The Minnesota Timberwolves have had a huge off-season and are hoping it will boost their finish in the upcoming season. When it comes to other Minnesota sports teams, the Timberwolves should look to the Vikings.
The NBA and NFL are completely different sports, I know. I get my fair share of early starts trying to watch both from here in Australia.
Despite being a Timberwolves fan, the Vikings aren’t my number-one NFL team, yet I do think the Wolves should be looking at their Minnesotans sporting achievements for some inspiration.
To put it lightly, the Timberwolves have struggled with making the playoffs of late — simply by the fact they haven’t made a single postseason in 13 years. Not a great record to say the least. Yet this season looks as though it could be the turnaround.
It’s been a busy off-season. Jimmy Butler, one of the NBA’s biggest stars, has touched down in Minnesota, and he’s brought some more talent with him. The likes of Jamal Crawford look to add strength to the bench, while Jeff Teague will be leading the way on the court. Taj Gibson will be adding strength to the front court and Anthony Brown will be making some appearances between starring for the Iowa Wolves in the G-League.
Back in 2013, the Minnesota Vikings were struggling. They sunk to just one win after nine weeks after a playoff appearance the year before. And although they found their feet towards the end of the season, the Vikings finished 5-10-1, good enough for last place in the NFC North division.
The next season brought a change of coach — a little reminiscent of the Timberwolves’ last season if you ask me. The Vikings performed a little better in 2014 under a new coach, similar to the Timberwolves, but still failed to qualify for the playoffs.
The 2015 season was the turning point for the Vikings. The Vikings welcomed new players to their roster, but their biggest gain was a hug development in players already suited up in Minnesota.
After a couple of struggling seasons, the Vikings pushed to an 11-5 record and finished first in the NFC North. We won’t discuss what happened once the playoffs began (They lost their first game despite a chance to win in the final seconds, due to a missed field goal. See also:1998 NFC Championship game. Sorry, Vikes fans.), but the season showed immense growth for the players individually and as a collective unit.

After having zero representatives in the previous seasons’ Pro Bowl, the Vikings saw five players selected to the NFL’s all-star game. The Timberwolves would love to have some Minnesotans in the All-Star game next year, and Jimmy Butler and Karl-Anthony Towns could certainly see that happen.
Despite once again not qualifying for the playoffs last year, the Vikings managed to start the season 5-0, despite losing their quarterback (a la Ricky Rubio) and playing under a replacement (a la Jeff Teague).
If the Timberwolves start the season 5-0, I will be ecstatic. The biggest problem the Timberwolves will face this year is meshing together as a unit, and thus I expect a few losses coming towards the start of the season.
Some issues as a collective may not, however, be the end-all. In the Vikings playoff-qualifying 2015 season, they ranked 31st of 32 teams in passing offense and an incredible 29th in overall offense.
The Timberwolves already rank highly in offense, and should they be able to lift their defense this off-season, I expect a playoff appearance to be highly achievable, and (sorry Vikings) even a couple of wins once they get there.
While I’m happy to be optimistic, I don’t think this is the year the Timberwolves challenge for a championship, but after learning to work together and with some postseason experience this season, I expect the Timberwolves to charge to the finish line next season as a serious championship contender.
Next: Andrew Wiggins, Jimmy Butler, and Wolves' Redundancies
While NBA and NFL have a lot of differences, perhaps the Timberwolves could look to their fellow statesmen for some inspiration to push them to the playoffs this off-season.