The vibes at 2025 Media Day for the Minnesota Timberwolves were in a good spot. It was a relaxing offseason that saw little roster drama while most players spent much of their summers in Minnesota
For Mike Conley, the best part of his offseason was hitting his first-ever hole-in-one on the golf course.
The only rotation player from a season ago that will not be returning is Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who signed a four-year $62 million contract with the Atlanta Hawks. Replacing NAW’s reliable defense will be no easy task, but the Wolves have a stable of young players who are eager to jump into a larger role this season.
Finding Defensive Consistency
Two seasons ago, the Timberwolves had one of the best seasons in the history of their organization. They started the year 17-4, held the number one spot atop the Western Conference for most of the season, and made it to the Western Conference Finals, dethroning the defending champions along the way.
That success was built on defense. The Wolves, by a wide margin, had the number one-ranked defense in the league and carried a team with a below-average offense to 56 wins, just one win shy of the best record in the Western Conference that season.
It wasn’t just that the defense was good; it was that every night the team brought a level of defensive consistency night to night that made them very difficult to play against. While not every night was as hellacious as Game 2 of the series against the Denver Nuggets, which saw NAW and Jaden McDaniels hounding Jamal Murray, dominant defensive stretches like that were commonplace that season.
Last season, the Wolves’ defense was solid, finishing seventh in defensive rating, but it was a clear step down from the team that made defense its identity a season prior.
There were some nights when the defensive intensity got turned up. Game 3 of the Western Conference stands out as one of those games, as the Wolves blew out the eventual champion Oklahoma City Thunder by 42 points, holding regular-season and Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to just 14 points. Those performances, though, were few and far between, as even by Game 4 of that series, the ball pressure was back down to normal levels.
Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch spoke at Media Day about why performances like that of Game 3 in the Western Conference Finals happened so few and far between last season.
“I think it points to the inconsistency we had on ball pressure, ball contain. A large part of our identity has been that when we’re doing it. As you can see around the league, they’re allowing it more. So you have to kind of take advantage of it. It’s a major point of emphasis as we start training campus to kind of reestablish that presence on the ball.”
It was made clear throughout Media Day that finding that increased ball pressure defensively was a point of emphasis for the Wolves coming into the season. They want to get back to being a defensively minded team, and the work toward that starts in training camp.
Rudy Gobert spoke on the importance of him and his team to gain back that defensive identity.
“I think that’s what we have to be in order to be a championship team. Last year there was a big trade, things happened and I think we didn’t get the start that I think a championship team needs to have in order to have a great season.”
Jaden McDaniels also acknowledged he did not start last season the way that he wanted to on the defensive end of the floor.
“I know the talent that I have defensively and the versatility. I just got to start earlier. I’ll say I kind of started my like defensive presence kind of came later in the season and at the start for sure.”
Jaylen Clark possibly put it best when explaining why it will be so important for the Wolves to find their defensive rhythm, doing so in a way that possibly only a kid from California could.
Two seasons ago, Target Center was not a fun place for opposing teams to play. All-Star-level players would routinely come into Minnesota and leave playing one of their worst games of the season. Last year, those types of nights did not happen nearly as often.
Timberwolves players and coaches made it clear to everyone who would listen that if they want to accomplish their goals this season, all of it will start with the defensive end of the floor.
Here Come the Young Guns
With Alexander-Walker leaving in the offseason, the Wolves have a sizeable amount of minutes that are now available. While losing NAW is a big blow, there is a positive in that it gives the Wolves more opportunities to play their cohort of young players, all of whom are itching to get a larger role in the rotation.
Rob Dillingham, Terrence Shannon Jr, and Jaylen Clark all played at times last season, but never had a night-to-night consistent role in the rotation. This year, all of that changes as it appears all three will be in the Wolves’ expanded rotation from the first night of the season.
Of the young players, Dillingham was the highest regarded coming out of college, being selected with the eighth overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. The Wolves also expended a large amount of draft capital to acquire him, as they sent an unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a 2030 first-round pick swap to the San Antonio Spurs for the pick that became Dillingham.
Finch explained what the coaching staff will be looking for from Rob early in the season.
“Yeah, well I think the non-negotiable is competing on defense. I thought he did that last year. I thought, you know, that’s probably where I felt he had the best kind of growth in his game was just his ability to go out there and fight and kind of learn and just navigate some tough circumstances at times. Offensively, that’ll be where we really can use what he has to offer and that is create pace, we’ve got to increase pace in our play, get to the heart of the defense and create shots for his teammates. Really, think the playmaking is what we probably need for him more than anything, from him more than anything else. The scoring will come secondarily and we need that change of pace guard.”
Conley, the Wolves veteran point guard entering his 19th NBA season, has taken the young Dillingham under his wing. The two spent a fair amount of time together in the gym during the offseason as Dillingham tries to find his place on this Wolves roster. While a lot of young players get drafted to bad teams without a lot of veteran talent, Dillingham spent his rookie season on a winning team, where he can learn good habits from players like Conley and Anthony Edwards.
Mike explained what the summer progression has looked like for Rob and where the young guard is mentally heading into his second season.
“The amount of work that he’s put in this off season has been great. The amount of questions that he’s asked, the things that he’s curious about, the things he’s willing to adjust, willing to learn. We’ve worked out together more probably this year than we had even the following one. But the questions that I asked him, he made work out, the level of thinking that he’s kinda coming into the season with has been impressive. I’m just excited for him to get an opportunity because I know that he really, really, really wants it. And he really wants to play well, he really wants to do the right thing. So I’m looking forward to it.”
Dillingham also spoke on what his rookie season was like, how he navigated not playing as much as he may have liked, and his relationship with Conley.
While the outcomes for what Dillingham’s season could look like are wide-ranging, that is less true for Clark, who showed a high level of understanding for what his role will be this season, mentioning that he wants to shoot 40 percent on 3-pointers while guarding the other team’s best player every night.
Clark also explained how he has been improving his defensive skills through watching film, specifically that of defensive backs in the NFL.
“I watch a lot of DB film, like Pat Surtain. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s like actually super relatable in terms of flipping hips. They can’t really grab anybody, like stuff like that. Like just seeing how they jam and get off, which is similar in basketball. They do a lot of use your stick hand. Just seeing that in man to man. I like watching that more so than basketball.”
Wolves fans will get their first clues as to how the young guys and the rest of the team will perform when they open their preseason schedule against the Nuggets in San Diego this Saturday, October 4.
