Timberwolves coach Chris Finch noted the 2024-25 campaign was not always fun for him, nor his players. But it was rewarding, particularly in how Minnesota rebounded through numerous rough patches to find its stride in the end and reach a second consecutive conference finals.
And the fact it didn’t end well won’t weigh too heavily on the coach. Because, as he noted, the season ends well for only one team each season: the champion.
That’s a target at which the franchise continues to aim, and it has a method for eventually checking the box — kick at the door enough, and it will eventually fall down.
The Timberwolves became the first Western Conference team to reach the conference finals in consecutive seasons since 2019 when they got back to the NBA semifinals this season before falling in five games to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Minnesota considers that another “bite at the apple.” President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly has been clear about this. In his mind, each year you aim to be a top-four seed in your conference to net yourself home-court advantage in Round 1. You win that series, and see where the chips fall from there.
That’s a plan Minnesota executed a year ago. This season, the Wolves finished sixth in the West but, through good fortune, ended up with home-court advantage in the conference semifinals against Golden State.
The idea is that if you keep giving yourself chances in the later rounds of the postseason, then it can come down to health and matchups and, eventually, the stars will likely align in your favor.
It sounds good, but is there validity to the approach?
Minnesota was “close” to winning a championship this season in that it was one of the final four teams in contention to do so. But little about its West finals matchup with Oklahoma City felt competitive. The Wolves’ three road losses in the series came by an average of 24 points.
The Thunder are now four wins away from the title, and have the true look of a title contender.
What, exactly, does that look like? Well, it usually involves regular-season domination.
Whoever claims this year’s crown — Oklahoma City, New York or Indiana — will be the seventh different NBA champion over the past seven seasons. That screams “parity” within the league. And that’s true in the fact that all teams seemingly have the opportunity to build a winner.
But parity doesn’t mean the NBA playoffs are some crapshoot carousel in which any of the 16 teams involved could hoist a trophy come mid-June.
Quite the opposite. Should the Thunder win this year’s title — as they’re heavily favored to do — that would mark the 13th time in the past 14 seasons that the eventual champion posted a regular-season net rating of plus-5.5 or better.
The Thunder’s net rating this season was a gaudy plus-12.7, meaning they outscored opponents by 12.7 points per 100 possessions over the course of the 82-game campaign.
Boston took the title a year ago after tallying a regular season net rating of plus-11.7.
That’s not to say you have to reach those levels of dominance during the season to ultimately be the last team standing. But recent history suggests you need to exhibit your high-level excellence prior to the postseason.
The only champion to not eclipse the 5.5 mark in net rating and still win the title was 2022-23 Denver, who tallied a 3.3 net rating. But that season was sans a dominant team. And the Nuggets were the No. 1 seed in the West, though only with a 53-29 record.
All of the other champs dating back to 2012 strutted their stuff at a high level throughout the season.
It’s why, while it’s fun to see lower seeds making deeper runs into the postseason — the sixth-seeded Wolves were in this year’s West finals, the fifth-seeded Mavericks and eighth-seeded Heat populated the two previous NBA Finals — it’s nearly impossible to actually win it all if you weren’t all that for the six months prior.
Wolves guard Donte DiVincenzo said a series like the one Minnesota just endured “gives you perspective that you’re not far off and you’re right there. We just have to be ready to try to get another bite at the apple.”
Was that a bite? It felt more like a nibble. Like, Minnesota tasted a smidge of the peel and thought maybe there was a drop of juice on there. That’s not to belittle this year’s team. Minnesota did post a net rating of plus-5.0, just below the title-winning threshold. Post Jan. 1, that number was plus-7.0.
A year ago, the Wolves were plus-6.3. That’s title-contending stuff. And Minnesota certainly looked like more of a championship-caliber team last season, armed with its top-tier defense. That felt more like a legitimate bite, like a crack at the crown that just didn’t go the Wolves’ way for matchup and injury reasons.
This did not. A few things lined up in the Wolves’ favor by season’s end, and it simply didn’t matter. It rarely will when you simply aren’t in the same caliber as the conference’s top contender.
Finch lauded the franchise’s “consistency of approach” and the idea of “putting yourself in a place, time and again, to get enough chances to do it.”
“How many times did Boston have to get there before they got one?” Finch said. “That’s what the league is about.”
It’s true the Celtics made the East finals in six out of eight seasons before finally parlaying their run of success into a title last June.
But it wasn’t until each of the last three seasons that the Celtics began reeling off the regular seasons truly befitting of potential champions. In many of their previous runs, it would’ve been miraculous had Boston broken through. Miracles aren’t a method of success in the NBA playoffs.
You’re either better than the team lining up across from you, or you aren’t.
It’s on Connelly and Co. to decide this offseason if this current collection of Wolves can be that for four consecutive rounds in the near future, or if further roster adjustments are required to help Minnesota climb the final couple rungs of the ladder.
“I like where we’re placed,” Finch said, “but we’ve got to keep pushing.”
Related Articles
Naz Reid intends to re-sign with the Timberwolves, but wants to do more
Timberwolves blasted in Game 5 to end another season in West Finals
Frederick: Are guys really playoff players? Or can it be matchup dependent?
What makes the Timberwolves’ 3-1 deficit feel even larger? That Oklahoma City crowd.
Frederick: Anthony Edwards wasn’t good enough in Game 4. It has nothing to do with points
Leave a Reply