![\"Minnesota](\"https:\/\/platform.canishoopus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/58\/2025\/09\/imagn-26311874.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0.0042767941151283,100,99.99144641177\")
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First 5,000 using the code SBNFALL30 get a free monthNever miss a Timberwolves game. Stream all season long with FanDuel Sports Network<\/p>\n
But that was May. And May feels like a different lifetime.<\/p>\n
Now it\u2019s October. The bruises have healed, the excuses have faded, and this version of the Timberwolves, somehow both the same and completely different, is about to take another swing. Sure, the summer didn\u2019t come with a blockbuster headline. No Kevin Durant trade, no desperate retooling. Nickeil Alexander-Walker walked, but otherwise? The band stayed together. And for all the \u201cthey stood pat, they\u2019re done improving\u201d takes that have floated around the national media, that stability might actually be the story.<\/p>\n
Because here\u2019s the quiet truth: the Timberwolves finally look like a real basketball program. Not a collection of cool parts. Not a \u201cmaybe this works if we squint.\u201d A functioning, balanced, grown-up basketball team.<\/p>\n
It all starts with Anthony Edwards, obviously. He\u2019s the sun everything else orbits. He\u2019s 24 now, and we\u2019ve seen the evolution in real time. He\u2019s already the best two-way guard in the league, and his shot chart keeps expanding like a video game map. If the midrange jumper he\u2019s been repping all summer is legit, then buckle up, because we\u2019re going to see the best version of Ant we\u2019ve ever seen. Maybe the best version yet of a Minnesota superstar period.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the thing about this group: as Ant levels up, so do the young players surrounding him. Terrence Shannon Jr. looks ready to be the microwave scorer this bench needed. Jaylen Clark\u2019s energy has \u201cI\u2019m going to ruin your night\u201d potential defensively. Rob Dillingham might actually solve the Mike Conley backup minutes issue, which, if you watched last season, you know is like saying someone found the cure for hangovers. The young guys have real roles now, not just \u201cbreak glass in case of injury\u201d cameos.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s Julius Randle. Last year started off like an awkward marriage. By December, Wolves Twitter was ready to send him back to Manhattan in a crate. But credit where it\u2019s due: he adapted. He stopped pounding the air out of the ball, started hitting cutters, and suddenly became the bruising secondary playmaker Finch envisioned all along. By April, he was torching the Lakers and Warriors in the playoffs, and for a few nights, he was Minnesota\u2019s best player. If that version sticks \u2014 the self-aware, team-first, still-a-bulldozer version \u2014 he\u2019s the perfect co-star for Ant. The Wolves don\u2019t need him to be Batman. They just need him to be an oversized Robin with a mean streak.<\/p>\n
Depth, Chemistry, and the Conley Question<\/p>\n
And then we arrive at the great Minnesota existential riddle: what happens when Mike Conley sits?
Last year\u2019s answer: mild panic, confusion, and the basketball equivalent of spinning in circles. Conley\u2019s leadership and IQ are invaluable. He\u2019s basically a human stabilizer bar, but he\u2019s 37 and the Wolves can\u2019t drive him into the ground. Enter Dillingham, DiVincenzo, and some creative lineups that\u2019ll ask Ant and even Randle to handle the rock. The goal is simple: survive those non-Conley minutes without turning every possession into an escape room puzzle. Finch has the pieces. Now it\u2019s about trust.<\/p>\n
Energy. Hustle. And Exorcising Portland.<\/p>\n
The ghosts still live in Portland, though. Remember last fall\u2019s back-to-back debacle? Minnesota rolled into Moda Center like they were already 2\u20130, then got smacked twice by a young Blazer team. Those losses didn\u2019t just sting. They exposed the Wolves\u2019 biggest flaw: entitlement. They thought they could coast. They learned the hard way that in the NBA, you don\u2019t get to skip steps.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what makes tonight important. Not so much because beating Portland in October matters for standings, but because it\u2019s the tone-setter. The Wolves can\u2019t afford to \u201cfeel their way\u201d into this season. They need to walk in angry, focused, and hungry. Ant has to treat it like Game 7 energy, not preseason cardio. Randle needs to bring that playoff force. Rudy has to control the paint. The wings, Jaden, DiVincenzo, TSJ, Clark, have to make sure Portland\u2019s young guards don\u2019t get comfortable. And the bench? This is their moment to show that Minnesota has ten guys who belong in any playoff rotation.<\/p>\n
This team is deeper, more cohesive, and more dangerous than casual fans realize. The narrative that \u201cthey didn\u2019t improve\u201d misses the point. Minnesota\u2019s improvement was internal. The chemistry that eluded them for five months last season finally clicked in March and April. That continuity is the offseason upgrade.<\/p>\n
Look, we all saw what OKC did to them. The Wolves have a chip on their shoulder the size of Target Center. But that\u2019s the beauty of continuity. The lessons actually stick this time. If this team keeps that edge, plays like the underdog that knows it\u2019s not anymore, and gets MVP-level Ant for 82 games?<\/p>\n
Well, that \u201chorrible feeling\u201d from last May might finally be replaced by a new one \u2014 the feeling you get when you realize your team actually belongs on the mountaintop.<\/p>\n
Game one is the first step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minnesota Timberwolves at Portland TrailblazersDate: October 22nd, 2025Time: 9:00 PM CDTLocation: Moda CenterTelevision Coverage: FanDuel Sports Network –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3782],"tags":[7,307,152,3954,6,308,1369],"class_list":{"0":"post-358558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-timberwolves","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","11":"tag-minnesotatimberwolves","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-timberwolves","14":"tag-timberwolves-game-previews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115417877708240485","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358558","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=358558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}