Minnesota moves on, again

The only good image to come out of Minnesota's Game 5 loss in Oklahoma City was the end, Anthony Edwards emerging from his bench after sitting the final 6:35 of the contest, congratulating his victors cheerily. Heartily, pleasantly and authentically, tongue outside cheek.

It wasn't as fun for Timberwolves fans, reminded throughout Game 5 that nobody was really in any right mind to expect anything but a Thunder blowout win at home. No, not after Game 4, not after the Thunder further established themselves as a favorite to trust.

Or, whatever, not after those 97 games the Thunder played before Game 4. Plenty to choose to trust from, even if most only last about 30 minutes.

The Timberwolves, meanwhile, don't have the patterns established to fall back upon. Something to close their eyes and just do.

The club's late-season climb came on the tails of opponents begging to be trod upon, but the record was real. It wasn't with players supremely familiar with each other, rather cliques which didn't click against OKC. We're never reminded via pass that Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert played together in Utah. Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo look like they came to the Timberwolves from two different teams.

Of course, that was against the Thunder. The team which wins by 20.

Minnesota also made Los Angeles look lousy and the Warriors give up. Did the Timberwolves beat the Hornets and Sixers and Spurs in spring? Sure, but they also got the Nuggets to fire their coach.

At peak, Minnesota looked like the perfect group of disparate parts to upend the favorites. Two for two after two rounds, knocking out the clubs most had pegged as our best chance for a Thunder-calmer. Potential for growth as spring bloomed further.

Then clouds coalesced. Anthony Edwards soaked in sweat by the end of every first quarter, Julius Randle looked six inches shorter than everyone in Oklahoma. Jaden McDaniels averaged six plays given up on for every 36 minutes played.

But, that's, the Thunder. Yes, this is what Minnesota should gauge itself against, but does Minnesota have any right to compare itself against the Thunder?

Fine, I'll post it, we're all thinking it:

Oklahoma City was way taller than Minnesota in this series, and all season.

Be glad Edwards was smiling after Game 5, because there was a darkness to Game 5. Mild darkness, sports-darkness, but c-c-c-cl-clouds nevertheless: Minnesota potentially upending Oklahoma City's coronation at home, or the Thunder cruelly ending someone's season, outclassing another club throughout.

The coverage suited it: Mike Breen is as reverent and serious as TNT's Kevin Harlan is silly and sillier. ESPN turns every NBA game into an NFL collision, how dare any team lose, the dirge diffused by Breen constantly re-reading updates from this season's refereeing handbook.

Game 5 always reflected its score, the contest felt like a close one in the opening few minutes. Until the Timberwolves started missing shots, open shots. Turnovers happen, open misses are something else altogether.

With every ongoing clang in Game 5 I was reminded of a quote from a major, formative Sports Illustrated piece from Jack McCallum. Jack got Reggie Miller to watch tape of Reggie's 25-point fourth quarter of Game 5 of the 1994 Eastern finals.

"My theory on shots when I'm all alone is that I should make 70 percent of them. I don't think other players set standards that high. That's a mistake."

I won't try to sell you on the idea that outsized belief in one's abilities is the difference between zero percent and 40 percent on open three-pointers. This is not a seminar, I am not helping anyone with actualization. I repeat, there are no pamphlets.

But time slows, with open shots.

Partially because you're all alone, everyone watching you, everyone expecting big things, Reggie Miller guessing you have a seventy percent chance at making the shot. A lot to consider and all at once.

But mostly time slows because time is slow. You're open, everyone is farther away from you and has little chance of alarming your attempt's form and release. So take some time on that form, that release, do everything possible to toss up a jumper with a 70 percent chance of going in.

Gotta say, those Timberwolves looked a little rushed in defeat. Couldn't get the rush out of their heads, thinking about offense while playing defense until the game was over. Cleaning out their lockers, still thinking about offense.

That's who each of these players are, this is why the Timberwolves are entertaining, why we root for them, why we support their personnel moves when they are announced:

It is a strength. I didn't read the second part of the post. Don't harsh what I have flowing.

This summer will be a mood. Minnesota worked with the NBA's second-highest payroll this season. Aprons dangling everywhere.

The long-anticipated "player option, or contract extension?" conversation will happen with Julius Randle (2025-26 player option for over $30.9 million), Naz Reid (PO for over $15 million). They will be offered less (but for longer).

Tim Connelly must someday replace Mike Conley at point guard. I'd sooner replace Gil Thorp as athletic director at Milford.

There is also a 2025 first-round pick to pay, Minnesota has Detroit's at No. 17, earned when the Pistons signed-and-traded Christian Wood to Houston for the rights to Isaiah Stewart. Houston sent the pick with what will be two future Washington second-rounders to OKC for Alperen Şengün, OKC sent all that plus a Nuggets first-rounder to New York for Ousmane Dieng, New York then sent the pick to the Timberwolves for Karl-Anthony Towns.

Minnesota also owns an every-year curio, the first selection in the second-round, intriguing trade bait at No. 31.

Everything else, every other first-round pick, is off to Utah, to San Antonio, to Sacramento. Swaps set up confusion, Minnesota will keep a 2026 first-rounder, they'll keep a 2028 first-rounder and cull a 2030 first-rounder from somewhere, but Tim can't trade any of them.

Does he want to trade Donte on draft night to DiVincenzo's sixth NBA team in 40 months? Does any team want to pay a reasonable $24.5 million over two years to someone who may not be good enough for the Western Conference postseason?

Rob Dillingham (21 in January) is not ready, not by October, but may be ready by March of 2026. Presumably Anthony Edwards will improve enough ...

... to ably shoulder the load (read: obvious, constant MVP push) in a 2025-26 Mike Conley/Anthony Edwards backcourt, anticipating Conley's ongoing decline and conservative estimates of Dillingham's ascension

Nickeil Alexander-Walker is a free agent and turns 27 this offseason, maybe he returns because NAW's postseason either/or act capped his appeal in a free agent market with limited available cash. What is certain is that blatant replacement Terrance Shannon Jr. turns 25 this offseason and makes but $2.6 million in 2025-26. Terrance will make $300,000 less than Felton Spencer earned from the 1997-98 Golden State Warriors.

Jaylen Clark turns 24 in October, he's gonna play. Leonard Miller will get a look, Luka Garza already had his.

Would the Wolves rather have Karl-Anthony Towns right now? Bowling over Pacers, dragging Madison Square Garden out of its seats?

The Pacers aren't the Thunder. Nothing is like the slip-slappy way into that Thunder lane. Nothing is like the things jumping inside that Thunder lane.

And it doesn't matter what the Pacers or the Thunder are like, that wasn't a basketball trade. The Timberwolves can't have Karl-Anthony Towns.

What Minnesota gave itself, throwing draft picks at Utah and All-NBA superstars at New York, is the ability to bend. The front office reduced holes and gave Anthony Edwards the most important thing this young NFL fan needed for his NBA career.

A taste of real NBA basketball, playoff basketball, and not this semifinal shit.

Ant's smiling after Game 5 because Edwards knows he has what Shai already earned. Edwards has that somewhere in him, he just literally needs to get a handle on it, the bead will follow, the beads of sweat won't flow so easily.

So the Wolves tossed it all in the middle and they haven't made the Finals and they're full of 30-year olds.

So what. In losing, they may have created a monster. The kind that keeps a club sustained, even in the West. Because he knows better now. Edwards knows he is the difference between what he wants, and what Oklahoma City has.

JACK, YOU'RE DEAD

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