Dunks After Dusk

The Wolves did in fact play a game tonight...

More interestingly, we spend about 25 minutes on the pod discussing the two paths that the Wolves could take at the trade deadline involving Julius Randle. While keeping Randle is a much riskier idea, there is an arguement to be made for his development this season still leaving this team with an untapped ceiling.

The Timberwolves play their most complete game of the season, highlighted by an All-NBA Rudy Gobert effort and a patient Anthony Edwards. 24-21, 7th in the West, and a building block type win that should give every one a little hit of optimism.

The Timberwolves play lose a close one against Memphis and win a close one against the Mavs. The team as a whole is so consistently inconsistent that every game is going to the clutch and every night different plays are heroes and different players have their talents stolen from the Monstars. 23-21, 8th in the West.

The Timberwolves go 1-1 in a very hard road and home back to back agains the Knicks and the Cavs. The Knicks game was one of the best team efforts of the season, while the Cavs game was an admirable effort against the league's current best. But taken in tandem with the loss to the Warriors on Wednesday, the 22-20 Timberwolves team is really about the eye of the beholder. You can be optimistic or pessimistic depending on how much you squint.

The Timberwolves underperform in a win against the Pistons which the follow-up by forgetting to show up on time for the start of the game against the Warriors. 21-19 with two of the best teams in the East on deck.

In what felt like a flashback to the 2022 playoffs, the Timberwolves drop a very important and very winnable game to the Grizzlies due to a lack of rebounding and poor clutch execution. DiVincenzo and McDaniels were awesome, but Ant and Rudy were not.

20-18 with the Wizards on deck.

In what was the definition of a coast-to-coast win, the Timberwolves went to Orlando and took care of business. Every player on the team played within themselves and made contributions to winning. After three straight victories, the Wolves once again are knocking on the door of being taken seriously as a playoff threat.

With a new starting lineup, the Timberwolves win back-to-back games against two teams that just got their superstars back. While the team is still far from perfect, Anthony Edwards has returned to superstar form. If they can keep stacking some wins, they may just regain the attention of the playoff teams in the West.

Mitch and Pat are back to briefly take in the losses to the Pistons and Celtics before shifting gears and talking about the future. Rather than talking about the same old rut that this basketball team finds itself in, we take the role of fan GMs and talk about what we think the team should do to salvage the season.

The Wolves complete an epic comeback against Houston, battle SA to victory despite an off game for Anthony Edwards, and fall to the buzzsaw that is OKC. All in all, more positives than negatives! Happy new year all!