The Minnesota Timberwolves were eliminated from the playoffs in five games with a 112-109 loss to Denver on Tuesday. During a season in which the front office worked everything on being a champion contender, a lackluster playoff showing must mark the end of a failed experiment.
Minnesota traded the rights to five future first-round draft picks to Utah for center Rudy Gobert during the offseason. He, along with former first-team overall Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, were supposed to race the Timberwolves deeper into the postseason.
Instead, they barely qualified for the playoffs, needing two tournament wins to finish in the top eight in 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 season. The best option might be to blow it up.
Towns, 27, should be able to bring in a decent amount to the team if traded. He’s averaged 23 points and 11.2 rebounds per game in his eight-year NBA career, but Edwards, 21, looks set 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 as well, but the Timberwolves likely won’t be able to get anything close to the value they gave up to get him in the first place.
Minnesota put up a good fight in the close game, but this isn’t a season where moral victories are enough. The Timberwolves had much bigger goals than that. Instead of restarting it next season, Minnesota needs to start looking toward the future.