The Minnesota Timberwolves have spent three straight postseasons running into a team that was just a step ahead. First it was the eventual Western Conference winner, the San Antonio Spurs.
Then came the Oklahoma City Thunder. Then Luka Doncic-led Dallas Mavericks.
Each time, the same truth showed up: Minnesota was close, but not close enough.
That’s why this offseason mattered so much. The Timberwolves didn’t just tweak the roster - they made a real swing, and the hope in Minnesota is that the new look can finally push them into the same tier as the Spurs and Thunder.
The headline move came when the Timberwolves dumped Julius Randle to the Brooklyn Nets and chased a bigger name to pair with Anthony Edwards, landing LaMelo Ball. It was a splashy move, but it came at a cost the fan base felt immediately: Naz Reid was gone too. Reid had gone from undrafted long shot to one of the league’s better sixth men and a reliable shooting big, and losing him left a huge hole in the frontcourt.
Minnesota even spent time flirting with the idea of LeBron James as its next big addition, but that door closed when LeBron picked Philadelphia. With little room to work in free agency, the Timberwolves had to sell a different pitch - playing time, a winning environment, and a chance to grow with a young core.
That’s where Jonathan Kuminga came in. At 23, he was looking for a way to reset his career and lock down his NBA future.
Minnesota gave him that opening, and in return got exactly the kind of player it needed: a young, explosive forward with the tools to become a top-tier defender. The Timberwolves signed Kuminga to a $12.4 million contract for two years, a move that gave the roster a different kind of edge.
For the first time, the franchise is clearly being shaped around Edwards. That matters. The Thunder and Spurs are still loaded with young talent, led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama, but Minnesota believes its best version can stand with either one.
If that’s going to happen, pace has to be part of the answer. The Timberwolves ranked 10th in pace in the 2025-26 season, and that number should rise with the new additions.
Bones Hyland gave the bench unit a jolt, and Ayo Dosunmu, acquired at last season’s trade deadline, showed how dangerous Minnesota can look when it’s pushing the ball. Still, the biggest piece is Edwards.
He has to become an elite transition scorer if the Timberwolves want to take the next step.
That’s where the fit gets interesting. Ball brings elite playmaking.
Kuminga brings speed and burst. Edwards already has the athletic profile to punish teams in the open floor, but he has preferred to slow things down in transition instead of turning those moments into downhill pressure.
If he leans into that part of his game, Minnesota can create the easy offense that was missing far too often last season.
There’s also the simple reality of a new starting group. For the third year in a row, Minnesota will open the season with a different lineup, and this time two new starters need to be folded in.
That kind of turnover has cost the Timberwolves before, especially when they’ve started slowly. This team can’t afford that again.
The encouraging sign is that Ball and Kuminga already seem plugged in. Videos and pictures have shown them working out together and getting comfortable with the group.
With training camp nearing, that kind of buy-in matters. Good habits now can pay off later.
And then there’s the bigger issue: consistency. The Timberwolves have been a strange team the last five years - good enough to spark real postseason hope, but uneven enough in the regular season to leave room for doubt.
Target Center has become a real playoff building, and Minnesota’s crowds have helped fuel those runs. But the team itself has often taken too long to hit its stride.
This season can’t unfold that way. The Timberwolves can’t spend months waiting to turn it on.
They can’t drift near the play-in. If they want to be more than a dangerous team with upside, they have to stay near the top of the conference from the start.
In Other News...
Timberwolves Still Have One Roster Risk They Can't Ignore
The Timberwolves have the kind of starting group that can make a roster look solid on paper, but the margins behind it remain worth watching. Frontcourt depth is the main concern, especially with only Joan Beringer and Trey Lyles available as backup bigs on standard contracts, which leaves the team a little thin if injuries or foul trouble start to pile up.
Minnesota does have an open roster spot, and that gives the front office some flexibility as it weighs veteran options such as Drew Eubanks or Kelly Olynyk, along with the possibility of a trade deadline move. The team could also patch things together with two-way or 10-day contracts, but the question is whether that is enough for a group with bigger ambitions once the season starts to get tested. [Read more 🡒]
Timberwolves Already Face One Big Offensive Question With LaMelo and Ant
The Timberwolves new backcourt pairing brings plenty of juice, but it also comes with an early roster-building question: how do they keep the offense humming when Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball are both out of the game? Chris Finch has already made clear he does not see a need to lean on either star for all 48 minutes, which means Minnesota will have to make those non-star stretches count if it wants to maximize what those two can do together.
Balls workload is expected to be managed carefully, so the Wolves are going to have to find scoring from elsewhere in the rotation. Jaden McDaniels, Ayo Dosunmu, Terrence Shannon Jr. and Bones Hyland are among the players expected to help fill those gaps, and how well that support group holds up could go a long way toward determining whether Minnesotas offense stays steady or bogs down whenever its two headliners sit. [Read more 🡒]
Jonathan Kuminga Already Puts The Wolves In A Tough Spot
The Timberwolves have added Jonathan Kuminga on a two-year contract, and the early read is that he is being slotted in as the starting power forward. It is the kind of move that can reshape a rotation quickly, especially for a team trying to sharpen its frontcourt and get clear answers about how the pieces fit around him.
The interesting part is what happens if the fit is not as smooth as expected. Minnesota would then have to decide whether to keep Kuminga in that role or rethink his usage, and that is where the history matters. He was not especially comfortable with coming off the bench during his time with the Warriors, so any future move out of the starting group could become a sensitive part of the equation. [Read more 🡒]