Nuggets fans certainly didn’t shed a tear watching the Timberwolves get eliminated by the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. Minnesota has been a thorn in the side of the Nuggets in recent years and had their number again, sweeping them in the regular season.
But now that their season is over, they are facing a bit of a tough predicament, one that is actually, oddly familiar to Denver. The Wolves' roster is getting expensive quickly. They have their core pieces, but the margins are getting thinner. They are going to have to make some tough decisions and rely on a lot of internal growth and development. Sound familiar?
T-Wolves NAW decision similar to KCP in Denver
Since winning the title in 2023, the Nuggets have had to watch guys like Bruce Brown, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jeff Green, and others leave in free agency while struggling to replace them in free agency. Instead, the Nuggets have had to rely on a lot of non-lottery draft picks.
We saw this lead to a major breakdown between the GM and head coach, which eventually led to both individuals being fired as the Nuggets wore down in the playoffs because the team only had six reliable players.
The Wolves don’t want to find themselves in that position, and they also don’t have a Nikola Jokic to fall back on. Nickeil Alexander-Walker seems like the most likely first cap casualty for Minnesota. NAW was great for the Wolves this season, a key bench scorer, ball handler, and defender.
But he played too well for the team to retain him, and he’ll almost certainly move on to save the team money. They won’t have the money to replace him, so they’ll be relying on internal leaps from guys like Terrence Shannon Jr. and Rob Dillingham.
Furthermore, Mike Conley is aging himself out of the rotation quickly, Julius Randle is up for a new deal, Naz Reid is extension eligible with a player option, and they aren’t going to have much flexibility moving forward.
Wolves' situation is different due to draft capital
Now, the one big thing the Wolves have going in their favor is that they have picks #17 and #31 in the draft this summer, whereas Denver has none. Those aren’t marquee picks or anything, but there should be plenty of available talent at those spots. If the Wolves can hit on those picks and get their young players to step up, they should be in good shape.
It’s also important to point out that their true superstar, Anthony Edwards, is just 23 years old. He’s likely several years away from his prime, so the team doesn’t have the same urgency as the Nuggets should, building around a 30-year-old Jokic.
At the same time, Edwards may never be as good a player as Jokic and may require a better supporting cast to win a title. Right now, it feels like the world is ending for Minnesota, but if they can make the right decisions, they could pull off a much smoother transition than the Nuggets and find themselves vying for a third straight West Finals bid next year.