A long, drawn out struggle of a season that ended up where they wanted to be; Setting themselves up in a position to have the best chance looking forward. Which by that of course I mean 82 games of 'trying your darn hardest' despite all the odds... Aaaaaaand unfortunately ending up with less wins then everyone else... Purely unintentional.

Seeing multiple young guns develop way quicker then anyone projected. Making patient, clear and decisive moves without losing value. To then poising themselves staring next season in the face prepared for anything. Just under 12 months removed from trading Curry for Batum/McLemore/Okogie/White/2020 ATL 1st/2020 DEN 1st (Stewart/Bey)...

The Wolves now look to be rolling out a starting unit of Ball/Middleton/Siakam/WCS/Valanciunas with Okogie/Stewart/Lee/Barnes/Reid/Walker off the bench... Full rebuild into a borderline dynasty level upside team, in under a year... Elite.

Season Lowlight:

Getting shafted in the draft... Just a lil bit. Going from an almost dream case scenario, with 3 picks projected to fall in the lottery, to having to 'settle' just picking one of your boys and figuring out the rest. Can't complain too much looking back now, but I'd hate to see what we'd be looking at if the Wolves had lucked out that night...

Undoubtedly, despite all the hype and promise this kid has shown so far, with countless scenarios imaginable of dizzying heights this team could reach one day... You have to wonder just how much validation/fulfilment young Ethan would feel, alone... Late at night... Knowing a good part of this whole turn around was under the wing and watchful eye of his fantasy mentor and dare I say, Hero; GM Klemmelo... While benefiting from this close tutelage one can hope that one day, eventually Ethan will be able to do it all on his own... Haha nah, I'm just playn'. Joke for him... He gets it.

Best trade:

Forgive me for being a hedging coward... But I see both these trades being a tier above the rest in terms of value received and being the eventual building blocks at times, to something greater...

Min Trade: A.Gordon/C.White/Ennis/Matthews/2023 CHA 2nd/2024 CHI 2nd
For

O.Porter/Finney-Smith/Hughes/M.Jones/2021 BKN 1st/2021 HOU 1st

They get off multiple years of AG and essentially free up the option to shed nearly 30m in salary if the need arose by renouncing Porter. Get a serviceable rotation wing on a killer contract... And of course, secure two projected lottery picks for their troubles

With IQ around White was in a way a luxury off the bench and Ethan decided acquiring assets holding league wide value was the go here. To which he then used them to facilitate the deals landing him Siakam and Middleton.

Min Trade: 2025 MIN 2nd/10 GMs
For

Quickley

...A second and some GM's for an 80 Overal young guy in a great situation on an ideal rookie scale deal. Hindsight is a harsh mistress but this just looks like a straight up massacre in terms of who got the better end. Quickley was then a big piece in securing Middleton from NY and the rest is history.

Worst Trade:

Min Trade: Ingles

For

McCaw/Oni

Jingln' Joe is a national treasure. An Olympic hero and is everything Boomer personified. You should be ashamed of yourself Ethan... An elite glue guy and 80ish overall 3nD swiss army knife for Patrick Fuckin' McCaw. Patrick "Mooch your way to 3 rings" McCaw. God damn, Patty "No Thrills" McCaw... Well I mean, of course salary was a factor here but you're still a disgrace to your nation Ethan.

...To be honest though, you're doing alright if the only blemish on your transaction record is a clear and timely salary dump of a guy who's maybe the 7th/8th best dude on a real contender...

Other notable trades:

26 deals in total. With guys like Caris Levert, Thomas Bryant, Miles Bridges, Immanuel Quickley, Mitchell Robinson, Saddiq Bey, Duncan Robinson, Dillon Brooks, and Richaun Holmes all spending some time in Minnesota last season...

Here are all the others worth mentioning and you'll notice the trend of Ethan just taking straight W's every damn time... Makes me so sick.

MIN Trade: Middleton/2023 POR 1st/2021 GS 2nd
For

Ingles/Brooks/D. Robinson/2020 DET 1st/2023 CHA 1st/2024 CHI 1st

Min Trade: Bridges/M.Robinson/2023 CHA 1st

For

Bryant/Levert

Both the Middleton deal and the trade later in the season to acquire Levert and Bryant, were the catalyst in being able to negotiate the later moves to bring together this years roster... Clear direction. Makes sense. Acted swiftly to maximise the time spent after deciding to blow it all up. Deals like this fast track teams on the rise, sometimes, by years at a time... 

Min Trade: Holmes

For

2023 MIN 1st

Getting a future first for a solid rotation guy in Holmes, let alone your own back from the GM's past transgressions, is elite dealing.

MIN Trade:  D.Robinson

For

S.Bey

Robinson on 20m a year or a guy with 10x the potential who's years younger... Easy pick.

Min Trade: Okogie
For
A.Gordon

Took advantage of the surplus salary space and was able to secure a solid established wing heading into his prime, for a super raw prospect. AG later formed the basis of the deal to acquire Porter and the picks that got the ball rolling on all of this...

Free Agency:

Currently they have 10/11 players on their roster and all of them are ether on long term deals or heading into a contract yeah. They don't need to utilise any of their resources for anything other then hunting down rotation depth and balance, as they start the climb up the mountain. They have approx. 110m on the books and I'm sure can acquire a few more heading into free agency (to get them into full MLE territory.)

