After being outclassed by the Thunder, Ant and the Wolves still searching for the magic of last season

On New Year’s Eve, the Minnesota Timberwolves saw the future, and the future was glorious.  

Unfortunately, it belongs to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

At 27-5, the Thunder’s won-lost record is at least five games better than any other team in the rugged 15-team Western Conference. Coming into Tuesday night’s game against the Wolves, their defense was allowing fewer points per possession compared to the league average than any team in the 29 years the NBA has been keeping play-by-play data.

They are the second-youngest team in the NBA. Despite their superlative yet precocious performance, they have not mortgaged their future. On the contrary, they currently own the rights to 13 picks in the first-round of the drafts between 2025-2030, and 17 picks in the second round for seasoning around the edges should something minor go amiss. That’s why, in a recent poll conducted by The Athletic, the Thunder were deemed the best front office — personnel managers — of all the teams in the four major sports (football, baseball, basketball and hockey) as voted on by their peers.

Playing OKC for the first time in four scheduled meetings this season was thus a litmus test for the Wolves, whose front office finished fifth among the 30 NBA teams and 20^th among the 124 teams overall in The Athletic poll. Minnesota came into the game having won 9 of its last 13 contests, all against opponents with a record of .500 or better, while compiling the NBA’s second-best defensive rating (behind the Thunder, of course) over that span.

But there was one aspect of the matchup that portended doom for the Wolves: turnovers. Coming into the game, the Thunder were forcing opponents to commit 18.8 turnovers per 100 possessions, the highest rate in 26 years. And for the third straight season, the Wolves ranked among the bottom ten teams in terms of their ability to retain possession of the basketball. 

For the first 27-and-a-half minutes of the game, Minnesota was thriving. At the half they were up by six, 52-46, and had ceded just 7 points off their 8 turnovers to the Thunder, well below OKC’s average of more than 23 points scored per game via opponent turnovers. In the first two-and-a-half minutes of the third quarter, the Wolves doubled their lead to a dozen, 65-53, thanks to three straight three-pointers from point guard Mike Conley. 

Then came the deluge.  

After Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA) hit a baseline jumper to cut the lead to 10, Wolves center Rudy Gobert smashed a wide-open slam-dunk attempt off the back iron of the rim. While Gobert was late in getting back on defense, three Timberwolves ran to stop OKC’s Cason Wallace on the drive, ignoring Lu Dort behind the three-point line in the corner, where he has made 41% of his attempts during his 6-year career. Dort’s splash made it a 7-point lead. 

Julius Randle was pickpocketed off the dribble, leading to a breakout layup by SGA. The Wolves neglected the shortened shot clock after running time stopped for substitutions. OKC seized on that turnover when Conley was beaten off the dribble by Wallace and Kenrich Williams hit another corner three off Wallace’s feed when Naz Reid came over to help.

OKC had reduced the Wolves lead from 12 to 2 in 113 seconds. Coach Chris Finch called time, but when play resumed, the steamroll stayed in third gear. In the 8:30 between Conley’s array of treys and the close of the third quarter, OKC outscored the Wolves 36-10. More than half of those points, 19, came off 9 Timberwolves turnovers. 

The Wolves rallied valiantly in the final period, cutting the Thunder lead to 3 with 2:03 left in the game, but three more turnovers sealed their fate and the final score was 113-105, OKC’s 12^th straight victory. 

“We did the one thing that we couldn’t do: turned the ball over at a high level. We talked about that coming in here,” said an obviously disgruntled Finch, during a postgame press conference that lasted 74 seconds. Indeed, the final tally was 31 Thunder points scored off 24 Timberwolves turnovers, while the Wolves garnered just 8 points off 12 OKC miscues — a 23-point disparity in a game decided by 8 points. 

Making the Wolves repeatedly synergistic

If you’re measuring the 2024-25 Timberwolves against the Thunder, you’re automatically dialing up doldrums. Save your dolor for the 12-day span from Feb. 13-24, when the two teams complete their season series with three matchups. Between now and then is a trade deadline (Feb. 6), six weeks of tinkering, and a week-long All-Star break before you return with a back-to-back, home-and-away duet with OKC right after the layoff. 

Before the Wolves can consider themselves peers with the Thunder, or the defending champion Boston Celtics, their opponent Thursday night, they need to land on roster combinations and rotations that can be repeatedly synergistic. By now it’s no secret that the trading away of Karl-Anthony Towns (KAT) for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo (DDV) was more disruptive than anticipated, and finding a way to maximize Randle’s unique skill set while retaining the extraordinary skills that holdover core players at or near the top of the pecking order — Anthony Edwards, Gobert and Conley — has been a trial riddled with errors. 

Finch has done a great job activating Randle’s more complementary traits by rotating him in with personnel off the bench that space the floor and play at a faster pace. The rub here is that those bench players — DDV, Nickeil Alexander-Walker (NAW) and Naz Reid — are the trio getting the most out of their natural ability thus far this season. Thus far, they’ve been good with everybody. 

Sure, Randle has thrived while filling the “point forward” role in the second unit, in a manner somewhat similar to what Kyle “SloMo” Anderson did last season. But the fact is that Conley and Gobert thrived alongside the bench trio too; and when you toss Josh Minott in as the ninth man, he galvanizes that trio as a kindred spirit in ways the original starters can’t. 

Before the Wolves ran their winning streak to three with a victory over the Spurs last week, I asked Finch if a tweak in roles among the starters — putting Randle in on-ball defense against the opposing big so Gobert was allowed to roam more comfortably — was working because it plugged Randle into something KAT did for two seasons. 

