Offseason drama in the NBA is steadily slowing down. The Minnesota Timberwolves’ roster is nearly finalized, and one of the only major decisions remaining will be whether the team decides to trade Karl-Anthony Towns or not.
Looking ahead to the 2023-24 season, Minnesota found out months ago that they will partaking in a unique opportunity to open up their preseason schedule. The Wolves will join the Dallas Mavericks in traveling to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to play a pair of unique preseason contests, as part of the NBA’s collaboration with Abu Dhabi to showcase games internationally.
Along with those two games, the remainder of the Timberwolves’ preseason schedule was officially released on Monday. The team will be in Abu Dhabi for their two games against the Mavericks on October 5 and 7, with both games tipping off at 11:00 am CT.
From there, the Wolves will travel to Madison Square Garden to face the New York Knicks before playing their only home game of preseason on October 17 against Maccabi Ra’anana at Target Center. Preseason action will conclude for Minnesota on October 19 in Chicago.
The Minnesota Timberwolves’ official preseason schedule for 2023-24: pic.twitter.com/jLEYnUOTyO
— Will Eudy (@WillCEudy) July 24, 2023
The Minnesota Timberwolves have just one home preseason game scheduled.
Although many fans will be disappointed to only get one chance to see the team at home in preseason, the one-of-a-kind competition in Abu Dhabi should be enough to make up for it. Minnesota will be taking on a Mavs team that they went 2-1 against in 2022-23, doing so in an arena and city the team has never traveled to before.
As always with preseason, the main goal should be to stay healthy. It is always exciting to see the Wolves back in action after a long offseason and see what new tricks players have up their sleeve. But making it to the regular season with an injury-free roster is priority number one, especially with how many Timberwolves are competing in the FIBA World Cup this summer.
It is also likely that Head Coach Chris Finch will do some tinkering with the lineups during Minnesota’s five-game preseason slate. Perhaps we will even see some of the three big man lineups that he spoke about earlier this month.