The Timberwolves have their act together at the moment, but stop me if you’ve heard that before (like, say, at least three previous times already this season).
In their ebb and flow, they are on another modest upswing after winning their third consecutive game Thursday in Orlando. This is already their fourth winning streak of at least three games this season, a feat that would be more impressive if they didn’t also have four losing streaks of at least three games.
They keep turning a corner straight into a crisis — almost always, for better or worse, of their own making. At times their defense has been dominant or Anthony Edwards has caught a heater or, now, a starting lineup change has given them a new edge. At others, there have been serious questions about losses resulting from Julius Randle’s fit after the Karl-Anthony Towns trade ... or Rudy Gobert’s defense ... or Ant solving double-teams.
It’s a lot of drama for just 37 games, and the net result is a team very firmly stuck in the middle of an unforgiving conference filled with a lot of teams just like them. They’re tied for seventh right now, but just six games separate the third-place team (Memphis) from the 12th-place team (Phoenix) as of Friday morning.
This is the lonesome, crowded West yet again (if I might borrow from Modest Mouse). It’s been like this for as long as the Wolves have been recently relevant, but perhaps you forgot last year when Minnesota stayed largely above the fray and firmly in the top three all season.
What is their place in it this year? Can they rise up and be a top-six team that avoids the play-in, and perhaps even a top-four team that gets a home playoff series? Are they destined to live in the middle, resigned to the play-in like they were in the 2022 and 2023 postseason? Will they miss the playoffs entirely?
That is a great question, and one I tried to unpack on Friday’s “Daily Delivery” podcast.
If you are optimistic, like Randle, perhaps you can see more highs than lows emerging as the season progresses.
