Minnesota is built so well for the playoffs man it’s honestly surprising they haven’t been to the finals yet. Long lock down defenders everywhere that can also shoot with a confident shot creating/making guard in Ant. They’re such a fun team when they get hot

Playoff merchants I fear

Regular season doesn’t matter, new meta is to just finish top 6 and only try hard against contenders, maybe in homecoming and “revenge” games too, home court advantage is less relevant than ever

Playoffs are officiated differently and the Wolves are built for that. Also some “regular season teams” (not saying that Denver or San Antonio are) aren’t ready for the playoff intensity. Stuff like full court press almost every possession, hard traps at half court, etc. I think to a degree the Wolves don’t want to waste effort against soft regular season whistles, there’s no point because they know who they are already and how they will be able to play in the playoffs.

That and Chris Finch and his coaching staff are just so good at game planning for a 7 game series. They’ve always got a punch and a counter punch and a counter counter punch locked and loaded. They’re pros at catching the other team off guard and stealing games that way which can just change a whole series.

I called it the championship hangover without the championship throughout the season. The Wolves just went to B2B WCFs. While not the Finals. That takes a toll. Physically and mentally.

One of the best examples is Jaden. He did not fight this hard over screens on the regular season. In the post season? Looking like the premier POA defender in the league.

The wolves problem during the regular season was the consistent failure to beat teams that had zero business winning. The wolves would beat the nuggets then turn around and lose to the wizards and pelicans. It always appeared that they played down to their competition or simply didn’t care.

I just think it comes to Randle being a negative defender in the regular season to being a good to great defender in the playoffs.

Something about how this team that Minnesota has built seems to click better in the playoffs. We’ve seen instances of teams coast in the regular season because they have real championship expectations (e.g., Cleveland in LeBron’s 2nd stint), but what other teams have looked so consistently, dramatically different in the postseason compared to their regular season demeanor?

Miami with Butler.

These guys are confident to a fault and their regular season lack of effort is the fault, but I have been kind of laughing at how much disrespect they still get after back to back conference finals and being one of the only teams to beat the spurs and OKC twice this season. They showed they can play with the best and that their best effort is as good as anyone’s yet they still get overlooked.
If they fall short again, I expect the roster and regular season focus to change, but they have a fighters chance to upset SA and OKC if they continue to play defense and ant gets healthier and healthier. People don’t realize how good Jaden, Naz, Ayo and TSJ is. They are deep

Matchups matter

Minnesota matches up really well with SA and Denver but not OKC

SA matches up really well with everyone that isn’t Denver and Minnesota

OKC matches up really with everyone that isn’t SA

Seeding matters and who teams draw in the postseason will significantly alter how you think about their regular-season performance vs a different team every other night.

I’m 32 and have been a fan of the Bulls my whole life. In college, I briefly wrote for Bleacher Report and was assigned to the Wolves, so they became my second team at around the same time that D Rose was peaking with the Bulls. 

What is particularly striking to me as a fan who missed the Jordan era but had formative years in the D Rose era is that the Timberwolves have had more success in my lifetime (as a conscious fan at least) than the Bulls have, which is crazy. Those Bulls teams were always dawgs in the regular season AND in the postseason, but they always ran into LeBron. Maybe they had what it would have taken to beat him eventually, but it never materialized and eventually the D Rose era just kind of ended. 

So, I’m not taking these Wolves for granted. This has been a ton of fun, and their credibility seems to get diminished every year for not getting past the WCF even though this level of excellence is still elite. 

“A team that hasn’t earned anything but a gentleman’s sweep in the conference finals the last two years…”

Bro… the T-Wolves have been a thing since 1989. They have won five total playoff series in their franchises history. Getting to the conference finals 2 years in a row is a monumental accomplishment.

I’d argue in 24-25 Wolves took a while to fit Randle in and figure out rotations and roles. They started the season 32-29 and finished 17-4. I don’t necessarily think they lacked effort, they just got hot before the playoffs.

This season, they started relatively well, but stopped playing defense and rebounding besides Rudy in January-February, even before Ant got hurt. I flew to LA to watch b2b vs Lakers and Clippers, and Wolves gave up 153 points in a game. They clearly should have won 4-5 more games, even with Ant being out for a quarter of the season. It was also frustrating to see Finch never trying 3 big lineup and never trying to empower TSJ - things that have been working very well in the playoffs.