Finch agreed that the familiarity helped Gobert and other holdovers and said, “We really love doing it. But you know every night, again, things are a little different, because of pick and rolls and other matchups on the floor and that kind of stuff. Last year we were able to settle into a rhythm and do it. This year it has kind of been a little bit more of a learning curve for us.”

The situation is similar to two seasons ago, when Finch and roster struggled to acclimate to a scheme and dynamic that would allow Gobert and KAT to flourish both individually and separately, according to rotations. The key difference this season is that it is far from certain whether the team both desires and can afford to incorporate Randle as a long-term piece in the organization. Even if he isn’t, it makes sense to boost his value for a potential trade in the next six weeks. But not if you’re messing with the crown jewels.

That would be Ant, the resident superstar and pervasive top priority. His fabulous three-point shooting has properly generated a lot of positive attention. Ditto his inspiring, verbal kick-in-the-pants to his teammates in late November, which crystallized better team-wide effort and focus.

But the uncomfortable fact is that Ant has not been the joyous force of nature and the crunchtime catalyst so vital to the team’s success the past two seasons — and he knows it. You can tell by his increasingly salty attitude toward the officiating, and his extended bouts of lassitude that used to primarily pockmark his play with respect to off-ball defense, but has invaded his offensive decision-making and initiation in recent weeks. 

For example, Ant played the vast majority of that third quarter on Tuesday night before heading to the bench with less than three minutes to play. During that 9:03, the box score has him down for one turnover and one personal foul. No shots, no dimes, no boards, no steals. By contrast, SGA, his superstar counterpart for OKC, had 19 points, a steal and a turnover. 

In prior seasons, Ant would have followed that disappearing act with some fireworks in the fourth quarter. But on Tuesday, although he did chip in two free throws, three rebounds and an assist, Ant missed four of five shots, including an airball corner three and a floater that hit the back iron in the final five minutes of the team’s attempted comeback.

Ant has reason to be frustrated by the lack of calls he receives from the officials. Among the top 20 scorers in the NBA, only Kyrie Irving (who is 19^th in points per game, compared to Ant being 15th) gets to the free-throw line less often. But it isn’t all a conspiracy theory. 

Ant’s three-point prowess has begun to shortchange other aspects of his game. His two-point attempts are less frequent than in all but his second season in the league and his accuracy on shots inside the arc is a career low. At least partly due to his relative inactivity in going to the hoop, he is getting to the line less frequently per 36 minutes than in any of his four prior seasons. Does making 41.5% of his treys on 13.3 attempts per game compensate for that? It’s more debatable than you might think.

One could argue that Ant’s shooting opens up the floor for others. But Ant’s own playmaking isn’t exploiting that virtue. His assists per 36 minutes are the lowest since his rookie season and his assist-to-turnover ratio is a career low. And despite that notoriously great shooting from long-range, his dropoff in free throw attempts and lower accuracy from two-point range actually makes his current true shooting percentage (57.4%) a smidgen below what it was last season (57.5%). 

A starting lineup that doesn’t work

Like almost everybody else on the team, Ant’s contributions become more rewarding, for himself and the team, when he’s playing with Naz, NAW and DDV. And whether it is the underappreciated versatility of KAT’s fit with the team or some combination of aging, unfamiliarity, or simply a stubbornly slow start, all of the four starters that were beside KAT have taken a step back this season. 

Last year, Gobert captained a phenomenal defense that was the best in the NBA nearly from start to finish, powered by a synergistic meld of Gobert’s willingness to trust his teammates and defend in space more often, and their ability to engender that trust with disciplined energy. This year has seen games in which Gobert has been overwhelmed by his matchup — KAT during the Knicks game and Houston’s Alperen Sengun the two times the Wolves have faced the Rockets. Whenever possible, putting Randle on the opposing big makes more sense — but then having Randle on the floor with Jaden McDaniels and Gobert obviously hamstrings the roles and comfort levels of Ant and Conley. 

Bottom line, the starting lineup doesn’t work, especially in terms of offense. And after 32 games, the sample size is becoming more conclusive. But how do you scramble it? Do you safeguard and enhance your top-notch talent and/or most expensive investments, or do you lean on their patience and flexibility for the sake of more long-term thinking? 

All things considered, it is somewhat reassuring that despite ongoing roster adjustments — and conversely, stubbornly inadequate status quos — and subpar seasons from core personnel, the Wolves remain firmly in the playoff hunt in the rugged West with a 17-15 record. After they swooned just before Thanksgiving, and flirted with a losing record even after recovering in mid-December, it felt like drastic action was warranted. And even today, the notion of tweaking the starters or getting serious about what the plans are for Randle’s future (and the chain reactions that inevitably ensue from that) are legitimate topics to put on the table.

But as the cliché goes, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Despite his ugly game (five turnovers) against OKC, NAW is an ongoing inspiration to witness. The defense and rebounding of DDV have more than compensated for inaccurate shooting and spotty playmaking — both of which have begun to improve. Josh Minott is a whirlwind and Julius Randle is a close-combat warrior at both ends of the court. Last but never least, Ant sets a ridiculously high bar and is thus very good even when he disappoints. 

It’s been a blurry season in terms of both performance and identity. And even if it clarifies, the picture likely won’t be as pretty as what is being watched in OKC.  But from the front office down through the end of the bench, this is a franchise with talent and ambition, its future continually intriguing until further notice.

Britt Robson

Britt Robson has covered the Timberwolves since 1990 for City Pages, The Rake, SportsIllustrated.com and The Athletic. He also has written about all forms and styles of music for over 30 years.

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