Reusse: After two playoff runs, Timberwolves might take a step back this season

The long winters of ineptitude and indifference are over, and the Timberwolves have moved into a new period in their existence: the Age of Expectations.

There will be little forgiveness with an invigorated fan base should the 2025-26 collection get mired in the middle of the Western Conference, even though it could be claimed that these 15 teams make up the strongest collection of opponents faced by a Minnesota pro team since baseball went from two leagues to four divisions in 1969.

Take a look at the West and it would appear Sacramento, Phoenix, Portland, Utah and New Orleans are odds-on favorites to be the five teams that miss everything — meaning, the top six for the playoffs and Nos. 7 through 10 for the NBA’s play-in gimmick.

The Wolves only had a one-game margin to avoid the play-in last season. They then took care of the Los Angeles Lakers in five games and did the same to Golden State after Steph Curry was knocked out of the series with a Game 1 injury.

What followed was a five-game elimination in a mismatch vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder, the champs-to-be, in the West finals. This equaled the outcome in 2024, when the Woofies also lost in five to the Dallas Mavericks — a team not as complete as were the NBA champion Thunder a year later.

That’s a terrific accomplishment in the mighty West, back-to-back trips to the conference finals, but when you give that to a fan base, any fan base, you know what they start demanding, right?

More.

If you’ve been around long enough, you could hear that grumbling with the Vikings’ Super Bowl losses in the 1970s, starting with No. 3, the 16-6 loss (2-0 at halftime) to the Pittsburgh Steelers in January 1975, and then with the 32-14 whoopin’ received against the Oakland Raiders in January 1977.

And guess what? The Purple haven’t been back since.

The moral of the story: As followers, take the runs when you can get them — even without the ultimate payoff — because it might be a long time before you get the next one.

This Wolves franchise was born into ineptitude, finally won two playoff series with MVP Kevin Garnett in 2004, and then reached the playoffs once in the next 17 seasons.

This is a franchise that has won six playoff series in its 36 seasons — and four of those have come in the past two years.

Frankly, I’m of the belief there’s a step back to be taken in this season that opens late Wednesday night in Portland. It’s not a stroke of brilliant insight to suggest the direction depends on Rob Dillingham’s adequacy to play half the minutes at point guard.

Mike Conley is 38 years old. He shouldn’t play back-to-backs as the season progresses. He shouldn’t be asked to play more than 25 minutes too often.

Basketball boss Tim Connelly staked his reputation for talent evaluation by trading up to No. 8 in 2024 to take Dillingham as the much-needed future point guard.

Dillingham didn’t make coach Chris Finch’s rotation as a rookie and was erratic (which could be his style) in recent exhibitions. If he can’t co-exist with Anthony Edwards, the financial necessity of losing Nickeil Alexander-Walker to the Atlanta Hawks makes these Wolves less of a team than in the previous two seasons.

NAW could sub in for Conley or others, do a modest amount of ball-handling, make some shots on the right night and always defend. He can be replaced as a defender by Jaylen Clark, but Clark is not the all-around threat that was Alexander-Walker.

Analytic numbers insist the Wolves defense is considerably better with Gobert on the floor. What that also can do is clog the middle and reduce Jaden McDaniels’ ability to get to the basket. Once McDaniels, still only 25, started getting there persistently in the stretch run of last season, the 6-foot-9 forward became 1-B on this club to Edwards’ 1-A.