A year ago, Minnesota’s pitch was simple: keep the group together and let familiarity do the work. The Timberwolves had just finished a 49-win season and reached the Western Conference Finals for a second straight year, so the front office mostly stood pat and trusted continuity.
That plan never really caught fire. The Wolves drifted, looked stuck by November, and spent much of the season waiting for the playoffs instead of building momentum toward them. They finished the same way they had the year before - 49 wins and the No. 6 seed.
This summer, Minnesota went the other direction. Continuity was no longer the priority.
The Wolves traded away both of their power forwards, Julius Randle and Naz Reid, and brought in LaMelo Ball and later Jonathan Kuminga, who held his debut press conference this past Thursday. The roster is better now than it was a year ago, even if it’s still fair to ask whether that’s enough to catch the top of the Western Conference.
What does help Minnesota is that the rest of the conference has not stood still either - and not always in a good way. A few of the teams that can make life miserable for the Timberwolves took real hits this offseason.
The clearest example is Oklahoma City. The Thunder are still the deserved favorites to win the 2027 NBA Championship, and for good reason. They’ve led the Western Conference in wins in each of the last three seasons, won the title in 2025, and were one game away from getting back to the Finals last season.
But this was the first time in this era that salary-cap pressure and the second apron forced them to part with real pieces. In a string of salary-dumping moves, OKC shipped out Luguentz Dort, Isaiah Joe, and Aaron Wiggins. The moves may make sense from a long-term asset standpoint - the Thunder got draft compensation back - but they clearly weaken the roster in the short term.
Dort was the longest-tenured player on the team and had been in the starting lineup since January of 2020, where he made his name as one of the Thunder’s best defenders. Joe and Wiggins were valuable depth scorers, putting up 11.1 and 9.4 points per game respectively while each played more than 20 minutes a night. Oklahoma City can absorb some of that loss, but the overwhelming depth that made the team so dangerous is thinner now.
Denver is in a different kind of slide, one that has been building for a while. Since winning the championship in 2023, the Nuggets have steadily bled talent.
Bruce Brown left for the Indiana Pacers the summer after the title. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope later departed for the Orlando Magic.
Then last offseason, Denver moved Michael Porter Jr. and his big contract, plus a first-round pick, to the Brooklyn Nets for Cameron Johnson. This offseason brought another cost-cutting move, with Peyton Watson going to the Cleveland Cavaliers for a first-round pick so the Nuggets could avoid the penalties and costs tied to the second apron.
Minnesota has tried to handle that kind of financial pressure more carefully over the past few years, avoiding the second apron without letting quality players walk for nothing. Denver’s approach has been more reactive, and the result is a team that looks worse now than the one that got embarrassed in last season’s playoffs. Jaden McDaniels already called out the Nuggets as bad defenders, and Denver then let the one player he didn’t mention leave anyway.
The Lakers also look dramatically different. Five of their top seven scorers from last season are gone, including LeBron James, who chose the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency.
Los Angeles filled out the new roster with Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Collin Sexton, Jaden Hardy, and Walker Kessler, the former Timberwolves draftee they acquired in a sign-and-trade with the Utah Jazz.
There’s still obvious upside in any team built around Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves, especially once the playoffs arrive. But with arguably the greatest player ever out of Los Angeles, it’s hard to argue this version of the Lakers is better than the one from a year ago - or even the one the Wolves knocked out in five games.
In Other News...
Chris Finch Sees One Clear Path To Unlock LaMelo Ball In Minnesota
LaMelo Balls appeal has always been obvious to evaluators who value creativity and pace, and Chris Finch sees the same thing from a Minnesota vantage point. The Timberwolves coach pointed to the guards shot selection and finishing as the clearest areas for growth, noting that Ball can get comfortable living on difficult looks he is talented enough to convert, even if those attempts do not always serve the offense as well as they could.
Finch also flagged a subtler issue near the rim, where Balls elite playmaking instincts can sometimes shape the way he attacks the paint. Instead of closing possessions like a scorer, he can drift toward a passing mindset, and that can leave easy points on the table. For a Wolves team looking to maximize every edge, the question is not whether Ball has the skill to fit, but how much sharper he can become with the right emphasis. [Read more 🡒]
Bulls' Kuminga Miss Reveals A Bigger Plan For Their Young Wings
The Bulls spent part of the offseason chasing restricted free agents Bennedict Mathurin and Jonathan Kuminga, but neither pursuit ended in Chicagos favor. Mathurin landed with the New Orleans Pelicans, while Kuminga ultimately chose a two-year deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves, giving the Wolves a notable addition to their young wing mix at a time when they were looking to keep building around athletic, versatile perimeter talent.
Chicagos pitch apparently never got to the point of securing Kuminga, and the gap in how each team framed his opportunity mattered. Reports indicated the Bulls were not willing to guarantee him a major role, while Minnesota was prepared to offer more responsibility right away, a detail that helps explain why the Wolves won out in a market where usage and playing time can be just as important as money. [Read more 🡒]
Timberwolves Are Taking A Real Health Gamble On LaMelo Ball
Minnesotas interest in LaMelo Ball comes with the kind of risk that usually gets attached to a real swing for the fences. The Timberwolves know the talent is there, and general manager Matt Lloyd has made it clear the club is banking on Ball carrying over the healthier stretch he showed last season, when he stayed on the floor enough to ease some of the usual concerns that follow him around.
Even so, no one in Minnesota is pretending the injury history has disappeared. The logic behind the chase is that the roster has enough support to absorb missed time if it comes, which is part of why the move remains so intriguing. The upside is obvious, but so is the gamble, and the Wolves are weighing both as they decide how far to go. [Read more 🡒]