Minnesota Timberwolves rise four spots in ESPN Future Power Rankings

The Minnesota Timberwolves have risen four spots in ESPN’s Future Power Rankings since the last edition, which had been released back in May.

Still, the Wolves rank surprisingly low. What factors are keeping them from rising further up the list?

Minnesota Timberwolves rise four spots in ESPN Future Power Rankings

The Future Power Rankings are an attempt at capturing a franchise’s general standing. The way that ESPN defines it is how a team will perform over the next three seasons.

The Wolves ranked No. 29 in May’s edition of the rankings. They rose four spots to No. 25 (subscription required), and despite the write-up from ESPN suggesting that the rise was led by tech billionaire Marc Lore and former Major League Baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez assuming partial ownership of the team, that’s actually not what moved the needle.

ESPN has five categories that they consider for the rankings: Players, Management, Money, Market, and Draft Capital. The categories are weighted, so players make up 58.1 percent of the score, with management next at 16.7 percent and the other three categories tying for just 8.3 percent.

Somehow, the Wolves roster only ranked No. 22, up from No. 25. Management dropped from a tie for No. 28 back in May to No. 30 despite the encouraging presence of the new owners. This is presumably due to the recent dismissal of Gersson Rosas; firing the president of basketball operations days before the start of training camp doesn’t exactly scream stability or competence.

Interestingly, the Wolves made most of their gain in the Money category. Back in May, they were ranked No. 23. Now, they’ve risen to No. 8. Not much has changed, of course, outside of shuffling expiring deals and avoiding taking on any long-term salary.

Minnesota has over $40 million in expiring contracts next summer that could be packaged as part of an in-season deal, which is absolutely valuable.

The Draft category improved as well, now that the 2021 first-rounder that was sent to Golden State is off the books. The Wolves own all of their future picks and a couple of extra second-round selections, leading them to be ranked No. 10 in that category.

The market is still somehow ranked No. 30, which doesn’t make much sense.

This is certainly a noisy exercise with plenty of factors to consider. Of course, if the Wolves are a playoff team this year, then they’ll surely leap into the top 15 with ease in next spring’s edition of Future Power Rankings. It would show that the Player category in this exercise, which again, makes up 58.1 percent of the total score, was severely undervalued in the case of the Wolves.

Incidentally, the only teams below the Wolves are the Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic, and Cleveland Cavaliers.

Ultimately, the No. 25 ranking is several spots too low. Expect it to be up and out of the 20s come May, perhaps even cracking the top 15.