The Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets both had a clear weakness last season. However, the Timberwolves were better able to exploit their opponents’ weakness when they defeated Denver in six games in the opening round of the 2026 playoffs.
The Timberwolves went last season without anyone resembling a point guard. The Nuggets simply weren’t a good defensive team. Minnesota has fixed its main issue. Denver? The Nuggets have seemingly made theirs worse.
LaMelo Ball gives the Timberwolves the point guard they need
Despite ranking seventh in the league in scoring, the Wolves were middle of the pack in dishing, finishing 16th in assists. They were 20th in assist-to-turnover ratio.
In late June, acquiring LaMelo Ball made the offense even scarier. Having Anthony Edwards ensures that the team will be able to score a lot. Now, Ant-Man won’t have as much on his plate. Playing with Ball should also give Edwards more catch-and-shoot 3-point opportunities, a shot he is lethal with.
The offensive numbers that the Charlotte Hornets were able to put up in recent years with Ball on the floor were matched by few other individuals around the league. The Wolves had a good offense last year.
This year, it should be great.
The Nuggets’ defense has gotten worse in recent days
The Nuggets led the league in offensive rating in 2025–26. Having Nikola Jokic can do that. Defense was a different story though.
Denver finished the year just 21st in defensive rating, at 117.5 per Cleaning the Glass. That wasn’t just the worst among the 16 playoff teams; it was also worse than that of the four teams eliminated in the Play-In Tournament. The Timberwolves got into the paint at will during their series with the Nuggets last season.
In the past few days, the Nuggets look like they have gotten worse on that end of the floor. By letting Peyton Watson go in a sign-and-trade, Denver lost perhaps its second-best defender, and he’s younger than its best defender, Aaron Gordon.
Then, on Friday, it was announced that the Nuggets had signed DeMar DeRozan. The 37-year-old can still score, but at this stage of his career, he will often be matched up with the opponent’s least threatening player while on defense.
Jaden McDaniels is probably licking his chops even more
The Nuggets and Timberwolves clearly don’t like each other. Since Denver won the championship in 2023, Minnesota has eliminated them from the playoffs twice.
In April, Jaden McDaniels called out basically every important member of Denver’s rotation for being a bad defender. He couldn’t say that about Watson because Watson missed their playoff series with a hamstring strain.
Regardless, it's easy to imagine McDaniels including DeRozan on the list of callouts if he had been with the Nuggets at the time.
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