2025 feels like a long time ago in Minnesota. But if we’re talking strictly about basketball, it applies specifically to the Timberwolves.
On New Year’s Eve, the Wolves sleepwalked through perhaps their most humbling loss of the season, a 126-102 setback in Atlanta. The defeat left their record at a reasonable 21-13, but the team had far more questions than answers.
Why did it seem through 34 games that the Wolves had been stuck in neutral? Did they need a roster shake-up? How could a veteran team so often look so unserious on the court?
Not available to answer any of those questions in the aftermath of that Hawks game was star Anthony Edwards. Embarrassed in front of family and friends in his home state of Georgia, Edwards walked off the floor with eight minutes remaining in the game and declined to answer questions after the game.
It was hard to find any optimism; coach Chris Finch tried after the game, saying: “We’ve been through the stretches like this. Every team goes through it. They’ll hang together.”
It seemed like wishful thinking. Instead, it was foreshadowing, as I talked about on Thursday’s Daily Delivery podcast.
Let’s get into more specifics, including some eyebrow-raising national attention, at the start of today’s 10 things to know:
- Since the calendar flipped to 2026, the Wolves are 6-1. That includes two wins over Miami, one over Cleveland (which also handed the Wolves their only loss in that stretch) and a narrow but important win over the Spurs.
- At the midpoint of their season, the Wolves are 27-14, good for fourth in the West. Entering Thursday, Jan. 15, they were just a half-game behind San Antonio (27-13) for third in the conference and a full game behind second-place Denver (28-13). All three teams trail runaway leader Oklahoma City (34-7).
- The Wolves’ latest win in Milwaukee on Tuesday, Jan. 13, a 139-106 romp, came without the suspended Rudy Gobert or Edwards, who was given the night off to help his ailing foot. It became a coming out party for rookie Joan Beringer — which Chris Hine predicted in a podcast earlier this week — as well as another stellar bench game from Bones Hyland, two developments that make a trade deadline move far less urgent than it might have seemed two weeks ago.
- Speaking of podcasts, respected NBA voice Zach Lowe talked about the Wolves on his Jan. 12 episode with guest Richard Jefferson. In a segment about “deepest cut favorites” to win the NBA title (which excluded the Thunder and Spurs, to be fair), Lowe singled out the Wolves. “I think the Minnesota Timberwolves could win the championship,” he said, praising Edwards and the Wolves’ success on both offense and defense. “If we got to the end of the season and the Timberwolves won the championship, I would not be like blown away by it because I think they’re that good.”
- That’s a bit of parsed praise, but it is still noteworthy especially when juxtaposed with where the Wolves were two weeks ago (though Lowe also correctly noted that “their losses are always horrible and make you doubt everything you think you know.”) He also asserted the Wolves will “make a trade to upgrade their backcourt off the bench. Absolute lock. I don’t know who it’s going to be, but they’ll get someone I like.”
- The Wolves’ back-to-back set in Texas on Friday and Saturday is huge. First up is their first of three games against Houston this season. Next is the last of three games this season against San Antonio, with the Wolves already having secured the season series and end-of-year tiebreaker with two previous wins.
- The Twins made a roster upgrade in the most polite terms, swapping out a career .133 hitter for a career .199 hitter. Progress!
- I very much enjoyed Olivia Hicks’ Strib Varsity story on Shattuck-St. Mary’s and Tom Ward. It also reminded me just how old I am, having written about Zach Parise at Shattuck when Zach was 17.
- Additional details have emerged in the arrest of Jordan Addison, who was one of several Vikings-related subjects La Velle E. Neal III and I tackled on Thursday’s podcast.
- Chip Scoggins is expected to be my guest on Friday’s show to talk primarily about Gophers men’s basketball.
