Can the Minnesota Timberwolves build on their 2021-22 season?

The Minnesota Timberwolves finished the 2021-22 NBA season with a record of 46 wins and 36 losses, good enough to be the seventh-seed in the NBA Western Conference, and take on the Memphis Grizzlies in Round 1. The T-Wolves fell to the Grizzlies 4-2 in the NBA Playoffs.

So the question now is, will the Timberwolves learn from the experience? Or will the playoff loss serve as the new trend as the team slides back into that sub-.500 anonymity? To be honest, you could find a good reason to make an argument for either scenario.

Whenever I am confronted with the glass half-empty or half-full, I tend to be the more optimistic version and see a glass that is half full. But when a pattern develops, that’s something that will skew my view. Right now, the Timberwolves have been stuck in a pattern of oscillating from a playoff team to one that plummets below .500. Disagree? Just look at what the 2017-18 Minnesota Timberwolves did.

In that year, the T-Wolves finished the season at 47-35, good enough to earn the eighth seed in the NBA Western Conference Playoffs. In that year, they were led by Andrew Wiggins, Jimmy Butler, and Karl Anthony Towns. But they ran into the top-seeded Houston Rockets and were quickly dismissed after a 4-1 series.

The Timberwolves had believed that they were just one or two roster moves away from getting over the hump. So the team added star point guard Derrick Rose. With his presence on the roster, the Minnesota Timberwolves made the NBA Playoffs. And then? The wheels began to fall off the wagon.