The Minnesota Timberwolves are in the midst of what can only be classified as a partial rebuild. It’s time to follow in the footsteps of the Denver Nuggets.
Just two seasons ago, the Minnesota Timberwolves won 47 games and claimed the No. 8 seed by defeating the Denver Nuggets in overtime in the final game of the 2017-18 regular season.
Since then, the Wolves have gone 51-74 in regular season games while the Nuggets have been one of the league’s best teams, posting a 84-42 mark over the same period. Minnesota has fired their coach and jettisoned three-fifths of the starting lineup that carried them to the first round of the 2018 playoffs.
The Nuggets, for their part, have made both peripheral moves and long-term, calculated gambles. But the core of the team remains the same.
Nikola Jokic, Paul Millsap, Jamal Murray, and Will Barton all started that game against the Wolves back on April 11, 2018. If healthy, they all would have started this week’s win over the Wolves in January of 2020.
As for the Wolves, only three of the 10 players who saw the court in the 2018 regular season finale played in Monday’s loss: Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, and Gorgui Dieng. The three players who did not play are all gone, too, making it nine of the 12 active players that are no longer with the organization.
Truthfully, the disparity between the Nuggets and Timberwolves isn’t simply about continuity, although continuity itself is a byproduct of what this article is all about: team-building.
The Denver Nuggets have exactly one player of the top 12 minutes-getters on their roster who was acquired via traditional free agency. Outside of signing Millsap in the summer of 2017, the Nuggets signed Torrey Craig as an undrafted free agent, and the other 10 players were drafted or traded for by Denver.
The Nuggets have submitted the blueprint for how a mid-market team in the middle of the country and in a state with income tax can acquire and retain talent.
We don’t know Gersson Rosas’ full plan, of course, as he’s only been on the job for eight months. But that doesn’t preclude us from looking longingly at the Nuggets’ front office and their impeccable plan.
Let’s dive in. Behold, the power of NBA team-building.