How to hop on the Timberwolves bandwagon

Everyone wants to be part of the wolf pack, especially when it’s two games ahead in a playoff series that will come home for the weekend.

And if Charles Barkley has his way, the Minnesota Timberwolves will sweep the Denver Nuggets and advance to the NBA Western Conference finals. If you’re just tuning in, you’re not alone. The Timberwolves aren’t exactly a dynasty.

This season marks the second time in two decades the team has made it into the second round of the NBA playoffs. The team made it as far as the conference finals in 2004 but lost to the L.A. Lakers. And for 19 years after that, the Wolves reached the playoffs on only three occasions — only to be swiftly knocked out in the first round each time. In fact, Minnesota has the worst winning percentage of any franchise in league history.

That’s why the buzz — and bandwagoning — has begun in earnest. Demand has skyrocketed for tickets to the Wolves’ two games in Minneapolis, with some priced as high as $17,000.

While some longtime fans may sneer at newcomers who take notice only when the team’s doing well, others say there’s plenty of room for all comers.

Still, it’s useful to have some working knowledge of the team before you hop aboard. Here’s a brief rundown of players you should know and where you can watch the Wolves-Nuggets games on TV and around the Twin Cities:

The Wolves have enlisted 11 Minneapolis bars and restaurants to host official watch parties on Friday and Sunday evenings, including Lyon’s Pub, The Loop and Sneaky Pete’s. For a full list, plus a few other places fans flock to, here’s a list.

The team’s colors are midnight blue (or navy blue), lake blue, aurora green, grey and white. Retailers, including Target and Walmart, carry Wolves gear, and the team store at Target Center is open from noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Wednesday.

The Timberwolves are in a best-of-seven series with the Nuggets. Whoever wins four games advances to the Western Conference Finals against either Oklahoma City or Dallas. And the winner of that series moves on to the NBA championship series.

The Wolves beat the Phoenix Suns 4-0 in the first round of the playoffs and then won the first two games against the Nuggets in Denver. Two more wins and they advance.

A Nuggets win Friday night would trigger a fifth game on Tuesday in Denver. Game 6, if necessary, would be Thursday at Target Center.

Reid has dazzled on the court during this playoff run, going toe-to-toe with league MVP Nikola Jokic during the first two games of the Wolves-Nuggets series. And that’s no easy task. The 6-foot-11 Jokic is a powerhouse, and Reid, at 6-foot-9, has kept pace with him for two games, especially with Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert missing Game 2 while attending the birth of his child.

If there’s anything to know about Reid, the 24-year-old from Asbury, N.J., comes from humble beginnings. He spent much of his teenage years living with Sheila and Rudy Roundtree, who would drive a young Reid to school — 40 minutes each way — in their gray 2010 Audi A6.

He’s been with the Timberwolves for five years. And for much of that, he played backup to center Karl-Anthony Towns. But when Towns went out with a calf injury in November 2022, Reid stepped in. This season, he won the NBA Sixth Man Award as the top reserve player in the league.

He’s impressed fans so much that one brought a towel bearing Reid’s name to Wrestlemania and held it up during the event. Don’t be surprised if you see one in the wild.

Towns has been with the Timberwolves since 2015 and played an integral part in their first playoff series victory over the Suns this year.

He’s also known as one of the most socially minded player on the team — and in professional basketball in general.

Towns advocated for a 2023 Minnesota state law that restored the right to vote for former felons. That work, along with his hand in the financing and production of a documentary examining the ways technology can help those with developmental disabilities who are trapped in the criminal justice system, earned Towns the NBA’s Kareem Adbul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion award.

Just call him “Ant.” The 22-year-old guard, as one Star Tribune headline puts it, provides “endless joy” on the court with his ever-present smile and explosive playing style.

Edwards lost his mother and grandmother to cancer when he was 14 but had a support system to care for him, his two brothers and his sister. Among that safety net: former Minnesota Viking Chris Hinton.

Edwards initially wanted to play football. But he moved to basketball as a pre-teen after seeing how much fun his brothers had playing the sport. The Timberwolves drafted him in 2020.

He was an All-Star this season, and his play in the postseason has earned him comparisons to, gasp, the great Michael Jordan.

Fun fact about Rudy Gobert: He once spent two days and three nights meditating in a cave in southern Oregon at the behest of Aaron Rodgers. The so-called “darkness retreat” found Gobert alone in a dark room with just the necessities — food, water, his bed and a bathroom.

Gobert was born in Saint-Quentin, France, and joined the Timberwolves in 2022 after nine years with the Utah Jazz. He didn’t have a great first season. The 7-foot-1 Gobert was known as the guy who would score big if only he could catch the ball.

Then Gobert won his first Defensive Player of the Year Award with the Timberwolves, his fourth overall. He missed Game 2 against the Nuggets to witness the birth of his son but will play Friday night.

The Timberwolves extended McDaniels’ contract for five more years at an eye-popping — for regular people — $136 million last November. He promptly ran to the nearest Olive Garden to celebrate.

The Timberwolves drafted the 23-year-old from the University of Washington in 2020, and he quickly made a name for himself with strong defense and all-around play.

The Timberwolves have become notorious for their hardened defense this season, and McDaniels has played a major role on that front.

Conley is somewhat of an elder statesman of the Timberwolves after spending the first 16 years of his career in Memphis and Utah. The 36-year-old knows how to rally the team and provides a veteran presence on the court, a veritable force that has helped the Wolves clinch games in their final minutes.

He arrived in Minnesota in 2023 and recently won the NBA Teammate of the Year Award for the second time. Conley has also won four NBA sportsmanship awards: He’s never had a technical foul.

This year marks his 10th appearance in the NBA playoffs.

If the Timberwolves are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, then guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker is the team’s resident Donatello. (Some might call him the thinking man’s Timberwolf.) Alexander-Walker is known as the bookworm of the squad, his head buried in a tome even when he’s got his headphones on.

He came to Minnesota from Utah, where he played for the Jazz for one year. Before that, he spent 2½ seasons with the New Orleans Pelicans. The 25-year-old, 6-foot-5 Alexander-Walker was born in Toronto and competed in the 2021 Olympics as a member of the Canadian national team.

Chris Finch has been in the second row for the first two games of the series after he was injured during the Timberwolves’ final game against the Suns. Finch had surgery on the patellar tendon in his right leg but has been coaching on crutches.

Assistant coach Micah Nori has taken over running the bench, with Finch giving advice from a seated position.