Timberwolves fighting excessive expectations against formidable foes

When the 2022-23 NBA schedule was first released, the Minnesota Timberwolves were overjoyed. Not only did the team open with just two road games in the Timberwolves’ schedule for the month of October 2022, but the team appeared to be onset with opponents that would be more focused on the first overall pick of the 2023 NBA Draft than winning basketball games.

Boy oh boy, do those early projections seem wrong already.

The teams that were supposed to roll over and play dead this season, like the Oklahoma City Thunder (3-3), the Utah Jazz (6-2), and the San Antonio Spurs (5-2) are beating good teams entering November 2022.

Is that because those teams found success at the expense of the Timberwolves? Not exactly. While the Timberwolves defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder twice, the Thunder have beaten the LA Clippers twice and the Dallas Mavericks once. The Utah Jazz has beaten the Memphis Grizzlies twice, and the New Orleans Pelicans as well as the Denver Nuggets. The San Antonio Spurs have beaten the Philadelphia 76ers, the Chicago Bulls, and the Utah Jazz so far this season.

Preseason projections got it pretty wrong so far

It’s pretty obvious. The Minnesota Timberwolves have not faced an easy early-season schedule at all. So why are we (fill in a dark emotion like angry/frustrated/etc here) with the team’s 4-3 record so far?

The Minnesota Timberwolves roster is a work in process and admitted as such in the final preseason game as the starting five rotation stepped onto the basketball court altogether to play basketball for the first time. The fact that the Timberwolves enter November 2022 with a record of just 4-3 is frustrating to some people. But it’s better than I’d expected with what we know now about the quality of opponents on the Timberwolves’ schedule through October 2022.

If we expect a sunny day, how much sense does it make to complain about the sun tan you didn’t get sunbathing if the weather proved to be thunderstorms and downpours that day?

Even the powerhouse Golden State Warriors, a team that is almost a unanimous consensus to return to the NBA Championship this season has begun the season at 3-4.

For what it’s worth, the NBA Northwest Division is by far the most competitive division in the NBA emerging in October 2022. The combined record of the five teams is 22-12.  No team has a sub-.500 record so far.  Will that last throughout the 2022-23 NBA season? Probably not. But we know that the Timberwolves will have a number of issues to work through this long 82-game season.

Perhaps the Minnesota Timberwolves are better than expected, and the real problem so far is that we have set excessive expectations for the team against far-more formidable foes. In short, maybe the problem is what we wanted from them, not what they are delivering.