Ben Simmons is the Timberwolves' best — and only? — chance to be relevant

Life got busy for a few weeks there — squeezing in a bunch of late-summer outdoor activity, getting ready for the start of a new school year and thinking a lot about football.

Suddenly you look up and realize that somehow it's already Sept. 10.

We're heading for that time of convergence in sports. The MLB, WNBA and MLS seasons are heading toward the playoffs. The NFL and college football just started.

And believe it or not, the NBA and NHL aren't far behind. Would you believe the Wild plays its first preseason game in 15 days? Or that NBA training camps open in 18 days?

It's true.

That means two issues that have been percolating all summer are suddenly no longer subject to a distant future resolution: Kirill Kaprizov's contract extension with the Wild and a possible Ben Simmons trade from the 76ers to the Wolves, both of which I talked about on Friday's Daily Delivery podcast.

If you don't see the podcast player, tap here to listen.

I want to spend a little more time here talking about Simmons.

No, I'm not going to go through all of Simmons' strengths and weaknesses again. I've done that, and the conclusion is always the same: the pluses far outweigh the minuses, even if the last thing we saw was Simmons botching a playoff series.

I won't breathlessly report every update in the betting markets, though I will note that Bovada now lists the Wolves as the most likely place — outside of Philadelphia — for Simmons to start the season.

To me, when you look at everything, it's pretty simple: The Wolves are reportedly persistent in pursuing Simmons because he is their best — and perhaps only — chance to be relevant in the next two years.

The Wolves are projected to win 34-35 games this season as their roster stands now. That might get them to the fringe of competing for a play-in spot (10th place in a 15-team conference), which would be an improvement over the last two years.

Simmons would make them a playoff team. There is a limit to what the Wolves should offer to get him, but I would include any number of lightly protected future first-round picks and any player aside from Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards.

Without Simmons, this year's Wolves are probably not a playoff team. And then you've wasted another year of Towns. And he's only two years away from free agency after this season — a point at which disappointed players often seek trades.

If the Wolves want to win with a core of Towns and Edwards, they probably need someone like Simmons to truly be relevant. Otherwise, the summer of 2022 could be a full-on pivot to another rebuild around Edwards and Jaden McDaniels.

Without Simmons, they're hoping for enough internal improvement this year — and for D'Angelo Russell to be part of a Big Three — to take a meaningful leap forward.

That's a hope. Simmons is a plan.

And with camp less than three weeks away from starting, a resolution is coming either way.