The Timberwolves Are Minnesota’s Best Chance For A Championship – Wait, What?

For maybe the first time in Minnesota sports history, the Timberwolves offer the state its best chance to win a championship. I know, it scares me too.

Barring a miracle scenario in which a rookie quarterback, or even more unrealistically Sam Darnold, elevates a flawed Vikings roster to championship contention in 2024, our favorite football team looks poised to take a few lumps over the next few seasons.

During the offseason the team has lost starting quarterback Kirk Cousins (Atlanta), star defensive end Danielle Hunter (Houston), linebacker Jordan Hicks (Cleveland) and wide receiver KJ Osbourn (New England).

The Vikings have done an admirable job filling in the gaps with free agent signings like Blake Cashman and Andrew Van Ginkel, but the balance of the season comes down to who plays quarterback and how well they perform. Until that plays out, it's hard to envision the Vikings hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in the near future.

As of this writing the Twins are 7-13 and eight games out of first place.

The Twins are floundering after their 'right-sizing' declaration on the heels of the team's most successful season since 2002. Twins ownership decided to cut $30 million from the 2023 payroll despite the '23 team's playoff series win over Toronto that snapped an 18 game playoff losing streak.

The Pohlads elected to allow 2023 Cy Young runner-up Sonny Gray to sign with St. Louis. They allowed 2020 Cy Young runner-up Kenta Maeda sign with Detroit. They replaced those two from within with Louie Varland (0-4, 9.18 ERA) and Chris Paddack (0-1, 8.36 ERA).

Their three best offensive players- Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa and Royce Lewis absolutely cannot stay healthy and a one-promising farm system has bared very little edible fruit despite considerable hype. It's hard to see a World Series trophy being added to Target Field's trophy case any time soon.

The Minnesota Wild have been stuck in salary cap hell since kicking Ryan Suter and Zach Parise to the curb following the 2021-22 season. The problem with the Wild is, they aren't good enough to make a championship run OR bad enough to get a top-ten draft pick. They just kind of.. exist.

The Wild has some room to dream, however, as rookies Brock Faber and Marco Rossi appear to be legit, Jesper Wallstedt looks like the goalie of the future, and the self-inflicted salary cap hole clears after one more season in purgatory.

That brings us to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The team won 56 games this season and while there are some question marks surrounding the team, they have their three key players signed to long-term extensions. One of those players is All-NBA superstar Anthony Edwards, who continues to elevate his game and is still only 22 years old.

This year's Wolves led the Western Conference standings for most of the season before dropping to the #3 seed in the final week. The Timberwolves are a young team on the rise that should, in theory, only get better as time goes on.