How The Timberwolves Are Silently Building To TAKE OVER The NBA In 2026

How The Timberwolves Are Silently Building To TAKE OVER The NBA In 2026

The Minnesota Timber rolls have been right at the doorstep of the NBA finals each of the last two seasons. And this is the point in their journey where we find out whether or not this franchise is going to sink or are they going to swim. Are they going to figure it out? Are they going to thrive and finally get over that hump? Or are they going to throw away all the progress this once disastrous franchise has made over the last few seasons? Context is everything. We have to look back at the past. We have to look at the history because nobody knows better than us. As min as a Minnesota native, nobody knows better than we do that this Timber franchise not too long ago was one of the worst organizations in all of professional sports. The absolute laughingtock of the NBA, always finishing dead last in the league, always finishing dead last in the Western Conference. But at a time during COVID when it seemed like everybody fell on hard times, the T- Wolves actually got a little bit of luck. They lucked up and won the lottery back in 2020 when Anthony Edwards was coming out of Georgia and he turned out to be better than anybody could have imagined. He turned out to have one of the highest ceilings in league history and that is no exaggeration. He turned out to be better than anybody could have ever imagined. And here they are 5 years later. They’ve made two straight trips to the Western Conference Finals and now they are at a very pivotal point in their organization’s journey, right? They’re at a point where they could squander all this away. They could mess this whole thing up and grow right back to square one. Or they could tighten up, figure it out, and find a way to break through this barrier and become true championship contenders. And I mean true championship contenders. I don’t mean what we saw the last two seasons. Um because two seasons ago, right, two years ago was Aunt’s coming out party, telling the whole world, showing everybody that, hey, I’m really him. I’m here to stay and I’m a real deal superstar. They defeated the reigning champion Deon Nuggets in seven games in the semiis. But that right there, that series right there against the Joker and the Nuggets was their championship series, right? because after that they proved they just did not have the mental stamina to really be champions, right? Plain and simple, they just were not ready yet. And it showed in that conference finals against the Dallas Mavericks. Then that off season, they shocked the entire NBA community. They traded a pillar. They traded a staple of this Timberwolves organization, Carl Anthony Towns. They shook up their roster a little bit in acquiring Julius Randall. And after a roller coaster of a 24-25 regular season, they got hot. They found their stride late and they made a playoff run. But a playoff run that many could say was a fluke. Many could look at and say, “Hey, wasn’t the real deal.” Because in the first round, they would go on to beat a very overhyped Los Angeles Lakers squad, a team that we just could not stop talking about and hyping up since the historic Luca trade that happened back in February. Then in round two, they would go on to defeat a Steph Curryless Warriors team. And then they found themselves getting dogged walked for a second straight year in the Western Conference Finals. This time at the hands of OKC. So yes, some could say they were never true contenders. Yes, they were the last one of the last four teams standing both of the last two seasons, but some could say they weren’t really one of those teams, right? but just instead have just instead happen to have a very favorable path to playoff success. But the Wolves look to prove all that wrong. They look to prove that hey, they are in fact a true championship team and that they can make a true run at this thing and they’re here to stay in a stacked Western Conference. I’ll get to Ant-Man later. I’ll get to Ant-Man here in a little bit. But I think that two subtle moves the Wolves made this off seasonason or have made this off seasonason so far have showed that they are doubling down on the fact that they are who they think they are as a team, as an organization, and they are sticking to the script and they are getting ready to make a championship run. Those two subtle moves, those two quiet moves happen to be the decision to resign both Nas Reed and Julius Randall. Because to the naked eye, it may just seem like, oh, a team resigning two of their better players. It makes sense, right? But I think it’s a lot deeper than that. I believe it to be a lot deeper than that because it means it means everything to this Wolves organization and it means everything to this Wolves locker room because for the first time in a very long time, this will be a Wolves team saying, “Hey, this is who we are. This is our culture. This is our identity and these are the guys that we want to go to war with. The decision to trade for Rudy Gobear back on draft night a few years ago is a decision I believe this entire Wolves franchise, this entire Wolves fan base will look back on and just say, “Hey, if we could go back, we probably wouldn’t do it again.” But at this point, it just is what it is, right? We know what we’re getting from them. We know what we’re getting from them. It’s not nothing special. It’s not nothing terribly bad. It’s just, hey, it is what it is. It’s whatever at this point. But when I saw Nas Reed planned on resigning for five years, 125 million, I was like, oh yeah, Minnesota plans on using the former six-man of the year like a legitimate scoring option that he is one of the best in the game in terms of coming off the bench. Nas, very much like Carl Anthony Towns, has a very unique skill set. He has a very deep offensive bag and it gives you such an advantage on the offensive side of things um for this Timberwol squad, right? Can shoot the three at an efficient clip, can create his own shot. But when you ink that deal, when you put pen to paper and you sign for 125 million of them