Charles Barkley: Wolves 'got lucky' and 'will regress' in 2024-25

Barkley isn't too high on the Timberwolves heading into the upcoming season.

NBA TV analyst Charles Barkley talks on set before Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center in Dallas on June 12, 2024. / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

The Timberwolves made some big swings this offseason in hopes of getting themselves a step closer to an NBA Finals title. They traded up in the NBA draft to select Rob Dillingham, kept their own first-round pick to take Terrence Shannon Jr. and signed Joe Ingles in free agency. 

Those are moves that on paper appear to make the Timberwolves an even more formidable threat in the Western Conference. Charles Barkley, however, doesn’t seem to think so. 

Making an appearance on the Bill Simmons Podcast, Barkley and Simmons were discussing the depth of a brutal Western Conference that features the Wolves, Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets, Phoenix Suns and Memphis Grizzlies, among others.

Barkley wasn’t too high on the Timberwolves. 

“Minnesota, I think, will regress,” Barkley told Simmons. “They will regress. They got lucky last year, everything worked out for them. They — they let (Nuggets center Nikola Jokic) down last year because he had to play the whole game against those two 7-footers, and he just got worn down. I don’t think they’re going to let that happen again.” 

Well, the Wolves still do have those two 7-footers in Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert, and the Nuggets even lost starting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, while the Wolves return their starting five from a season ago, and frankly, almost all of their entire roster. Plus they added Dillingham, Shannon and Ingles. Doesn’t sound like a team that’s headed for a regression. 

But Barkley, to be fair, was also quite critical of some of the other Western Conference contenders. He told Simmons he thinks the Mavericks will regress, too, despite them adding Klay Thompson in free agency, and he was particularly critical of his Suns, who Barkley said have no identity and no leadership — apparently a shot at superstar forward Kevin Durant. 

Now, ultimately, we won’t know what teams will truly be among the conference’s best until the season rolls around. But the expectations in Minnesota are certainly high coming off the franchise’s first Western Conference finals appearance since 2004. The true test will start on Oct. 22 when the Timberwolves open their season at the Los Angeles Lakers on Barkley’s network, TNT.