I want to give a very quick shout-out to Jack Borman, who dealt with so many titles like this one and was a great sport through all of them. Everyone tag him with screenshots of this. @jrborman13 on Twitter
It feels like blowout wins have been few and far between this year. I can’t actually speak to the truth of that statement, as much as I can speak to the “Vibes ™” but it just feels like it’s been an exhaustingly difficult year to be a Minnesota Timberwolves fan or reporter or whatever else you
all out there might be.
The energy of this team was truly in the gutter at different points this year. Firing Chris Finch felt like the starting point for a mob of angry Twitterites, a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade apparently nearly happened (or it was an insider trading scandal, que sera…), and the Wolves started their deadline by trading a first-round pick swap to get out of the luxury tax.
But tonight is the type of night where we remember that moments do not define a season as much as the sheer inevitability of time does.
Chris Finch has found his way back to who he was — even if it still includes too much of Mike Conley. Giannis and the NBPA are engaging the Milwaukee Bucks, not the Minnesota Timberwolves. Most importantly, however, the Wolves’ deadline did not end with a salary dump.
It’s hard to overstate just how much Ayo Dosumnu has changed the makeup of the Timberwolves rotation and roster outlook.
On a night without Jaden McDaniels, Dosumnu contributed a triple-double. During a stretch without Anthony Edwards, it was Ayo who was frequently holding the scoring load.
Julius Randle is Julius Randle. Anthony Edwards is Anthony Edwards. Rudy Gobert is Rudy Gobert. Ayo is none of them, but he provides something that the Wolves roster had suddenly become fully devoid of: malleability.
Part of the reason the start of this season was so miserable was that all of the quote-unquote “X-Factors” had failed to be, well, anything. TJ Shannon has been dreadful outside of an OK stretch recently that included that highlight steal. Jaylen Clark has the offensive consistency of a Katamari ball trying to pick up objects slightly too large for it. Rob Dillingham isn’t even on the team anymore!!
God, it gets worse. Bones Hyland is the only good surprise from this year’s starting roster, and it took months for Finch to even explore using him.
Hope is such a wonderful thing in basketball, and the Wolves had so little to hope for that it didn’t feel like the same thing all over again.
That’s what Ayo is. He is the Superman S. He is Driving Ms. Daisy. He is smiling in the sunlight.
Is that dramatic? Maybe, but why not be dramatic? For someone who was brought in as a replacement for the vibes and skillset that left when Nickeil Alexander-Walker travelled over to Atlanta, Ayo has been lovable as his own player.
What a player he is. A shooting guard who can play just enough point guard, a rebounder who flies down the court, and a tenacious defender despite his size. What a player, man, what a player.
He was not, however, the only player on the court tonight. Rudy Gobert had an excellent game. In a Wemby-less world (and for some of you, even in this world), he would be the front-runner for Defensive Player of the Year once again. Instead, he’ll have to settle for being arguably the best center in Wolves history behind… Nikola Peković?
Despite the joking, tonight was the opposite of the Peković era Wolves or even of the Wolves of 2025’s winter start. They were balanced. While plus/minus is one of the most disingenuous stats out there, that column is greener than the true jerseys tonight.
So much has changed. The only thing buoying the early-season Wolves was their comparatively incredible injury luck. Now, even with all the outages and injuries to handle, the team feels like they’re in a much, much better place. They are now hitting their stride at the perfect time and are slated to face the Denver Nuggets for another matchup while they struggle to find any rhythm.
This has been who Minnesota has been for the past two years now. Maybe I’ll learn the lesson, not to worry so much in December when April is a mile away. Maybe I won’t, sports are a reactionary thing after all. But what is abundantly clear is that the Wolves always hit their stride in the months just before the games become even more serious. That is a sign of good coaching. It’s a sign of good roster management. Maybe it’s even a sign of a team that will, eventually, find its way over the hump.
Tonight, however, is just a regular-season matchup against a bad team. The Dallas Mavericks are not a real test of strength. That will come soon. If you all remember NAW’s coming out moment, his arrival into our collective hearts, then you should probably start clearing up the weeds for Ayo to take his own spot in the neighborhood.
Goodnight Wolves fans. Happy Monday. What a way to start the week. Nature calls.
Up Next
The Timberwolves get a couple of days off before taking on the Detroit Pistons on Thursday for the second time in three games. The Wolves struggled mightily against the Pistons last Saturday, putting up just 87 points without Edwards, McDaniels, or Dosunmu in the lineup.
Thursday’s game is scheduled to begin at 6:00 PM CT, airing on Amazon Prime Video.
