3 secret weapons the Timberwolves have for the NBA Playoffs
By Will Eudy
Playoff experience
No matter how you look at it, prior experience in the playoffs will always be a factor when the postseason comes around. It is the primary reason so many fans and analysts are questioning whether the Sacramento Kings should be taken seriously as a contender in this year’s playoffs.
When you enter the playoffs having been there before, you bring with you all the knowledge and understanding that you gained from playing in that environment. Entering that atmosphere with no prior experience can be a bit of a shock for some teams, and it is part of the reason the Timberwolves were not able to pull off the upset against the Memphis Grizzlies last April.
Now, with over half the Wolves’ roster coming in with playoff experience, they can firmly identify as a battle-tested group in the postseason. Of course, the eight players still around from 2021-22 will bring with them their know-how from the six-game series with Memphis, but the newly joined veterans add a much greater depth to Minnesota’s maturity in that area.
Between Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley, Kyle Anderson, and Austin Rivers is a total of 229 playoff games worth of experience in the NBA postseason. They bring to the Minnesota locker room all of their successes and failures from those games. While having a plethora of playoff-tested veterans is something of a new concept for Timberwolves fans, it could prove to be a very effective secret weapon against championship-level teams.