The NBA trade deadline is mercifully over. No matter how hard Shams Charania tried, he couldn’t pry Giannis Antetokounmpo away from the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Minnesota Timberwolves pivoted and traded Rob Dillingham, Leonard Miller, and four second-round picks to the Chicago Bulls for Ayo Dosunmu and Julian Phillips. They also sent Mike Conley to the Bulls in a separate three-team deal that included the Detroit Pistons.
The Bulls then packaged Conley and Coby White and sent them to the Charlotte Hornets, meaning there’s a cheeky little chance Conley could come back to the Wolves if the Hornets buy him out, allowing him to fill one of the two open roster spots.
Following the trade deadline, this is the team that the Timberwolves will take into (probably) a fifth straight playoff appearance.
Adding Dosunmu and shedding two players in Dillingham and Miller, who were out of Chris Finch’s rotation, gives the Timberwolves much-needed depth. At 32-20, the Wolves currently sit fifth in the West, one game out of the third seed and only half a game out of seventh and the play-in.
With 30 games left to play in the regular season, this is the state of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Some Wolves fans have been frustrated by the up-and-down nature of Minnesota’s play this season. But at 32-20, they’re ahead of where they were 52 games into last season.
At this time last year, the Wolves were just starting to turn things around. After a 22-21 start, they won seven of their next nine games to improve to 29-23 through 52 games. They’re also only four games off the 36-16 pace set by the 2023-24 Wolves that finished the season with the second-best record in franchise history at 56-26. The Wolves are one of four teams — including the Oklahoma City Thunder, Detroit Pistons, and Houston Rockets — to have a top-ten offense and defense this season. Minnesota is seventh in offensive rating and ninth in defensive rating.
The Wolves have four straight home games at Target Center before the All-Star break. They play the New Orleans Pelicans, who have the second-worst record in the NBA, on Friday night. Then, they have games against the LA Clippers, who just traded away James Harden and Ivica Zubac. The Atlanta Hawks, who just traded Kristaps Porzingis. And the Portland Blazers, who have lost six straight games. It should — please god, do not let me regret typing these words — give the Timberwolves some momentum going into the All-Star break.
The break couldn’t be coming at a better time for the Wolves. Anthony Edwards is carrying a litany of small injuries he’s picked up this season. He missed time early in the season with a hamstring injury and has been in and out of the lineup for months with a foot injury that he and the training staff are trying to manage. Randle has popped up on the injury list lately with a sore thumb. Rudy, 33, is the old one now that Conley is gone and could use a break to reset his aging 7’2” French body.
With 30 games left, the Timberwolves have the 13th-hardest remaining schedule, according to Tankathon. They have two games remaining against the Rockets, who are half a game up on the Wolves in fourth place. They play the East-leading Pistons twice between now and April 2.
Minnesota and the Thunder will clash once more in the regular season on March 15 in Oklahoma City. And they play the Denver Nuggets on the road on March 1. They also have two more games against the Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks. And play the Indiana Pacers and Utah Jazz once more to even things out. Minnesota is 12-13 against teams .500 and above and 20-7 against teams below .500 on the season.
On the court, Anthony Edwards is having the best season of his six-year career. He’s this in the league in scoring, averaging 29.7 points per game. He’s sixth in MVP odds and the favorite to win clutch player of the year. Naz Reid is the favorite to win his second career Sixth Man of the Year award, and Ayo Dosunmu is not far behind with the seventh-best odds. Rudy Gobert is in the hunt for his record-breaking fifth Defensive Player of the Year trophy. And Jaden McDaniels is having a breakout offensive season, ranking 6th in the league in three-point percentage (Dosunmu is 8th).
The Wolves are in a good place as we head down the stretch of the 2025-26 NBA season. Anthony Edwards will represent the Timberwolves as an All-Star for the fourth straight season. Over the next four months, we’ll find out if Ayo Dosunmu was the missing link to take this roster over the top and propel the Wolves to the NBA Finals for the first time in the 37-year history of the franchise.