Minnesota won 49 games and still finished 15 back of the top seed, so the front office spent the summer taking two big swings at the talent gap.
The Minnesota Timberwolves won 49 games last season, knocked out Denver in the first round and still went home in the second, because the top of the Western Conference has turned into a wall.
Oklahoma City won 64 games, San Antonio won 62 and beat both the Thunder and the Timberwolves on its way to the Finals, and Minnesota finished 15 games out of the top spot.
A gap that size does not close on its own, and the front office spent the summer acting like it knew that.
Two Swings at the Gap
President of basketball operations Tim Connelly traded for point guard LaMelo Ball in late June, sending center Naz Reid to Charlotte and forward Julius Randle to Brooklyn as part of the deal, and then signed forward Jonathan Kuminga to a two-year contract in September.
Ball averaged 20.1 points and 7.1 assists in 72 games for the Hornets last season, and putting him next to guard Anthony Edwards and his 28.8 points per game gives Minnesota the big backcourt head coach Chris Finch said the playoffs taught the team it needed.
"I think he'll elevate us, and our environment will be conducive to his continued growth as well," Connelly said of Ball at his introductory press conference.
Kuminga adds athleticism at the forward spot, and he has already talked about the specific job Minnesota hired him to do.
Why the Two Teams on Top Can Be Caught
Neither rival got worse in an obvious way, but both got thinner.
Oklahoma City traded away forward Luguentz Dort along with guards Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins over the summer, and those three carried a lot of the perimeter defense and shooting that made the Thunder so hard to play against.
San Antonio mostly ran back a core young enough to keep improving on its own, added forwards Tobias Harris and Harrison Barnes, and extended center Victor Wembanyama, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, so the Spurs are not going anywhere.
The opening for Minnesota is star power in the halfcourt, because playoff series in that conference keep coming down to whoever can create a good shot late, and an Edwards and Ball pairing attacks that problem better than anything the Wolves ran out last spring.
Whether the roster around them is truly built for a title run is the fair follow-up question.
The Risks
The frontcourt is the worry, because the production Minnesota must replace up front is real and center Rudy Gobert is 34 with more interior work now landing on him alone.
Ball also has to prove his shot selection and defense hold up at playoff speed, which is a fair doubt about any pairing that has never shared a floor.
The two teams at the top combined for 126 wins last season, so nobody should call the climb short.
Minnesota added two of the most talented players who changed teams in the West this summer, and that is how a 49-win team starts a real argument about overtaking a 62-win one.
The argument does not have to be won in October, it just has to still be alive in May, and this roster finally looks capable of keeping it there.
