With the NBA regular season right around the corner, publications are posting their power rankings for the 2025-26 season. These sports preseason power rankings are always fun to look back at and see which teams they were way off on (look at college football, how many had Penn State and/or Clemson as top-3 teams?). Timberwolves fans may want to bookmark Law Murray of The Athletic’s power rankings as he is lower than pretty much anyone on Minnesota’s prospects this season.
Has the Timberwolves as a Play-In Tournament team
On Monday morning, The Athletic posted Murray’s NBA power rankings for the 2025-26 season. He places the 30 NBA teams into five tiers as well as ranking them from #1-30. The top tier are the title contenders, while the bottom tier is the basement floor.
The tier right in the middle (Tier 3) is the bubble. That’s where the Timberwolves reside according to Murray. He ranks them as the 12th-best team entering the season.
Murray has Minnesota needing to go through the Play-In Tournament to reach the playoffs. They are the seventh-best team by his rankings, behind the Thunder (#1), Clippers (#2), Warriors (#3), Nuggets (#6), Lakers (#8), and Rockets (#10). Of course, the top six in each conference get a guaranteed postseason spot.
While Wolves fans will certainly frown at some of those teams being ahead of them, the one that will have them the most up in arms is the Pacers. Indiana comes in one spot above them at #11, despite Tyrese Haliburton (likely) being out for the season and losing Myles Turner.
Many teams can feel slighted by these rankings
For each team, Murray also provides a playoff prediction. As the seventh seed, the Timberwolves would face the second-seeded Clippers. Murray has Minnesota getting bounced in the opening round.
That’s a steep drop for a team that won two playoff series each of the last two years, earning a spot in the Western Conference finals. A team that once again has championship aspirations this season. A team whose superstar player, Anthony Edwards, is just 24 years old. A team that beat both the Lakers and Warriors in last season's playoffs, but are placed below both of them.
There’s many other teams whose fanbases are displeased (just take a look at the comment section). The Timberwolves are one of a few teams that seem to be misplaced, and Murray is sure to hear in future power rankings about how he was way off with some of these teams to begin the year.