The Minnesota Timberwolves might be the biggest losers of the Kevin Durant sweepstakes. They had the most to gain from adding Durant and they missed out on him to the Houston Rockets, who gave up Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and the No. 10 pick in the draft to land him. It was a much-needed move as the Western conference continues to stay loaded.
But the Timberwolves missing out on Durant will hurt them more than they probably realize. Minnesota has reached the Western Conference Finals each of the last two seasons and came up short. It’s clear the one player that would have probably helped them get over the hump was Durant. Much like the Rockets, the Timberwolves found out they needed more offense.
When Anthony Edwards was taken out of the game, Minnesota had no other options to produce scoring. Sure Oklahoma City’s perimeter defense is rare in the NBA and the Timberwolves won’t have to deal with that throughout the entire season. But if they do run into teams that have solid perimeter defense, they need more scoring options.
That’s why they’ll regret missing out on Durant. And now they’ll have to deal with him with Houston’s offense which is far better than Phoenix’s was.
Timberwolves title pursuit just got harder with Kevin Durant staying in the Western Conference
The Timberwolves needed Durant because that would have essentially put them in the same position the Houston Rockets are in now. They are in win-now mode. They have the roster to be contenders. But they can’t get to the NBA Finals. They’re good enough to get there, they just can’t get over the hump.
Now they’re in a similar situation as the Cleveland Cavaliers. They seem to have reached their peak with their current roster and it’s not clear what the next step is for them to get over the hump. They probably don’t need to blow the roster up, but they have to make a move to now contend with Houston and Oklahoma City.
They traded Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle, hoping that solved their problem and it didn’t. Now they need to decide what the next move should be to win them a championship. Durant was supposed to be that player and now their championship window is shrinking.
If they don’t get Edwards some offensive help, it will be proof they will always be the second-best team in the Western conference. They lost in five games against the Dallas Mavericks and then five games to the Thunder. They need one more piece to help them turn another WCF loss into an NBA Finals appearance.