Will the Minnesota Timberwolves be ready to start the season?

We’re still nearly two months away from the start of training camp, but it’s not too early to speculate on whether or not the Minnesota Timberwolves will be ready to go to start the season.

Die-hard Timberwolves fans will remember that their squad traditionally struggles mightily to start the season, and most notably in the season opener.

The last four seasons have seen the Timberwolves open their seasons against Memphis, Lakers, Memphis again, and the Spurs. Interestingly, all four of those games have been on the road, and have left the Wolves with a record of 1-3 in the last four season-openers.

The Timberwolves have, however, managed to stay in these games. The two losses to the Grizzlies (remember, these were both good Memphis teams, and not last year’s poor squad) both came by four points, the loss to the Spurs last year was by eight, and the win over the Lakers was by a single point.

Close openers seem to be the Wolves’ specialty, but hopefully they can be on the right side of the result this year.

While there are rough guidelines for how the NBA schedule is created, there doesn’t appear to be any formula for how the season openers are set — although it does seem as though competitive teams are often set up to create an interesting first game. For instance, along with the Wolves and Spurs last year, Western Conference favorites Golden State and Houston were matched up, while the same scenario took place in the East with Boston and Cleveland meeting to begin their season.

There’s no certainty who the Timberwolves will be paired up against this season, and whether or not they’ll be gifted a home opener for the first time in five years, but a match against Denver wouldn’t be a surprise after the way the regular season ended.

Time will tell how ready to play the Timberwolves are after a flurry of offseason rumors surrounding rifts between star players, however Tom Thibodeau will surely whip the team into shape during training camp and the preseason.

The matchup matters, of course, but you can be certain that Thibs, Jimmy Butler and the rest of the gang will be doing their best to get the team on the right path early.

The Western Conference is more difficult than ever this season with the addition of LeBron James to the Lakers and Oklahoma City’s retention of Paul George (not to mention that Houston and Golden State didn’t get notably worse) and the Wolves need to do their best to assert their place among the top of pack to best position themselves for a playoff position.

Time will tell who the Timberwolves will be opening their season against, and where the game will be. One thing is for sure: the Timberwolves will be looking to prove they’re not a team to be taken lightly in this stacked Western Conference.