The Minnesota Timberwolves are at a decided disadvantage due to the division alignment and their geographical location.
Every year the Minnesota Timberwolves put on a ridiculous amount of miles traveling to different arenas around the NBA.
In 2015-16, for instance, they traveled 51,148 miles throughout the season. That was third-most in the NBA that year. That was nothing compared to the 53, 363 miles they traveled in 2014-15.
A big reason for the absurdly high mileage accrual is because of the misalignment of NBA divisions. Minnesota is inexplicably placed into a division with teams from Portland, Oklahoma City, Denver, and Utah.
While teams such as the Milwaukee Bucks can take a quick 90-minute bus ride on I-90 to play their division rivals such as the Chicago Bulls, the Timberwolves are faced with a much more daunting task.
The closest division rival the Timberwolves have are the Thunder, who are 787 miles away. That is farther than any of the teams the Milwaukee Bucks have to travel to play in their division.
Given the distance of travel, the Timberwolves have a marked disadvantage in scheduling every year. This happens simply because of the division they are in.
The NBA schedule is unfriendly to everyone, but especially to the Timberwolves. For example, one four-game road trip at the end of February saw the Timberwolves start in Texas, go to Utah, to California, then back to Texas to end the trip. It made too much sense for the Wolves to play both of their games in Texas consecutively.
Due to the Timberwolves division, they can’t afford to travel any more than the division alignment already makes them.
As of now the divisions look like this:
Western Conference:
Northwest Division Pacific Division Southwest Division
Denver Nuggets Golden State Warriors Dallas Mavericks
Minnesota Timberwolves Los Angeles Clippers Houston Rockets
Oklahoma City Thunder Los Angeles Lakers Memphis Grizzlies
Portland Trail Blazers Phoenix Suns New Orleans Pelicans
Utah Jazz Sacramento Kings San Antonio Spurs
Eastern Conference:
Atlantic Division Central Division Southeast Division
Boston Celtics Chicago Bulls Atlanta Hawks
Brooklyn Nets Cleveland Cavaliers Charlotte Hornets
New York Knicks Detroit Pistons Miami Heat
Philadelphia 76ers Indiana Pacers Orlando Magic
Toronto Raptors Milwaukee Bucks Washington Wizards
With the divisions aligning up in this format, the Minnesota Timberwolves stick out like a sore thumb. Their division, labeled “Northwest” does not describe a team who is located in the midwest.
A division realignment would help the Timberwolves control some of the unnecessary traveling they do and even the playing field.
The easy answer would be to put Minnesota in the same division as teams like the Bucks, Indiana Pacers, Chicago Bulls, etc. But that would force a team such as the Atlanta Hawks to take the Timberwolves place in the Western Conference, which would be worse off for the NBA.
I propose the NBA realign the divisions so they look like this:
Western Conference
Big West Division Pacific Division West Central Division
Denver Nuggets Golden State Warriors Dallas Mavericks
Houston Rockets Los Angeles Clippers Memphis Grizzlies
Phoenix Suns Los Angeles Lakers Minnesota Timberwolves
San Antonio Spurs Portland Trail Blazers New Orleans Pelicans
Utah Jazz Sacramento Kings Oklahoma City Thunder
Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division Central Division Southeast Division
Boston Celtics Chicago Bulls Atlanta Hawks
Brooklyn Nets Cleveland Cavaliers Charlotte Hornets
New York Knicks Detroit Pistons Miami Heat
Philadelphia 76ers Indiana Pacers Orlando magic
Toronto Raptors Milwaukee Bucks Washington Wizards
In this realignment I’m proposing, the Eastern Conference is unaffected and I only make a couple of minor changes to the Western Conference that will benefit everyone.
The Northwest division turns into the Big West and includes Denver, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Utah. This move does increase travel time for Houston and San Antonio but it should reduce it for Denver, Phoenix, and Utah.
The Pacific division keeps its name and the majority of the teams in the division. The only change I propose is that Portland takes Phoenix’s spot in the division. This is a given, considering their proximity to the Pacific Ocean along the West Coast.
The third Western Conference division will be called the West Central division. This is the division I propose the Timberwolves should be placed into.
Even though they will still have the farthest distance to travel it is the best alignment for the NBA. Due to the location of all 30 franchises, one team is going to be the odd ball in the Western Conference and unfortunately Minnesota is the best choice.
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Minnesota is placed into the division with Dallas, Memphis, New Orleans, and Oklahoma City. This will give the Timberwolves the advantage in a couple of ways from the current alignment.
The first advantage is that they won’t have to travel as far as before. Don’t get me wrong, the Minnesota Timberwolves will still travel a lot of miles but it will be significantly cut down.
In the current alignment, Minnesota’s division rivals are a combined 4,703 miles away. In this proposed realignment their rivals are 3,778 miles away. That’s almost a 1,000 mile difference.
Even though Oklahoma City stays the closest rival the Timberwolves have, Memphis and Dallas are decidedly closer than Salt Lake City and Portland.
The second advantage the Timberwolves get from this realignment, they get to play in the central time zone for all of their division games. No longer will they have to be traveling across time zones on a regular basis to play their division games.
This is important because it helps regulate the Timberwolves schedules between games, especially back-to-backs. It is difficult to play a back-to-back in the NBA but even more difficult when flying across time zones and losing an hour on your way back home.
The only other logical division alignment solution I could come up with was to have 14 teams in the West and 16 teams in the East. Geographically, this would be a much better solution as their are 16 teams who are better aligned to be in a division.
From a competition standpoint, however, this would be a disaster. The Western Conference would have less challengers for the same amount of playoff spots than the Eastern Conference.
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Unless the NBA is in a position to add two new franchises, the Timberwolves are going to be out of luck. They will continue to have to persevere through the long flights and even longer nights.