Spooky

“We’ll try so much harder in the playoffs I swear” is cope 99% of the time. The Wolves are that 1%, they genuinely did not give a fuck about anything more than avoiding the play in in the regular season.

Mavs were a gentleman’s sweep, Thunder was not. Regardless our regular season woes are surely in part caused by some very long seasons. Some wolves fans like to blame Finch, but realistically Ant and Ju sleep their way through games against bad teams and at a certain point there’s not much a coach can do when the stars aren’t putting in 100%. 

The regular season Timberwolves will probably keep the playoffs Timberwolves from reaching the finals. It is hard to reach the finals from a lower seed. Every series they play is a long dogfight. No team can win 4 tough long series in a row. They need to focus on getting very high seed in the regular season in get a short easier series.

Minnesota would beat the Jordan Bulls if the game happened in the first 2 rounds

Ant has talked about this a little in his vlogs he does for the regular season and postseason. 2 years ago he mentioned the number one thing that the team and him learned was the insane amount of conditioning and energy conservation you have to have when you’re playing late in the playoffs, and that the number one thing they want to learn is how to be the most energetic and rested team as it goes on so they don’t feel so tired and beaten before the conference finals even begins. It’s very interesting but it’s not really new or unique LeBron and his teams are well known for coasting into the playoffs before going insane with minutes.

NBA regular season is honestly a joke. Most teams behave this way this is just one of the few to admit it.

The Dickensian aspect.

I’m just happy to see Minnesota actually be an actual capable playoff team after over a decade of pure misery, the fucking David Kahn years and what not. Not a Minny fan myself, just happy for you guys finally getting to watch your team be good.

Twolves play to level of competition which is higher in playoffs. Even in regular season they lose to teams they should beat but beat OKC, Denver etc….

But if they took the regular season seriously ALL of the time, they can end up with home court! They must like it this way.

They were so far behind the Thunder and Spurs, and safely ahead the next group of teams that the games since basically late Jan were fairly meaningless.

I’ll admit I was basically pulling my hair out of my head watching these guys at times. Especially Randle because he has such piss pour body language and there were plenty of nights were you’d see which version of him was showing up within 3 minutes of tip off.

That lazy man offense, poor attention to detail that almost cost them the game last night? Yeah that’s what they were doing for entire halfs of games a few months ago.

Nobody shouldn’t be surprised by this, their best players are ANT and Gobert.

Nobody should be surprised by this, their best players are ANT and Gobert.

Man 82 games is a lot of wear and tear physically and mentally. I firmly believe teams with playoff experience view it as 2 separate seasons. Regular season then playoff season. Can’t blame them honestly

Built for the playoffs and it’s not shocking at all. Timbs are the second best team in the league when healthy. Ant is top 4 player. OKC Is winning another championship.

League format and play offs promote different things. In league it’s better to have system and stability. In play offs more important are mental and adaptability. You can’t be great at adapting and play always same style: it’s a trade off.

It’s better seen in soccer with 2 greatest managers in XXI c.:

- Pep Guardiola dominated in any league he got team on historical level, but his achievments in European competitions were just ok; he is also manager known from developing and imposing system on the team.

- Carlo Ancelotti won most Champions Leagues as manager, but also generally underperformed on the domestic leagues level; he is also known mostly as player manager who focus mostly on using what he get to the max and adapting to the needs of the game.

And Wolves just got that with Finch: great mental and adaptability, but also lot of chaos.

I feel it’s more how differently physical different the NBA in the plays which the Wolves are well adapted to. Which is funny because complained about missed fouls while complaining about regular season fouls all the time.

Wasn’t ANT quoted after the first game of the season against the Blazers that it felt like everyone was waiting for the playoffs? If not that game, something really early in the season. Wolves are a different pirate bunch of lads.

Unfortunately we’re going to see more teams act this way with the expansion of the playoffs with the play-in series. Over half the league makes the playoffs. This is going to make teams coast in the regular season, sit star players, weak defense, nonchalant play. This will all continue. Just think, if your team is half way decent you can just play normal ball and make the playoffs, if you’re a stacked team why even try in the RS when you already know you’ll make the playoffs playing at 50%? I mean it makes sense from a health and longevity standpoint.