The Minnestoa Timberwolves have, for much of the past few seasons, been a developmental young team. Young talented players such as Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards, and Jaden McDaniels have given fans glimpses of promise. These glimpses eventually culminated in a playoff berth last season in which they gave another young talented team in the Memphis Grizzlies a tough fight in a six-game series loss.
The Timberwolves organization left that series happy with the progress shown, but eager to improve upon it. What resulted from that eagerness was an offseason in which the Timberwolves went ‘all-in’ on its winning potential. Trading a massive haul of role players and draft assets to bring in defensive star Rudy Gobert from the Utah Jazz is a move that suggests a shift to win now mode. The team has a very talented young core as well as valuable role pieces, a combination that gives the teams front office confidence in its ability to win in the near future.
There is clearly lots of confidence in this group, and it will be up to the players to reward the trust of the front office. For some there will be hopes of improvement and greater contribution, but for others there will be expectations of such. Through this article we’ll look at three players on the roster facing the tightest expectations to take that next step to help ascend the team to the level the front office believes it can reach.