, back in 2020-21), but he should have a few more years of his prime left.

He would undoubtedly love to leverage that player option into a significant long-term contract with Minnesota, which doesn’t have a good way to replace his playmaking and scoring production if he leaves. Something that pays him a little less annually but locks in more long-term money is a strong possibility. But is Minnesota willing to make a multi-year commitment to Randle? (New ownership has inherited a strong team; they may not want to blow it up so quickly, although it’s unclear how much financial firepower they bring.) Is someone else willing to engage in an opt-in-and-trade or sign-and-trade (cough, *Phoenix,* cough)? Will Randle simply end up exercising his option and staying in Minny?

As you can tell, I’ve got more questions than answers.

Will Jaden McDaniels’ emergence stick?

Known more for his defense, McDaniels emerged as a steady offensive contributor in the second half of the season, including a string of strong playoff performances. Spring-legged and Fantastic-armed, McDaniels has always been an effective finisher, but he hunted layups more aggressively this season:

McDaniels also shot the three-ball well for stretches, including the playoffs, although he remains too reticent beyond the arc and inconsistent overall.

That said, will it stick? We’ve seen McDaniels have hot streaks before, although they’ve never lasted this long. At 24 years old, he may have leveled up, but it’s just as likely that we see the same old McDaniels next year — here one game, MIA the next.

Still, McDaniels’ massively improved rebounding and reduced foul rate were two quieter and more sustainable signs of improvement. I loved what I saw from McDaniels last season, and I’m rooting for further improvement in 2025-26.

What do the Wolves do at point guard?

Despite all his gifts, Edwards would benefit greatly from a table-setter to make his life easier and allow him to focus on what he does best: Scoring. Mike Conley was that guy in 2024-25, but he’s 37 and fell off significantly this year. The Wolves can’t ask 30 minutes from him in the playoffs anymore.

But replacing him will be hard. Even at his worst, Conley could at least still make a three-pointer and be in the right spots defensively. The Wolves need to find a 3-and-D point guard with real game management skills, but there aren’t many such candidates at an affordable price tag.

Perhaps their 2024 first-round pick, Rob Dillingham, will make major strides in Year 2. I never liked giving up a first and a swap to grab Dillingham in the 2024 draft, and he barely found the court. At his best, Dillingham is a whizz-bang ballhandler and passer who should become a very good outside shooter. The highlight reel pops. I’m not 100% sure what this odd between-the-legs dribble is, but I like it:

But he’s tiny and horrendous defensively; he can improve technique, but not length. Unless he really blossoms offensively, he’ll be a weak link in the playoffs for the foreseeable future.

Gobert is going nowhere… but Reid and Alexander-Walker might

Gobert is still one of the league’s best defensive players, but he remains an offensive liability. With a fair-ish-but-certainly-not-cheap three-year, $110 million extension kicking in this summer, he’s all but certain to anchor the Wolves’ defense for the next few seasons.

Former Sixth Man of the Year Naz Reid has been the antidote to many of Minnesota’s problems over the last few seasons, alchemizing a refined offensive game into what should be a significant payday this summer. Nickeil Alexander-Walker became one of the most underrated 3-and-D wings in the league. Both have earned substantial raises. The Randle domino will likely be the first to fall, and how much the Wolves end up paying him (if at all) could determine if they can keep the 25-year-old Reid and/or 26-year-old NAW.

Losing either would deplete the Wolves; losing both would be a death blow to their hopes of reaching a third straight conference finals.

The Wolves are in a funny spot financially; none of their players have a terrible contract, but cumulatively, they make a lot of money. They don’t have much wiggle room under the dreaded second apron. However, there is one point in favor: There is only one real team, Brooklyn, with cap space (perhaps two, depending on what Detroit does). That could depress the market for Randle, Reid, and Alexander-Walker.

It’s hard to predict what will happen, but my best guess is that Reid walks for greener pastures (much greener — the to-this-point backup’s final contract number will shock people) and Alexander-Walker stays with the Wolves. That keeps their wing-depth intact but means they will have to find a big man with some shooting to complement Randle and Rudy Gobert.

We need more Terrence Shannon and the other youngsters

“Shot-out-of-a-cannon Shannon” (h/t Dunc’d On) is pure electricity. He sprints around like a madman, sweat drops flying everywhere. The 24-year-old rookie showed off a thrilling transition game and enough defensive and three-point shooting chops to deserve a longer look next season, particularly if Alexander-Walker leaves.

We already discussed Dillingham. Josh Minott and Jaylen Clark both had moments, too. Clark could be another 3-and-D depth piece, while Minott had one of my favorite defensive plays of the season. Watch this ridiculous alley-oop breakup that he transformed, midair, into a punch off the backboard to jumpstart the fast break. It was a mesmerizing blend of basketball IQ and athleticism:

Minnesota is trying to win now, and they have so much depth on the team. Allocating more minutes to the back of the roster will be tricky. But at least one of the Timberpups will need to explode next season to counter expected declines from Conley, Gobert, and perhaps Randle. Coach Chris Finch must find opportunities for them to show what they can do.