From the outside looking in.. The most obvious hole or position of need is at the back up PG spot (Payton/Smith/DSJ/Hill) maybe some depth at the two (Schroder/Bazemore/Forbes) and ideally, some size and rebounding in the front court (Whiteside/Kanter/Zeller). This team as it stands, fully healthy, would easily handle 80% of the league on talent alone... But the problem is they aren't healthy, at least for right now...

..Which is great. Because despite recent valiant efforts by the GM to hustle up a big ole bag of points, they will come up just shy of the max point cap by 30-35+. So the way I see it, if you want to have real aspirations of winning in this league; You pony up the points and you get two real shots at it. We'll see on the day if Ethan regrets his arrogance in thinking you only need to bring one bullet to a gun fight.

Star:

On the court it's Ball... But off the court, behind the scenes and everything in between its the wolves young and hungry GM, Ethan...

For Ball he averaged 12.6/4.9/5/1.8/.4 and 1.7 TO with 40/35/89 splits last season. I don't want to give too much away but from what I've seen in some open scrimmages, Lamelo is primed to set the league on fire. He's the perfect prototypical modern day point guard. He's got the whole package and there's nothing this kid can't do.

In game he's going to be a lock for All-NSL Glitch team for the next decade plus and that's nothing taking away from him also being a legit NBA super star. He's a big reason why the league needs to brace itself. This dude will be a straight up PROBLEM on both ends.

On the flip side, Ethan has done everything right since coming into the league and has already made it painfully obvious what kind of level this kid is operating on right now. He ships out Curry (who by the way is still arguably right up there any given season as a true MVP candidate) goes the full rebuild... Slays the draft and then systematically seems to take W's with every deal he makes. The team he's managed to put together is inspiring to say the least.

Flop:
 

Those damn Ping Pong balls... Truthfully this was all I could come up with as the game plan went as  expected with losses coming all year long, as a lottery team on the rebuild and the loads of talent and upside shown from his young guys...So it made it kind of hard to pinpoint anything legitimately "Flop worthy".

The Wolves were realistically projected to land the 2nd, 8th and 11th picks in the draft. For reference it could've very well have been the case that they ended up with a duo of Mobley and Mitchell or something similar... They got shafted. Falling to 5, 9 and 16 but of course managed to still pull a bundle of rabbits out of their hat and landed Barnes while making trades to see them form a true contending roster.

Injuries:
 

They of course had stretches of a depleted roster with their fair share of downed stars. Ball missed 22 games last season, having him fall pretty close to the unspecified threshold of required games played to perhaps impact him taking home the ROTY in a landslide (Which he most certainly did).

Players brought in like Levert and Bryant collectively played a handful of games before being used as parts in some saucy trades as well...

Draft Grades:

B+: Drafting Scottie Barnes at #5:

Kuminga, Giddey and Mitchell followed in the three picks right the Wolves selected their guy Scottie. Now we're seeing something that I'm sure comes close to what the Wolves GM envisioned with his team... Scottie seems to be the perfect fit, blossoming into exactly what the Wolves need, both in the short-term and long-term.

Partial credit for how they used their other trade chips as trade currency as well; To butter a few palms or slipping a sneaky tip to the right people, being the factor that coincidentally had him closing multiple huge deals.

The Future:

You know when you're little and your parents tell you off, warning you of the dangers of staring to long at the Sun?... Yeah, you know... Like sound, logical life advise. Well... Ethan's upbringing didn't really seem to promote the obvious advantages of having intact, full functioning retinas... Or more importantly, ever listening to others trying to tell him how to live his own life... "It's Just another sacrifice chasing your dreams" he'd always say...

Cuz' You see... Lil' Ethan don't listen to no one. He not only flew to close to the sun, but mounted, tamed and danced on that sucker.

He had a vision of the Timberwolves being dynasty level successful, not just a blip on the radar.

Their young core of Ball/Barnes/Stewart/Reid/Okogie/L.Walker have an average age of 21.1 and combine for 26-27% of their salary cap. While they've also carefully managed to have another group of players in their prime on a separate time line  with the intentions of contending right now. Middleton/Siakam/Valanciunas/WCS range from 27-30yrs old and until the Wolves get to a stage where they might have to reassess, these vets will be their driving force until then.

They will have Approx 92m coming off the books in Middleton/Pascal/Val heading into the 2024 off season, where the cap projects to be 130+m... With their 2023 and 2025 1sts waiting in the wings, perfectly straddling the years which leaves them open to having so many more options.

Predictions and Spicy takes...

-52-30 Record (4th-6th seed) +40 wins compared to last season.

-Ball, Middleton and Siakam all rank in the leagues top 60.

(Alongside the likes of possible 'Big 3' teams in POR/DEN/SA/NO/DAL/CHA/DET/WAS/CHI)
 

-Ball will be an 88 Ovrall by the end of the season. Stewart a 81. Scottie an 80.

-Ball will win MIP, make All-NSL 2nd team, All-NSL Defence 2nd Team, First time All-Star, Lead the league in Steals, Top 5 in Assists and come 5th in MVP Voting.

-Ball Averages; 23.3/7.9/8.8/2.8/.8 with 2.6 TO Shooting 47/39/84.
 

-Pascal Averages; 19.8/8.6/2.3/1.7/1.3 Shooting 47/36/87.
 

-Middleton makes All-Star.
 

-Scottie makes All-NSL Rookie 2nd team. (Avg. 12.4/4.3/1.7/1.1 in 23mins).

-Ethan wins GMOTY.

-Suffer a respectable loss to SA 4-1 in the 2nd Round.

-Will rank 11th in Offence and 7th in Defence.