The last time the Minnesota Timberwolves were on the court, they looked like the uncle who ate so much at Thanksgiving that he could barely move.
The too-close-for-comfort win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday was their latest serving of dessert in a 15-game start to the season that has been full of sugary, fattening opponents. They let a 27-point lead get down to five in the fourth quarter, but held on to win 120-109 and improve to 10-0 against teams that are under .500 this season. On the flip side, they are 0-5 against teams with a winning record.
“You can see the glass empty or half full,” Rudy Gobert said. “It’s good that we’re taking care of business, but we (need to) try to beat the good teams.”
The Wolves have won 10 of their first 15 games to start the season for just the third time in franchise history. It is the second time under coach Chris Finch, including an 11-4 start in 2023-24. They have the fourth-ranked offense in the league and seem to have solved a maddening problem from last season, when they dropped 12 games to teams with losing records.
But it is hard to know exactly what to make of this team just yet because of the way the schedule has shaken out. Their five losses are to the Los Angeles Lakers (twice), the Denver Nuggets (twice) and the New York Knicks. Anthony Edwards missed two of those games, and both of the Nuggets games came on the second night of a back-to-back. Still, the Wolves expect more of themselves than what they have shown so far. Only a season-opening win on the road against the Portland Trail Blazers (6-9) could qualify as a quality victory at this point.
Otherwise, the Wolves have beaten the Sacramento Kings (twice), Utah Jazz (twice), Wizards, Orlando Magic, Indiana Pacers, Charlotte Hornets and Dallas Mavericks. Those teams have a combined record of 21-82. By the time they finished off Washington, the Wolves looked like a team that needs to be challenged.
“At the end of the day, we got the win. So it is good,” Naz Reid said. “But that’s not who we want to be.”
The good news is, clarity is on the way. The Wolves play at the Phoenix Suns on Friday night and have games at the Oklahoma City Thunder and home against the Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs right around the corner.
In the meantime, some themes have emerged in these first 15 games.
Julius Randle is playing like an All-Star again
Randle has been the team MVP through this early portion of the season, a relentless, three-level scorer and a point forward who has helped the Timberwolves mitigate their point guard issues. He is averaging 25.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 6.1 assists while shooting 52 percent from the field and 37 percent from 3-point range, a number which has dipped a bit with a 3-of-14 skid over the last three games.
Randle has simply been essential for the Timberwolves. Whenever the offense stagnates, he puts his shoulder into a defender’s chest and gets to the free-throw line to stop the bleeding. He already has two triple-doubles.
“I think Julius has been the key to everyone’s success,” Edwards said.
Just before training camp began, Randle opened up to The Athletic about the harrowing final days in New York and how much more comfortable his family feels in Minnesota. The good vibes have translated to some of the best basketball of his career.
“I think last year, when I was able to sit out and kind of evaluate, I was able to see how I can help others on the team and make the game easier for them,” Randle said of the games he missed with a groin injury. “And then, naturally, the rhythm just built from there. Here we are today.”
Jaden McDaniels makes a leap
The most promising development for the Wolves so far has been the more layered offensive game put on display by McDaniels. He has been considered one of the better perimeter defenders in the league for several years, but his offensive impact has been limited. Until this season.
McDaniels is averaging a career-high 17.5 points per game, leading the league with a preposterous 52.1 percent conversion rate from 3-point range on 3.4 attempts per game and showing off a much more varied skill set than he has in the past. It is the breakout the Wolves needed to give them hope that their ceiling could be higher than the Western Conference finals appearances of the last two years.
“I always tell him like be aggressive, be assertive, don’t wait to play behind myself or Ant,” Randle said. “If you get the ball, be aggressive. We trust you to be aggressive on the offensive end and do your thing, so he’s more comfortable doing that and making the right plays, which is important too as he gets more attention from other defenses.”
Maybe it is no coincidence that one of Minnesota’s most disappointing performances of the season came against the Wizards, a game McDaniels missed because of a sprained left wrist. It was the first time he missed a game since December 2023, ending the fifth-longest active games played streak at 157 games. He is listed as questionable for Friday’s game against the Suns, a team that McDaniels loves to play against.
Speeding it up
One of the reasons for the surge in offense, aside from the soft schedule, is the quicker pace with which the team is playing. Finch made it a point of emphasis to play faster this season, believing that it would get Edwards and the rest of the team easier baskets and eliminate some of the half-court grinding.
The Wolves are 16th in pace this season, which may not seem all that impressive. But they were 25th last season and 23rd in 2023-24. Finch lamented how often he would see Gobert grab a rebound and then have two or three players coming back for the ball rather than sprinting up the court to get out in transition.
The Wolves are averaging 15.0 fast-break points per game this season, good for 14th in the league. They ranked 26th last season (13.6) and 29th (12.4) two years ago.
“The faster we play, our turnovers go down and the quick, good decisions go up,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “So, one, you have to get a stop. But even on makes, just get it out, get running, because we have guys who can run the lanes, who can run the wings.”
Second-year guard Rob Dillingham has struggled to make an impact. (Jesse Johnson / Imagn Images)
Rob Dillingham is struggling
It has not been a promising start for Dillingham. The Timberwolves traded an unprotected first-round pick in 2031 to San Antonio on draft night last year for the No. 8 pick and the chance to take Dillingham, a lightning-quick, scoring guard from Kentucky.
His early days in Minnesota have been difficult. He is playing on a team with championship aspirations, one that can ill afford to give a 20-year-old point guard the latitude he needs to play through mistakes and learn on the job. They need him to be ready right now, to run the offense, not commit silly turnovers and make shots when he is open.
So far this season, he looks like his confidence is severely shaken. After playing sparingly as a rookie, Dillingham is only getting 11.6 minutes per game. He is shooting 37 percent from the field and 20 percent from 3-point range. It is not what the Wolves were hoping for when they started the season thinking he could earn substantial minutes as a ballhandler and scorer off the bench.
“When he keeps it simple, and makes the early pass and goes somewhere, he’s got such quickness, he can get some places and then find his teammates,” Finch said.
Jaylen Clark’s emergence as a top-flight perimeter defender has eaten into Dillingham’s minutes. Terrence Shannon Jr. has been out with a foot injury, but when he returns it could be difficult for Dillingham to see the court. He needs to play and play a lot, but it is hard for him to get that kind of time on a team that needs every win it can get in the jam-packed West.
Ant is slumping
Edwards led the league in 3-pointers made last season and hit 39.5 percent of his 10 attempts per game, a staggering volume and efficiency for a scorer of his ilk. He got off to a good start this season but has been mired in a miserable slump since returning from a hamstring injury in New York.
Edwards has missed 27 of his last 30 3-point attempts over the last four games, including an 0-of-8 clunker against Denver that contributed heavily to the Wolves’ loss. Edwards knows that slumps will happen in a long season, but the troubles seemed to take him out of his overall game against the Wizards. He went 1 of 8 but also only grabbed two rebounds and picked up two assists.
“At this point in time, he’s just got to try to get out, get some buckets, the old-fashioned way, just maybe run and cut, some energy plays,” Finch said. “His shot will come back to him. We got to do a better job of creating some shots for him, trying to get it going that way.”
When his shot isn’t falling, Edwards needs to shift modes to help his team win.
Edwards looked bored over the last two games, against the Wizards and Mavericks, in which he averaged a paltry 15.5 points and shot 2 of 15 from 3. But one thing about Ant is that the next explosion is usually right around the corner.
Maybe Devin Booker will bring it out of him.