The Minnesota Timberwolves were sleepwalking during their season opener last season.
Things got so bad that Anthony Edwards had to yell at his teammates to wake up in the second quarter. Under the bright lights of LA, playing against the Los Angeles Lakers on opening night, the Timberwolves were sluggish. They were dejected. They looked nothing like a team.
That’s because they weren’t a team yet. The Wolves were still discovering their identity and figuring out their roles on the court. That’s odd for a team coming off a Conference Finals appearance the season prior, which was why the NBA booked them for opening night.
However, the team that knocked off the Denver Nuggets in Game 7 five months prior was not the same team going toe-to-toe against LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
They had sent Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks, with Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo replacing him in Minnesota right before training camp. The Timberwolves felt the ill effects of the blockbuster trade, opening the season with a 110-103 loss in LA and an 8-10 record over the first month.
As the Wolves grew together, they dug themselves out of that hole and made it back to the Conference Finals again. They proved that teams can overcome slow starts. But this year, there should be no reason why Ant would have to yell at his teammates to “WAKE THE F— UP” after their season begins.
With the national spotlight once again beaming down on the Wolves, they need to turn the tables to start this year and catch the league sleeping.
On Thursday afternoon, the NBA announced its 2025-26 regular season schedule for all 30 teams. The usual talking points include the opening night slate, players’ first games against their former teams, matchups between rivals, and — most of all — the number of nationally televised games the league hands out to each team.
The Lakers, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, and defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder will fill the most nationally televised slots in the NBA this year. They will each play 35 games on either ABC, ESPN, NBC, Prime Video, or Peacock.
Right behind them is the Timberwolves with 28 nationally televised games, a franchise record. That large number isn’t surprising. Edwards is a box office superstar, and more national outlets are broadcasting NBA games this year. Still, it’s a mark of confidence from the league.
Adam Silver believes the Timberwolves will perform at a level that will have people wanting to watch the team. The NBA had a similar level of confidence in last year’s squad, handing the Timberwolves 18 games on either ABC, ESPN, or TNT. However, for most of the year, the Wolves did not play at a level deserving of the national spotlight.
It started with that flat season opener in LA. Then, Minnesota lost four straight before Thanksgiving, prompting Edwards to call his team out again. In early January, Edwards voiced his frustration with the amount of double teams opposing teams threw at him, causing him to average 20.5 points in December on 42.7% shooting from the field.
Randle hadn’t bought in defensively. He didn’t know his offensive role, either. DiVincenzo battled an ice-cold start to his Wolves tenure. And Jaden McDaniels was an offensive liability because he struggled to make open catch-and-shoot three-pointers.
When you pull back the layers of expectations that the Wolves were wrapped in to open the year, their early struggles made sense. Edwards, Randle, DiVincenzo, and McDaniels had to learn how to coexist effectively and efficiently on the fly after the trade. The group as a whole had to let go of the 2024 Conference Finals run, realizing the current team was different without KAT.
Last year’s club eventually returned to the Conference Finals on a postseason run that featured Edwards knocking off LeBron James and Steph Curry, two of the game’s biggest names. That was a flag-in-the-ground moment for the Wolves. So long as Edwards is leading them into battle, the Wolves are a team deserving of the national spotlight more than most of their counterparts around the league. However, the Timberwolves can’t wait until the springtime to click at a must-see-TV level.
Five of Minnesota’s first eight regular-season games will reach a national audience.
- Game 2, October 24: @ LA Lakers on Prime Video
- Game 4, October 27: vs. Denver Nuggets on Peacock
- Game 5, October 29: vs. LA Lakers on ESPN
- Game 7, November 3: @ Brooklyn Nets on Peacock
- Game 8, November 5: @ Knicks on ESPN
It’s a stage the Wolves should use to display that what the league saw to end last season wasn’t a lucid dream. Instead, it’s a reality that will awaken opponents from their doldrums.
Tim Connelly hasn’t been napping all summer, but by his standards, it’s been a peaceful and quiet off-season for him and his staff. They re-signed Naz Reid and Julius Randle early in the off-season, drafted Joan Beringer and Rocco Zikarsky, brought in Enrique Freeman on a two-way deal, and signed Johnny Juzang to a training camp contract.
Kevin Durant could have ended up with the Timberwolves, but they weren’t on his list of preferred trade destinations. As a result, the national scope has shifted its off-season attention to the various teams in the Western Conference who have shuffled their cards.
Instead of shaking anything up, the Wolves are ultimately investing in continuity and on-court chemistry to be enough this year to get them over the Conference Finals hump. They believe that the 21-game finish to last season — when the Wolves went 17-4 — will carry over to this season, blossoming them into a team that can be consistently elite on both sides of the ball.
Starting fast and dominating on national television will be an excellent way for the Wolves to establish that they aren’t going anywhere. The league office appears to share this view. Now, it’s about the players sending a wake-up call to other teams.
Edwards may be the reason the Timberwolves continue to soak up more national spotlight, but he is far from the only player — or thing — that will be under center stage this season.
2025-26 will be a prove-it year for Randle and Reid.
Randle will try to be the triple-double, all-around threat that he was toward the end of last season for a full 82. Reid must also be a more consistent offensive threat. Rudy Gobert will aim to prove he is still capable of being an anchoring center on a championship team, regardless of what Shaq says. Terrence Shannon Jr. will break into the rotation, looking to prove to everyone — both within the organization and around the league — that he belongs at this level.
The Timberwolves will attempt to accomplish all of that while frequently wearing two of the most beloved jerseys in franchise history — the black throwbacks with the green tree lining and the Prince-inspired Purple Rain jerseys, both of which they last wore in 2019.
Unlike last season, the Wolves know how good they are. They are a cohesive team that shouldn’t need a wake-up call to begin the season. Ultimately, Minnesota’s primary internal goal is to win games, regardless of which ones find a national audience. However, dominating on their 28-game pedestal will trigger alarms around the league.
It starts with sounding a wake-up call from the outset.