Timberwolves need to keep their core roster together next season

Minnesota reached heights it hasn't seen in 20 years this season.

Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert (27) and center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) and guard Anthony Edwards (5) celebrate during the second half against the Dallas Mavericks in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals at American Airlines Center in Dallas on May 28, 2024. / Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

While the season came to a disappointing end on Thursday with the Timberwolves falling in five games to the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference finals, that doesn’t change the fact that it was truly a special season capped with a special playoff run. 

This Timberwolves team reached heights the franchise hadn’t seen in 20 years with a Western Conference finals appearance. The Wolves had to get through the defending champion Denver Nuggets to get there. Before that came an impressive first-round sweep of the Phoenix Suns. 

And that was all made possible by a 56-win regular season, the second-best mark in franchise history and just the fifth 50-win season in Timberwolves history. Truly a special season.

While they fell short of their ultimate goal of winning a championship, they got a step closer. Now it’s officially the offseason for the Wolves, and the focus will be on how to extend the run even further.

That has to start by keeping the core of the roster together. 

Now, there are a lot of factors at play. The Timberwolves are projected to be well over the luxury tax next season — and possibly above the second apron — with several big-money contracts. They also face an uncertain ownership situation that will continue to play out this offseason.

But regardless of those factors, if the goal is a championship, they can't break it up now.

It would be one thing if there was clearly not a pathway for the team to break through, but that's simply not the case. While the Wolves are not without their faults, they were right there with the Mavericks, and they gave no reason to believe things couldn't be different with another go.

Their No. 1 star, Anthony Edwards, is still just 22 years old and continues to get better year after year. Jaden McDaniels is just a year older and has established himself as one of the best perimeter defenders in the entire league. And some of his offensive performances in the postseason give plenty of reason to believe he could take a leap on that side of the basketball this offseason as well.

Mike Conley is exactly the steadying veteran presence this young Wolves team needs. Rudy Gobert is coming off a season in which he won the Defensive Player of the Year Award while being the anchor of a Timberwolves defense that ranked atop the entire NBA and did so for most of the season.

Off the bench, the Timberwolves tout the Sixth Man of the Year in Naz Reid and another excellent young rotation piece in Nickeil Alexander-Walker. They have some young guys coming up, too.

Now, Karl-Anthony Towns is consistently the subject of trade rumors. If the Wolves were to move on from someone, it would likely be Towns, due to his large salary figure as well as his high trade value. But Towns also boasts a unique skillset that the Timberwolves would be foolish to part with.

Towns is the Timberwolves' second-best offensive weapon outside of Edwards. He can score from anywhere on the court and is a matchup nightmare for most teams. He's also developed into a very good defender. Towns demonstrated that in their Western Conference semifinal series against the Nuggets when he was lined up as the primary defender of all-world center Nikola Jokic.

Towns was probably the Wolves' best player in that series. They certainly don't win it without him.

And even if you did decide to trade him, it's unlikely what you'd get in return would improve the team.

While the Timberwolves didn't get the job done this year, the pieces are there. And history has shown that continuity is an underrated element of championship-level teams. This past season was truly the first year this core of players has shared the court for an entire season. And it took them far.

Imagine what they can do all together for another year with a long playoff run under their belts. Now they know what it takes, and it's not difficult to imagine them extending the run even further next year.