In their most recent games, both the Timberwolves and Vikings defeated shorthanded opponents to even their records — the Wolves at 15-15, the Vikings at 7-7. Both were clinging to hopes of reaching the postseason near the bottom of the postseason pecking order in their respective conferences.
Why does a .500 record feel so different for the Vikings and Wolves?
It's a matter of perspective: There are Vikings fans who would prefer a collapse to a playoff berth while Wolves fans are thrilled even being on the fringes of the postseason.
December 21, 2021 at 9:08PM
That's a pretty striking similarity, but it's really where the conversation ends if we're talking about these two teams in tandem.
The trajectory of each, even if we note that their standing as of Tuesday morning was identical, feels very different.
Vikings fans almost seemed embarrassed to accept Monday's 17-9 win over the stumbling Bears, a game that at least temporarily nudged the Vikings into the precarious No. 7 seed in the NFC — something I talked about at length on Tuesday's Daily Delivery podcast.
Vikings fans have become jaded by mediocrity. Even if the end result this season ends up being a playoff berth, there are plenty among the faithful who would rather see a collapse that would signal a teardown and a rebuild.
I don't love the "hope for a high draft pick" mentality, but it is understandable that fatigue with the current three-headed monster of Rick Spielman, Mike Zimmer and Kirk Cousins has set in with many. It's hard to imagine this team's ceiling would be any higher that what it is right now if they had a chance to run it back in 2022.
The Wolves are in the same spot in the standings, generally speaking, but their trajectory feels different. While they have had their ups and downs this season, just as the Vikings have, fans of that franchise are starved even for a sniff of the playoffs.
Even achieving a top-10 finish in the West, just good enough to get into the play-in tournament, would feel like a success based on where this franchise has been.
It's all a good reminder that it's a matter of perspective, and not so much merely a matter of results.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
