Is there such a thing as bulletin board material? There are two sides to it. One believes that a team can use a quote from an opposing player or the media that can be deemed as disparaging and use it as extra motivation. The other side believes a team should always be playing to give it their all and shouldn’t need something from the outside to help in that regard.
If you’re part of the former, and you’re a Minnesota Timberwolves fan, you probably hope the Wolves saw ESPN’s opening round predictions, as none of their experts are predicting them to advance out of the first round.
ESPN has all voters going against the Timberwolves
For the third time in the last four years, the Timberwolves are meeting up with the Denver Nuggets in the playoffs. While Denver defeated the Wolves in the opening round in 2023, Minnesota got its revenge the following year by advancing over the Nuggets in the conference semifinals.
While the Nuggets won three of four meetings with the Timberwolves this season, Minnesota won the most recent one. The Wolves are trying to reach the conference finals for the third-straight year. Denver has been bounced in the conference semifinals the last two years after winning it all in the 2022-23 season.Â
The 12 voters on ESPN who predicted the opening round results of the 2026 NBA Playoffs don’t believe that the Timberwolves will get as far as the previous two years. All 12 predict that Minnesota will be eliminated by the Nuggets. Many are expecting it to be a drawn-out and competitive series, though. Seven of the 12 are predicting it to go a full seven games, three more say Denver in six, while just two believe the Nuggets will advance in five (none are predicting a sweep).
Fans shouldn’t necessarily read too much into that. Last year, the Timberwolves were underdogs in their first-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers. While it wasn’t a clean sweep for ESPN voters to pick the Lakers, 11 out of 12 did (shout out to Tim Bontemps, the one who voted for Minnesota). The series ended in just five games, with the Timberwolves, of course, advancing.
It’s fun when two teams constantly meet up in high-stakes matchups, especially when they are mostly competitive. With the Timberwolves now back to full strength entering the postseason, expect another fun series with the Nuggets, regardless of who comes out on top.
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