{"id":119333,"date":"2025-06-23T21:08:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T21:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/119333\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T21:08:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T21:08:13","slug":"timberwolves-earn-surprising-power-ranking-spot-after-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/119333\/","title":{"rendered":"Timberwolves Earn Surprising Power Ranking Spot After NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Timberwolves Earn Surprising Power Ranking Spot After NBA Finals<\/a> originally appeared on Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By now, fans of the Minnesota Timberwolves know the painful narrative. The team has a talented squad featuring rising star Anthony Edwards, but has been unable to advance past the NBA Western Conference Finals the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

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In this year’s series, they lost to the eventual champions, MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Previously, it was to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. Both times, the series ended 4-1.<\/p>\n

Within the past few days, Minnesota has seen two-time champion Kevin Durant leave for the Houston Rockets. That seemingly upgrades the Rockets, who were already a No. 2 seed in the Western Conference this past playoffs.<\/p>\n

With the offseason officially here, the NBA Draft is next on the slate for the Timberwolves. In addition, they’ll look at potential roster moves, including trades and free agents.<\/p>\n

\"Timberwolves<\/p>\n

Timberwolves players Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo.Credit&colon; Geoff Burke-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

While that has raised some uncertainty about the team’s future, an ESPN panel of expert analysts still gave the Wolves a significant spot in their “way too early” power rankings. The rankings spotlight how they view the league’s teams following the NBA Finals ahead of next season.<\/p>\n

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The ESPN power rankings<\/a> show Minnesota at No. 2 right behind this year’s NBA Champions.\u00a0The Timberwolves were previously ranked No. 11 in their power rankings.<\/p>\n

They mention the team\u2019s No. 17 and No. 31 picks at this year\u2019s NBA Draft, and that they face crucial roster decisions with Julius Randle, Naz Reid, and Nikeil Alexander-Walker. While ESPN doesn’t mention it, some also speculate that the Wolves could upgrade their star point guard with Mike Conley near the tail end of his career.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Minnesota’s power ranking spot doesn’t line up with where they rank for odds to win the 2025-26 NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

According to Sports Illustrated<\/a>, the Thunder sit atop the recent NBA odds to win next year\u2019s championship at +220, followed by the Cavaliers at +850. After yesterday’s trade news, the Rockets surged to +900 odds, ahead of the Knicks at +950, and the Timberwolves at +1400.<\/p>\n

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While the Durant trade to Houston strongly impacted these odds, it remains to be seen if KD is the answer for the Rockets. Meanwhile, the Wolves still have Ant-Man ascending the ranks of top stars in the league, along with talented players around him.<\/p>\n

Related: Timberwolves Fans React to Kevin Durant Trade to Rockets<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Tom Crean Reveals Thoughts on Anthony Edwards\u2019 NBA Potential<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jun 23, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Timberwolves Earn Surprising Power Ranking Spot After NBA Finals originally appeared on Athlon Sports. By now, fans of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[375,7,306,149,194,376,938,304,368,371,307,520,6,12,1220,11,11872,179,10831,209,574],"class_list":{"0":"post-119333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-anthony-edwards","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-cavaliers","11":"tag-dallas-mavericks","12":"tag-houston-rockets","13":"tag-julius-randle","14":"tag-kevin-durant","15":"tag-knicks","16":"tag-luka-doncic","17":"tag-mike-conley","18":"tag-minnesota","19":"tag-naz-reid","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-nba-draft","22":"tag-nba-finals","23":"tag-nba-playoffs","24":"tag-nba-western-conference-finals","25":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","26":"tag-power-rankings","27":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","28":"tag-western-conference"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114734727634405741","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}