Who’s afraid of the Big Bad TWolves? 5 reasons why the NBA should be

I – What if the Timberwolves succeed with Twin City Twin Towers?

The greatest fear in the NBA is the fear that the Minnesota Timberwolves may just be onto something. If they do, in fact, succeed in the effort to reconstruct the Twin Towers of NBA powers in the Twin Cities, only a handful of NBA teams are anywhere close to a position to attempt to follow suit.

The Philadelphia 76ers with Joel Embiid, the Denver Nuggets with Nikola Jokic, the LA Lakers with Anthony Davis, and perhaps the Miami Heat with Bam Adebayo. Those are the teams who could, with significant investment, restructure their roster to attempt to replicate the Minnesota Timberwolves experiment to feature two bigs.  And when I say significant investment, I am talking a great deal more than what the Timberwolves exchanged for Rudy Gobert. A significantly great deal more.

Innovation first, domination second

Let’s not fool ourselves into some naive trap to end up disappointed. The Minnesota Timberwolves finished the 2021-22 season with a record of 46-36. The realistic result for the 2022-23 season is to win 50+ games. But that is simply the first year for this team’s new and improved roster.  The Timberwolves will have great games this season, and some not-so-great games.

Where it will all start to ‘click’ for the team will occur in the 2023-24 season. Then, the team will have a year under their belt with Towns and Gobert as teammates for the entire season. The team will be able to assess whether D’Angelo Russell can handle running the floor, whether Jaden McDaniels can truly step up his game, and whether the team needs additional roster support to turn the corner.

Fortune favors the bold. Right now, there is no NBA team that is bolder than the Minnesota Timberwolves. Will it all pan out? I don’t have the answer for you right now. But one thing I can say with certainty: I’m going to enjoy the ride as we all find out together.