One of the most anticipated games on the Minnesota Timberwolves' schedule is a rematch against the San Antonio Spurs. Of course, the Spurs knocked out the Timberwolves in the second-round of the playoffs. While they play four times throughout the year, the first meeting between the two teams holds a bit of extra weight.
On Saturday, October 31 (Halloween Night), the Timberwolves will travel to San Antonio. The NBA somehow opted not to have this game on national television, though. Look, I get it: two of the four games are on national TV, so it's not the end of the world.
Still, these are two of the best teams in the league with two marquee young stars: Anthony Edwards and Victor Wembanyama. All four of these games, especially the first meeting of the season, should be on national television. By trading for LaMelo Ball, the Wolves also made an aggressive effort to catch up to the Spurs: Why not showcase this on a national stage?
There's no doubt the NBA botched this one.
The Timberwolves-Spurs is a matchup that the league should promote
The NBA struggles to market its young stars properly. Not having all four Timberwolves-Spurs games on national television is a prime example of that. Considering that the first game is on Saturday night of a holiday makes this missed opportunity look even worse for the league. Furthermore, none of the seven games on Halloween are nationally televised. I mean, seriously, what are we doing here?
It's also not unreasonable to ask that all of the Timberwolves-Spurs games be nationally televised. All of Minnesota's games against fellow top teams in the West, the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder, are nationally televised. There's simply no defending the league opting not to promote a budding Wolves-Spurs rivalry.
Ant and Wemby are primed to be two of the faces of the league for the next decade-plus. They both play highly entertaining yet contrasting styles, with Wemby being a 7-foot-4 alien and Ant being a dynamic athlete and three-level scorer. Their personalities are also contrasting, with Wemby being more reserved yet reflective and Ant having unmatched charisma and humor.
This has all the makings of a star rivalry, and the NBA not treating it as such is disappointing.
The Timberwolves-Spurs is a fascinating Xs-and-Os matchup
As hinted at earlier, it will also be fascinating to see how the Timberwolves' new perimeter-centric identity fares against the Spurs. In the playoffs, San Antonio's high-pressure defense made life difficult for Edwards and proved that the Wolves needed to shake up their roster -- they did so with the LaMelo trade.
Ball gives the Timberwolves a massive boost in the playmaking and shooting departments. The Timberwolves did see flashes of success with five-out lineups against the Spurs, and LaMelo's extra shooting could be the recipe to offset Wemby's elite rim protection. Still, it's worth wondering whether going small is a feasible strategy against Wemby.
Ultimately, this matchup has everything you could ask for both basketball and narrative-wise, and it's a shame that two of the games won't be on national TV.
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