Minnesota Timberwolves: Looking back at the preseason predictions

The Minnesota Timberwolves season came to an end this past Friday as they lost in six games to the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the playoffs. Heartbreaking? Perhaps. But the Grizzlies were a tough draw, so it wasn’t a shocking outcome.

The Wolves ended the regular season at the seventh seed with a 46-36 record. Minnesota also exceeded everybody’s expectations with where they ended up, including me. But did they leave some value on the table? Did they squeeze the last bit of playoff swagger out of this roster? Will they use this experience to get better? Or was this their swan song and the next trajectory will be a slow descent back to the NBA pack of lottery draft picks? Is this the 2017-18 season all over again?

We’ll be examining those and a host of other scenarios. After all, the T-Wolves have crossed that threshold from building a playoff team to becoming an NBA playoff team

With that being said let’s revisit those foolishly early predictions for the team I made at the beginning of the season.

Offensive Rating Prediction

At the beginning of the season, I predicted that the Minnesota Timberwolves would be 11th in NBA in offensive rating. After being 18th the previous season, the Wolves ended up 7th in offensive rating this season. Minnesota’s offense was one of the best parts of the season. They were first in the league in points per game. They averaged almost 116 points per game and shocked everyone when it came to their offense.

The Timberwolves had some key players injured during the 2020-21 season, but thanks to their depth and resiliency, the team managed to fight through all of that, which is part of the reason why they were successful.

During the 2020-21 season, the Wolves were a dismal 25th out of 30 teams in three-point percentage, but dramatically improved to end the 2021-22 season by shooting 35.8 percent which is good enough to rise to the 12th-best team in the NBA.

The Wolves’ offense was one of the reasons why they improved so much, but another part of their game that improved significantly was defense.

Defensive Rating Prediction

In the article, I pointed out that Patrick Beverley and Taurean Prince would help limit opponent scoring chances and they helped the team do just that. Even though they were still 24th-ranked in points per game against, Minnesota was still in the top half of the league in overall defensive rating.

They also improved their defense when it came to opponents’ field goal percentage. In the 20-21 season they were 28th in the league in this category and this season they moved up all the way to 16th.

Even though the Timberwolves still struggled in defensive categories like defensive rebounds, they showed a lot of progress this season. A big reason for this progress is the addition of Patrick Beverley who brought some grittiness to this young team.

Record Prediction

Before the season I predicted the Timberwolves would win between 35 and 40 games. That seemed like a fair prediction, but the Wolves were able to double their wins from last year and win 46 games.

Chris Finch and the Wolves ended the regular season making the play-in and beating the clippers to clinch a playoff spot.

Some national media didn’t expect the team to develop and become nearly as competitive as they were. A lot of people (including myself, to be honest) didn’t expect this team to compete for a top-six seed in the NBA Western Conference and even compete the way they did in the playoffs.

There are many reasons why Minnesota was able to double their wins this past season including the addition of Patrick Beverley, allowing Chris Finch to have more time to connect with this team and the continued improvement and development of Anthony Edwards.

Overall  I believe that I deserve a:

C+

While better than a random guess, I was a bit timid as to the success of the team this year.

The season didn’t end how the team would have liked it to end, but there are many positives to take away from this season and it looks like this team has a bright future.