Minnesota Timberwolves: Will the Wolves be the worst team in the West?

Will the Minnesota Timberwolves be the worst team in the Western Conference next season?

The Minnesota Timberwolves have a lot going for them as the offseason continues. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll have a strong 2021 season.

The Wolves have a plethora of assets to use to their advantage in order to better the team this offseason. President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas has been aggressive in bettering the overall roster and looks to be the right man to turn around the Wolves’ misfortunes of the past decade-plus.

That said, the odds are stacked against the Timberwolves going into the 2020-21 season, though – and in a big way.

Minnesota finished with the second-worst record in the Western Conference (third-worst in the league) this past year. And though, yes, they have players such as Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell on the roster, there is not much to write home about.

Reviewing this past year’s playoff teams from the Western Conference, it is seemingly unlikely that the Timberwolves are going to make it to the playoffs next season, based purely on each team’s performance this past year.

The Lakers, Clippers, and Nuggets are almost certainly going to make it, and it is arguable that every other team in the West at least has a shot to make it – including the Suns, Kings, and Spurs.

The Western Conference has only gotten better over the past few years. With the two worst teams being bad, at least in part, due to injury this year (the Timberwolves with Towns and the Warriors with Curry and Thompson) there are questions raised about whether deserving teams are going to be left out of the playoffs this coming season.

The playoff race in the NBA’s bubble was already ultra-competitive, with every team from the West being competitive up until the play-in game. The Wolves will be tasked with breaking into the top-eight of the conference, and with the numbers stacked against them, it may not be foreseen that they finish among the worst teams in the West next season – although that does not necessarily mean that they will be as bad as they are this year.

The main offseason transaction window has still yet to happen – and will not until the draft takes place in mid-November. We won’t know much until both that time period and the course of the season next year, but after winning the NBA Draft Lottery, things are certainly looking more hopeful.