things, that six-man tag immediately got ripped off and the expectations now are at an all-time high because you don’t pay a man $25 million a year to come off the bench. And even if Chris Finch at this point does have him coming off the bench, if they just like him in that spot, it tells me that, hey, he’s going to get starter minutes. And when it comes out of crunch time, when it’s the fourth quarter and we got our best five out there in those last two minutes, Nas Reed will be on the floor. Whereas before sometimes he was there, some games he wasn’t. No, you pay a guy $25 million this year. He’s expected to be on the floor. They’re expecting and they want Nas Reed to be a part of this run and a crucial part of this team and this offensive game. And it’s no longer like, “Hey, come off the bench, do your thing, score some points, just keep us in there with our backups.” No, you are going to be a legitimate scoring option right there with Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall and you are expected to bring to the table some major scoring, right? Nas Reed is a fan favorite. Minnesota loves him and it’s clear that he loves Minnesota because, you know, especially for a guy that could have gone somewhere else, that could have gone somewhere else. He could have had a bigger role, could have got more promise to him, probably could have got a little bit more money, but this is the type of people that you want in the locker room. This is the type of people you want to go to war with. And I absolutely love that the Wolves took care of their own, right? In terms of Julius Randall, his intentions to sign back with Minnesota for three years, $100 million. What really said a lot to me is the fact that this kind of confirmed the culture that Minnesota is building with the squad and what that they are confident in what they’re starting to build. Right. Julius Randle is a guy who got drafted by LA during a huge transition period, right? They Kobe Bryant was on his way out. Their team was disastrous. They were terrible. Absolute garbage. And then Braun coming in and the whole Lonzo Ball situation, all that stuff, right? He gets drafted by the Lakers during that time. Then, you know, never really finds his role, never really flourishes and becomes the player that the league thinks he can be. Then he heads to New Orleans on a two-year contract to kind of revamp his career. Prove that he can still be this legitimate scoring uh for prove himself to the entire NBA. Balls out. Balls out there. Becomes one of the biggest New York Knick free agent signings of recent memory, right? And then he becomes a top 35 player in the league, right? Then last year he gets traded to Minnesota and it’s just almost like this is where he feels at home. It was a bumpy ride at first, right? Gets traded to Minnesota right before training camp. They struggle uh to find kind of a rhythm throughout the regular season. It was bumpy. It was not looking good. It was like, dang, New York was thriving with Cat and Minnesota was over here looking like, damn, what did y’all just do? Y’all did y’all just ruin this squad? But when Julius got comfortable, right, when Julius caught his stride, he started to play the best basketball of his career and it showed down the stretch. The Lakers, that Lakers series, he put to bed all the talk about, oh, Julius Randle doesn’t show up in crunch time. Julius Randle doesn’t show up when the lights shine the brightest, when it’s time to go in the playoffs. That Lakers series, he looked like a true number two option to Anthony Edwards. And the fact that he wants to run it back, the fact that he saw in this squad like, “Hey, I want to end my prime here in Minnesota. I think we can make a championship run at this is big time.” Because the centerpiece to all this is obviously one of the best players in the world. Ant-Man, Anthony Edwards, can be the best in the game. The comparisons to Michael Jordan, the hype that he gets, the commercials, the big endorsements, all that just didn’t come out of nowhere, right? It’s the talk about being the face of the league. All that did not come out of nowhere. That is all when I said earlier in the broadcast that Anthony Edwards has one of the highest ceilings in league history. That was a fact. That was the truth. Right? Again, you don’t just get people don’t just throw Michael Jordan comparisons out there for no reason, right? He’s got that type of potential. But for Minnesota to get to where it is that they are trying to go, he is going to have to take that step from being just a top 10 player in the league allstar to being a top five player in the game superstar consistently on a night toight basis. That means better shot selection. That means finding a way to get your teammates more involved. That means just bleeding in a better way. Just basically figuring it out the same way Jordan had to do back in ’91. the same way Kobe had to do eventually after Shaq left. Ant-Man is going to have to just find a way basically just to figure it out. You just have to find a way. And Ant is only going to continue to get better as he steps into year six. And now that they have resigned two of the more important soldiers that they have in Naz Reed and Julius Randall, I believe that this team is gearing up to really make a run at a Larry O’Brien trophy. And again, the West, it’s going to be a juggernaut. The West is going to be an absolute gauntlet. It’s not going to be nothing sweet to try and get through, but the Wolves are at least making sure that when it comes playoff time, when 2026 rolls around, when it’s time to get deep into them trenches and really make a run at this thing, they are making sure that they are doing everything in their power to be Hey.

Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves have been at the doorstep of the NBA finals for 2 years straight. They look to make 2026 the year they finally get over the hump and become true championship contenders. But with a couple of subtle offseason moves, I’ll explain exactly how the Timberwolves are gearing up to make a huge championship run.

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