Like it or not, the Timberwolves are forging a 2023-24 competitor

You may or may not be impressed with the level of fight in the Minnesota Timberwolves team this season, but that’s okay. From a team that finished the 2022-23 NBA season with a 42-40 record to a team that played to a 1-1 record in the NBA Play-In Tournament, to the team that stands now at the brink of ending their playoff run with an 0-3 record, the Minnesota Timberwolves did not advance in the NBA Playoffs as many had hoped.

The Timberwolves may or may not even win one game in the NBA Playoffs this year.  But champions are not those who never fall to failure. Champions are born from those failures and learn to stand up despite failures to compete even more effectively the next time. That is what I believe will happen to the Minnesota Timberwolves now.

Timberwolves can’t compete against the best of the NBA West, yet

The fully healthy Minnesota Timberwolves roster may or may not have won some games. But even if the Timberwolves had Naz Reid and Jaden McDaniels at their disposal, I don’t believe that the players on the Timberwolves team could have altered the inevitable. The Denver Nuggets are a very good team, a team that has played together all season, and whose core has played together for three or more seasons.

The Minnesota Timberwolves roster never had the chance to build the sort of chemistry between players that allows them to achieve that next level of play, that NBA Playoffs performance peak that fills highlight reels with astonishing plays.  Yes, Timberwolves players have performed admirably as individuals. But in the three games against the Denver Nuggets, the Minnesota Timberwolves have only one one of the 12 quarters against the Nuggets. That happened in the third quarter of Game 2 when the Timberwolves exploded for 40 points to claim the lead in that game for the briefest of moments.

Let that sink in. The Timberwolves have won just one of twelve NBA quarters against the Denver Nuggets.