Minnesota Timberwolves: The impact of missing the bubble

Will missing out on the Orlando bubble impact the Minnesota Timberwolves’ future?

The Minnesota Timberwolves watched from home as 22 NBA franchises resumed the NBA season within the Disney World bubble in Orlando.

The 2019-20 NBA season has been one of the wildest seasons in NBA history. After the league was forced to shut down in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NBA teams and players were left wondering what the rest of the year might look like.

The league decided to restart the season in late July with 22 of the 30 NBA teams, leaving eight teams including the Minnesota Timberwolves out of the equation. The bubble began with all teams playing eight seeding games in Orlando before cutting the field down to 16 for the start of the NBA playoffs.

Thus far, the NBA restart bubble has been fun, competitive, and successful for all parties involved. Unfortunately, the impact of Minnesota missing out on the restart bubble and ensuing playoffs may still be felt in the coming years for an organization desperately trying to right the ship.

Team-building

The NBA bubble has created a unique environment for organizations to build relationships and grow as a team.

Players are around their teammates 24/7 as they share in each other’s struggles and celebrate each other’s successes. Teams such as Utah and Phoenix have successfully used this time to build team chemistry after dealing with concerning locker room situations before the restart. This level of camaraderie surpasses any training camp environment for teams and players who have been willing to embrace the situation.

The opening weeks of the re-start also offered the opportunity for many teams to experiment with new lineups within a competitive environment. The Denver Nuggets tinkered with a starting lineup that included five frontcourt players, while the Brooklyn Nets used “regular season” games as an early look at how to shape next year’s roster.

This quirky environment has allowed teams to compete for the 2019-20 championship while also preparing for the 2020-21 season in a way that should prove to be beneficial.

Player Recruitment

One under-appreciated aspect of the NBA bubble is the omnipresent opportunity to engage with opposing players.

The NBA is a league run by the players and the relationships between star players are often the catalyst for trades or key free agent signings. The Minnesota Timberwolves organization should know this as well as anybody after spending the majority of the 2019-20 season chasing after Karl-Anthony Towns’ close friend, D’Angelo Russell, before finally swinging a deal for him at the trade deadline.

Twenty-two teams and over 300 players have had the chance to hang out regularly between practices and games. Both the bubble itself and the important social justice discussions happening during this time have managed to bring the players together in a way that cannot be overstated.

The teams and players within the bubble feel like one big family and that dynamic could have future repercussions on the trade and free agent market for years to come.

Competitive Fire

Perhaps the greatest achievement of the NBA bubble has been the competition level thus far.

Both the regular season re-start games and the first-0ound playoff series have showcased elite performances by the game’s biggest stars. The Western Conference specifically has been as competitive as ever despite the omission of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors.

The seeding games in the bubble provided teams on the outside of the playoff picture with an environment unrivaled by any normal regular season. The NBA’s youngest stars had the opportunity to play eight games with a playoff environment and gain valuable experience that will help prepare them for the rest of their careers.

Young teams including Portland, Memphis, Phoenix, and New Orleans went head-to-head in highly competitive matchups with the spotlight fixed on many of those franchises’ rookie and sophomore players.

Eventually, the Portland Trail Blazers were able to clinch the final playoff spot in the West with help from the NBA Player of the Seeding Games, Damian Lillard, and their 21-year-old emerging talent from Apple Valley High School, Gary Trent Jr.

However, the media darling during the seeding games was the Phoenix Suns led by their young star and friend to many well-known Timberwolves’ players, Devin Booker. Despite narrowly missing the playoffs, the Suns finished their time in the bubble with a perfect 8-0 record in a playoff-like environment where every game was an elimination game. The future suddenly looks much brighter for the franchise as the players know they are capable of winning games against the league’s fiercest competition when it matters most.

The challenge moving forward for Minnesota will be finding ways to make up for lost time. After turning over the majority of the team’s roster mere weeks before their season was prematurely ended, the franchise is in desperate need of chemistry and in-game experience.

The Timberwolves’ two building blocks, Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell have only played in five playoff games each and did not have the opportunity to gain pressure-packed minutes like many of their counterparts did in the bubble. In fact, those two have still only played a single game on an NBA court together and it could be many months before the team has the chance to play again.

It is up to the Minnesota Timberwolves’ front office and players to find creative ways to build team chemistry and experience if they hope to keep pace with the rest of the Western Conference.