Why the Timberwolves need the NBA to expand

The Minnesota Timberwolves are in a seemingly misaligned division, and would likely benefit from NBA expansion.

When looking at the Northwest Division, you’ll see a division that is placed all over the map. The five teams are the Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers, and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Other than the Nuggets and the Jazz, none of the teams are all that close together. The Wolves’ closest divisional opponent happens to be in Oklahoma City.

Let’s look at the distance the Timberwolves have to travel from Target Center to each teams’ respective arena.

– Oklahoma City (Chesepeake Energy Arena): 789 miles
– Denver (Pepsi Arena): 913 miles
– Utah (Vivint Smart Home Arena): 1,232 miles
– Portland (Moda Center): 1,728 miles

Why is the Northwest division so out of place compared to all the other divisions? When looking at the other divisions, you can clearly see one thing: they’re all close.

What is something they all have in common? They are all relatively close to each other.

Why does this matter?

For all the losing seasons Minnesota encounters, it’s easy to see that the extensive travel plays at least some part in this. All of the teams in the Wolves’ division are in another time zone except for Oklahoma City.

When you’re constantly traveling hundreds and thousands of miles numerous times over the course of the season just to play your divisional opponents, fatigue starts to take a toll on your energy levels. Add jet lag, time zones, and hours of time spent on a plane traveling, and it will certainly do its damage.

When you’re tired, it’s harder to win games and play to your fullest ability which causes the team to spin into turmoil. Just as a hypothetical, imagine it like this.

1. The constant fatigue causes more losses overtime
2. Constantly losing ends up leaving fans and players in despair
3. Which in turn causes fans and players to leave
4. Making it harder to rope players into playing for a losing franchise
5. Making it harder to bring back fans to a franchise

I know, I know. I know that it doesn’t exactly play out like this. But all of these things do play a key role into the whole issue with the Northwest Division being improperly aligned. To keep it in perspective, let’s look at how things have played out for the Wolves as if fatigue has played role into a few losses.

1. The Wolves’ haven’t made the playoffs in 13 years.
2. Kevin Love, Kevin Garnett, Stephon Marbury, and thousands of fans have left the team
3. Minnesota hasn’t been able to bring in a free agent capable to fix this constant losses
4. Target Center is still largely empty as of last season

Again, not saying it’s the sole reason why Minnesota is losing and can’t find away out of the gutter, but it is a contributing factor as to what has been happening to this franchise.

What is in the works:

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has had some things to say about a possible expansion. In a recent interview about a month ago, CBS’ Colin Ward-Henninger had a few interesting things to show.

Silver states that Seattle is on the short list of possible cities to get an NBA team. However, he did say this about when an expansion could happen.

"“I don’t want to put a precise timeline on it,” Silver said. “But it’s inevitable at some point we’ll start looking at growth of franchises. That’s always been the case in this league, and Seattle will no doubt be on a short list of cities we’ll look at.”"

Here is an interview between Silver and Portland Trail Blazers shooting guard C.J. McCollum.

He did mention that he has heard the constant claims about Seattle needing a team. While he didn’t mention what other cities are on that list about a possible expansion, it’s only a matter of time before the NBA decides to expand.

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What needs to happen:

The NBA needs to add a team out west of Minnesota. If the NBA decided to move a team out west, then a possible movement for the Wolves looks quite possible in terms of standings alignment. The most likely solution is to move the Wolves’ to the Eastern Conference. The most ideal division that makes the most sense geographically speaking is the Central Division.

Minnesota would be in a division with the Bucks, Cavaliers, Pistons, Bulls, and Pacers. For one, being part of this division would certainly add a lot more spice to the Wolves’ season — solely based on the idea of adding more rivalry.

But, not only that, as of now Cleveland is a top team in the league, Milwaukee adds a Minnesota/Wisconsin mix, Detroit used to be a perennial contender, and Indiana is now slowly rebuilding.

What’s the distance the Wolves’ would have to travel in this scenario?

– Milwaukee (BMO Harris Arena): 337 miles
– Chicago (United Center): 408 miles
– Indiana (Bankers Life Fieldhouse): 592 miles
– Detroit (Little Caesars Arena): 693 miles
– Cleveland (Quicken Loans Arena): 757 miles

None of these teams are over 1,000 miles away from the Target Center which would be a very nice thing for fans and players who want to attend away games. Fans can decide to take a short road-trip down to Milwaukee, Chicago or any of the other divisional opponents for that matter. This would help the team’s fanbase take over a few away games which could ultimately help the players motivation and maybe help give a boost in winning some extra games. From the players side of things, less travel can help these players stay mentally fit and be less fatigued over time.

This proposal can do multiple things for everyone around the league, including Minnesota. It can help the Wolves win more games, keep players healthier, help the players’ state of mind, grow fanbases at away games, cut down travel, add more rivalry to NBA games, and bring another city a team. It’s something players, coaches, and fans across the nation should see and want.

In the future, if the NBA decides to add another team, it could possibly open up ideas for Oklahoma City to move to the Southwest division, cutting down travel time for the Thunder as well.

Opening up and expansion makes it easier on everyone. We already know it helps out Minnesota in multiple ways. But everyone else in the Northwest Division won’t have to travel as much. Not only that, but it opens up more opportunities for more expansions, which would cause the NBA division alignment to get cleaned up even more.

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It not only helps Minnesota, but the NBA as a whole.