The dog days of summer signal two things: the Minnesota State Fair is right around the corner, and at least one Minnesota sports franchise is on the verge of a crashout.
This year, that distinction goes to the Minnesota Twins fanbase after learning that the Pohlad family is pulling a Glen Taylor and remaining as the owners of the franchise. For the past 20 years, you could set your watch by the crashout coming for the Timberwolves. From 2005 to 2020, the Wolves were arguably the worst franchise in the NBA, one of the worst in all of professional sports, and an afterthought on the home front.
In a time when the Lynx won four WNBA titles and went to two other finals. The Twins were a model of small-market regular-season pluckiness. And the Vikings remained the same steady mid-tier NFL team, whose crazed fans thought they were going to win the Super Bowl every August, just as they had since the Bud Grant days. The Timberwolves dealt with the fallout of the Kevin Garnett trade, the David Kahn experience, and dozens of would-be franchise saviors who never panned out.
Things are finally looking up for the once moribund franchise. Anthony Edwards is the superstar the team has been waiting for since Garnett left. Chris Finch is the best head coach in franchise history. Tim Connelly swung huge trades that brought in Rudy Gobert, Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, Joan Beringer, and Rob Dillingham. Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez have a real vision as new owners. And Naz Reid is a fricken prince.
The Timberwolves are coming off two straight trips to the conference finals and have 28 national TV games on the schedule for the upcoming season. The new era of Wolves basketball has officially begun, so where does the franchise rank in today’s NBA?
It’s still easy to say the Wolves aren’t on the level of the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder, who beat the hell out of Minnesota in the Western Conference Finals. It would also be tough to say a few positive seasons vault the Wolves ahead of the Golden State Warriors, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, and Denver Nuggets, who have all hoisted the Larry O’Brien trophy in this decade and continue to enjoy varying amounts of playoff success every year.
The San Antonio Spurs were the envy of the NBA for the entire 20 years that the Timberwolves were trash, and have regrouped with Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, and De’Aaron Fox to re-emerge in a loaded Western Conference. The Miami Heat are a decade removed from winning two of four championships with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, and sitting at the center of the NBA culture. But the Jimmy Butler years and making two finals in the 2020s are still more than enough to keep the Heat in front.
There are also a handful of franchises that have enough history to keep their seat in the top half of the league, for now. Nobody has forgotten that the Chicago Bulls won six championships in eight years, led by Michael Jordan. The last dance came in 1998, which I’m being told is 27 years ago. However, the Jordan years are among the most iconic in sports history, making the Bulls an automatic high-end NBA franchise until the algorithm and Kobe stans expunge everything pre-2000 from the history books.
The New York Knicks last won an NBA championship in 1973 and may have rivalled the Timberwolves as one of the most inept franchises in the 20th century. Sadly, the championship pedigree, the ’90s run with Pat Riley, Patrick Ewing, and Jeff Van Gundy, and playing in the biggest market in the country keep the Dallas Cowboys of the NBA eternally relevant.
The Detroit Pistons have won three total championships and have had enough success throughout the years to counteract the lean years since their last conference finals appearance in 2008. Similar to the Houston Rockets, who won two championships while Jordan was playing baseball and serving his two-year “retirement” in the mid-90s. The Philadelphia 76ers are still seeking their first title since 1983, but their history speaks for itself, even if the process is likely to spark criticism again.
Despite Nico Harrison’s determination to fall to the bottom of this list, the Dallas Mavericks made the finals in 2024, won in 2011, and have been a mostly steady playoff team for 25 years. The Indiana Pacers made a surprise finals run, qualified for the playoffs 15 out of 16 seasons from 1990 to 2006, and have refused to completely tear things down and rebuild. That’s 13 franchises that are automatically ahead of the Wolves and will likely stay there until Minnesota brings home multiple championships.
But for every great franchise, there are a few horrible franchises that the Timberwolves have officially overtaken in esteem.
The New Orleans Pelicans have advanced out of the first round of the playoffs twice and have never made the conference finals since entering the NBA in 2002. The Charlotte Hornets haven’t made it past the first round since 2002 and haven’t been to the postseason in nine years. The Sacramento Kings technically won a championship in 1951 as the Rochester Royals. Still, the statute of limitations has lapsed, and the modern Kings are a hopeless wasteland, lighting the beam into the void.
This one might be controversial because the team has made the playoffs 12 times in the last 14 years, but the Timberwolves have surpassed the Los Angeles Clippers. Los Angeles’ B team has made one conference final in franchise history and rivaled the Timberwolves for the worst franchise in sports in the 2000s.
That leaves a hefty middle class of teams to quibble with. If you’re looking purely at history, it would be hard to say a few good seasons have vaulted the Wolves ahead of the Phoenix Suns, Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trail Blazers, Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Utah Jazz, Orlando Magic, and Washington Wizards. These franchises, although many are currently in a rebuilding phase, have all either won or been to the finals, far more than the Timberwolves have in their trophy case. An argument could be made that the current success in Minnesota supersedes past glory some of these franchises saw decades ago, but I’ll leave that for the bots and Kendrick Perkins to rank.
That leaves two very interesting cases. The Toronto Raptors won a championship in 2019, but they haven’t advanced past the first round since the bubble and are in a peculiar state of not fully rebuilding but not really competing for anything. The Wolves are miles ahead, but the championship holds significant weight in the context of historical comparisons. The Memphis Grizzlies have not won a championship, but they have made the playoffs 14 times in 25 seasons since relocating to Memphis. If you just count the Memphis years, go ahead and move the Grizzlies ahead on your board.
However, when you factor in the Vancouver years, things become a lot tighter. Everyone on the internet wants to bring back basketball in Vancouver, until you actually look at what the Vancouver Grizzlies did on the court. In six seasons in British Columbia, the Vancouver’s had a dismal 101-359 record. Their best season was 23-59. If you factor in the Vancouver years, there’s a case to be made that the Timberwolves are better than the Grizzlies.
The Timberwolves are moving up in the world. It may not be as far as some fans had hoped, but all progress is good progress. A few more good seasons and the Wolves could finally stake a claim as being one of the NBA’s better franchises.