Nearly a month into the offseason after being blasted like every other team by Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets, the Minnesota Timberwolves are prepping for 2023-24 and fans are touting moral victories while coming just shy of planning parade routes.
D’Angelo Russell being as unworthy in the playoffs for the Lakers as he was for the Wolves? Raise the banner. Minnesota won the trade. Those future second-round picks are going to be money!
Nikola Jokic one assist shy from averaging a triple-double against Minnesota while mutilating the Suns and Lakers with routine triple-doubles? Put it on a banner.
Minnesota’s defense being bloodied by Denver but escaping without broken bones like the Suns and Lakers? Banner, baby. The Kings were the regular season offensive champs, scoring 117.0 points per 100 possessions.
Sure, the Timberwolves did better against Denver with Jokic on the floor than Phoenix and L.A., but they still made them look like the best offense on the planet. By the way, the worst defense in the regular season was San Antonio at 117.9 points per 100 possessions. Minnesota allowed 120.9 points per 100 possessions with Jokic on the court. But hey, that’s a moral victory in the bank.
Good job by Minnesota here. https://t.co/aRuSP0C7fu
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) May 24, 2023
Even with Jokic off the floor Denver made Minnesota look hapless, but that’s only because Jaden McDaniels was injured right?
So you’re saying that the Wolves have the best defense without their best defender playing 👀 https://t.co/sVeZY7bpT1
— Ů‹ (@JJETSFAN) May 23, 2023
Just look at all these moral victories…
#Lakers/#Nuggets The #Timberwolves should feel pretty damn good about themselves considering they (even shorthanded) seem to have been the biggest threat to the Nuggets in the West. #RaisedByWolves
— Julius Collins (@thejuicevox) May 23, 2023
The Timberwolves didn’t get swept pic.twitter.com/licwZeSRgr
— Still Knigga. (@Less_HumbleTeej) May 23, 2023
/whispers
The Wolves might have been the toughest West matchup for Denver https://t.co/DSgQlXybZN
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) May 24, 2023
The @Timberwolves are the second best team in the Western Conference.
— Muppet the Dog (@dog_muppet) May 23, 2023
tired: the wolves putting up a more competitive front vs the nuggets than the lakers proves that the wolves were actually pretty good
inspired: if the wolves had not suspended rudy gobert for the play-in game vs the lakers, they would have made the western conference finals
— Leonard Miller's Crossing (@companeromarcus) May 23, 2023
Did we mention the Wolves got steamrolled in five games and their only win was in overtime? Denver dominated. Start to finish. No questions asked. Would a healthy Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid made a difference? Definitely, but were they the difference between eliminating Denver or simply playing more competitively and still getting ousted?
It’s hard to blame Wolves fans, though. Moral victories are to Minnesota fans what a drop of water is to a man lost in the Sahara. It’s how the L.A. Chargers made fun of Minnesota during its schedule release video.
Born in the dark in 1989 and never seeing the light of day until Kevin Garnett’s arrival in 1997, the franchise has forever stunk and only been on the verge of modest success in twice in the past 19 seasons.
Modest successes ending in playoff embarrassments doesn’t bring company to the celebratory lonely five banners – Kevin Garnett, Malik Sealy, Flip Saunders, Lindsay Whalen and that 2003-04 Midwest Division championship banner – hanging from the Target Center rafters.
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Jimmy Butler was fun in 2016-17, and Anthony Edwards leading the Wolves to consecutive playoff appearances in 2021-22 and 2022-23 was nice. But this is a franchise with high aspirations and low expectations. The bar isn’t high, yet seemingly impossible to clear.
Maybe next season they will achieve something worthy of an actual cloth banner hanging from the rafters inside the NBA’s oldest arena. In the meantime, keep inhaling moral victories even if it’s bad for your health because with A-Rod and Marc Lore in charge, you never know when the Timberwolves will take a final breath Minnesota.
