The Minnesota Timberwolves spent last season carrying a glaring flaw. The Denver Nuggets had one too, and it showed up in the playoff matchup between these teams.
Minnesota beat Denver in six games in the opening round of the 2026 playoffs, and the difference was simple: the Wolves found a way to attack the weak spot. The Nuggets did not.
That gap has only widened since then.
Minnesota went through last season without anyone who really looked like a point guard. Even with that problem, the Wolves still finished seventh in scoring, but they were only 16th in assists and 20th in assist-to-turnover ratio. That changed in late June when they added LaMelo Ball, a move that makes an already dangerous offense even harder to handle.
Anthony Edwards already gives Minnesota a massive scoring base. With Ball in the mix, Edwards should have less creation burden on his shoulders and more chances to work as a catch-and-shoot threat from 3, which is one of his best shots.
Ball’s track record in Charlotte also suggests the ball movement and offensive production can reach another level when he’s on the floor. Minnesota had a good offense a year ago.
Now it looks like it can be great.
Denver’s story is moving in the opposite direction. The Nuggets led the league in offensive rating in 2025-26, and Nikola Jokic had plenty to do with that.
But their defense was a different matter entirely. They finished 21st in defensive rating at 117.5 per Cleaning the Glass, which wasn’t just the worst mark among the 16 playoff teams.
It was also worse than the four teams that were knocked out in the Play-In Tournament. Minnesota was able to get into the paint at will in that series last season, and Denver hasn’t done much to suggest that problem is about to disappear.
If anything, the last few days have made it look worse. Peyton Watson was lost in a sign-and-trade, and Denver gave up what might have been its second-best defender.
Watson was younger than Aaron Gordon, who is considered the team’s best defender. Then came Friday’s announcement that the Nuggets signed DeMar DeRozan.
DeRozan can still put the ball in the basket, but at 37, he’s the kind of player who will often be hidden on the opponent’s least dangerous scorer on defense.
That should sound familiar to anyone who watched Jaden McDaniels go after Denver in April. The Nuggets and Timberwolves do not exactly have warm feelings for each other, and Minnesota has now sent Denver home from the playoffs twice since the Nuggets won the championship in 2023. McDaniels called out basically every important player in Denver’s rotation for being a bad defender, and he couldn’t include Watson because Watson missed the series with a hamstring strain.
If Watson had played, and if DeRozan had already been there, it’s not hard to picture McDaniels having even more names to add.
In Other News...
Victor Wembanyama Is Already Becoming The Wests Ultimate Measuring Stick
Anthony Edwards came away from the Timberwolves Western Conference Finals matchup with San Antonio seeing Victor Wembanyama not just as a problem to solve, but as the kind of player who can sharpen a contender. Edwards acknowledged the Spurs star as a motivating rival, and the way Wembanyama changes the geometry of a game is already part of why Minnesota has to keep evolving. For a Wolves team with title ambitions, those postseason meetings can become more than one series. They can become a standard.
Edwards has never lacked confidence, but Wembanyama gives that edge a different kind of purpose, the sort of challenge that forces a scorer and his team to look for new answers. The Spurs and Timberwolves may be set up for a rivalry built around their young stars, with every matchup carrying a little more meaning than the last. For Minnesota, the upside is obvious: if Wembanyama is the measuring stick, staying close to him means staying in the Wests elite conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Naz Reid Gets The Role Wolves Fans Always Wanted To See
Naz Reids move out of Minnesota finally gives him the kind of opportunity Wolves fans had long imagined for him, even if it comes in a very different uniform. After being traded to Charlotte in the offseason, Reid is positioned to open the year as a full-time starter at power forward, a notable shift for a player who had often flashed more responsibility in a bench role with the Timberwolves.
The wrinkle is that a starting label does not always guarantee a bigger workload, and Charlottes frontcourt depth could make this a more complicated fit than it looks on paper. Reid may have the title fans wanted to see, but the Hornets collection of bigs could still leave his minutes and offensive chances closer to what he handled in Minnesota. [Read more 🡒]
Bones Hyland Suddenly Carries A Huge Timberwolves Question
Bones Hyland has quickly become one of the more important second-unit pieces for Minnesota, and not just because of the energy he brings with the ball in his hands. The Timberwolves have been looking for a reliable backup point guard who can keep the offense moving when the starters sit, and Hylands improved playmaking and shooting have given the bench a much-needed lift.
The next step is figuring out whether that strong stretch can become a steady habit, especially with the Wolves needing more consistent production from their reserves. Hyland is now positioned to do more of the heavy lifting as a scorer and creator off the bench, and how well he handles that responsibility could go a long way toward shaping Minnesotas offensive depth. [Read more 🡒]