Good luck in the Western Conference for the next few years if you’re not the San Antonio Spurs or Oklahoma City Thunder. Of course, those two teams have just begun their Western Conference finals matchup. Both teams are certainly set up to be teams to get that deep into the playoffs for years to come.
A team like the Minnesota Timberwolves has won five playoff rounds over the last three years. Despite that, the team still seems far off from their first NBA finals appearance in franchise history. A guest on the All NBA Podcast, Marc Stein, mentioned a move they can make that could potentially put them back in the hunt. And no, it doesn’t involve any player movement. Stein said,
"With Minnesota, there’s always that topic they might get traded to the East when expansion comes, which might be the best trade in franchise history if it happens."
Expansion seems like it will be coming in the 2028-29 season. When it does, the Timberwolves are seen as a team that could move to the Eastern Conference.
Expansion could put the Timberwolves in the East
As noted, the Spurs and Thunder feel poised to dominate the conference. However, the East doesn't have any clear juggernauts. If the Wolves were hypothetically in the East this season, there's a strong chance they'd make a finals run. Likewise, it's highly possible that getting moved to the East is what it would take for the Wolves to make their first finals appearance.
If expansion goes through in a couple of years, as most expect it will, the two new teams will reside in Seattle and Las Vegas. Obviously, both of those teams will be placed in the Western Conference, which would leave an imbalance in the number of teams in the two conferences.
A team currently in the West would need to be moved to the East in order for each conference to have 16 teams. Shams Charania has previously reported that executives believe that either the Timberwolves or the Memphis Grizzlies would be the team to move from the Western Conference.
There’s a fairly obvious reason why the NBA should choose Minnesota. They could be put in a division with the Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls, and Detroit Pistons.
That would capitalize on the rivalries these cities have in other sports. The NFC North in the NFL has the Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, and Detroit Lions. It’s well-known that these teams and their fanbases aren’t fond of each other.
The AL Central in MLB has the Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox, and Detroit Tigers as members. The Milwaukee Brewers were also part of the division for a brief time until they moved to the NL in 1998.
The NBA and most sports are cyclical. It just seems as if the Eastern Conference has been the easier path to the finals for a long while now. Anthony Edwards will still be just 27 years old in the 2028-29 season.
Without a doubt, Timberwolves fans are hoping that the official word of expansion also brings official news of their favorite team switching conferences.
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