The Minnesota Timberwolves were eliminated from the playoffs in five games with a 112-109 loss to Denver on Tuesday. During a season where the front office went all-in on being a champion contender, the lackluster playoff showing should mark the end of a failed experiment.
Minnesota traded the rights to five future first-round picks to Utah for center Rudy Gobert during the offseason. He, along with former No. 1 overall picks Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, was supposed to have the Timberwolves competing much deeper into the postseason.
Instead, they barely qualified for the playoffs, needing two play-in tournament wins to finish in the top eight of the Western Conference.
With little cap space and few draft picks to add young talent, there aren’t many avenues for Minnesota to improve its roster this offseason. The best option might be to blow it up.
Towns, 27, should be able to fetch the team a decent sum if traded. He averages 23 points and 11.2 rebounds per game in his eight-year NBA career, but Edwards, 21, appears ready to take the lead.
In the first round against Denver, Towns averaged 18.2 points per game compared to Edwards’ 31.6 points per game.
The team might want to consider trading Gobert, too, but the Timberwolves likely wouldn’t be able to get anything close in value to what they gave up to get him in the first place.
Minnesota put up a good fight in the close-out game, but this isn’t a season where moral victories suffice. The Timberwolves had much bigger goals than that. Rather than run it back next season, Minnesota needs to begin looking toward the future.
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