On Thursday, the Timberwolves play one of their four nationally televised games in the United States this season when they visit the Warriors in San Francisco. It's their only appearance on TNT or ESPN as their other nationally televised games are on NBA TV.
It's not a huge surprise that the Timberwolves appear on just four games nationally, a tally that's tied for the least in the league. Since 2004, Minnesota ranks dead last in the NBA with respect to playoff appearances.
If it wasn't for the franchise's lone playoff appearance in 2018, the Timberwolves would have the streak for the longest active playoff drought, currently held by the Sacramento Kings, who haven't made the postseason since 2006. Other than their first-round series in 2018, which they lost in five games, there hasn't been much postseason basketball in Minnesota.
In fact, since 2004, the Timberwolves have finished the regular season with a losing record in all but two campaigns (2004-05 and 2017-18). However, the winds seem to be changing in Minnesota this season with plenty of promising signs under the new leadership of interim President of Basketball Operations Sachin Gupta, the league's first Indian-origin top executive.
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Outperforming expectations in first half of 2021-22
Heading into their matchup with the Warriors, the Timberwolves have won 24 games (of 47) which already surpasses their win tally of the previous two seasons (23 in 2020-21 and 19 in 2019-20). More importantly, their record positions them at seventh in the Western Conference which puts them just a couple of games behind sixth-seeded Denver Nuggets.
Forget clinching a playoff berth through the Play-In Tournament — they are within striking distance of booking their playoff berth outright.
In addition, they have a top 10 defence, which is a reason for celebration, especially for a young team on the rise. "The coaching staff has done a great job," Gupta said in an interview with Star Tribune Chris Hine in mid-January. "We've been a top-10 defence over the year so far, which this roster isn't one that we felt was the strongest on the defensive end."
Gupta was the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations until late September, just a few weeks before the 2021-22 training camp began. This could easily be considered a team built by Gersson Rosas, the Timberwolves' former President of Basketball Operations who was fired, but given Gupta's track record, it would be safe to say that he would have had a significant hand in the team's roster moves this past offseason, which have played a role in the team's success this season.
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If the credit for roster construction is up for dispute, one thing that can't be taken away from Gupta is his management through late November and December, when the team battled the surge of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, and their record backs it up. Since Nov. 15, Minnesota has won 20 of 34 games. That includes a period when the Timberwolves were without as many as eight players, both starters and key rotations players.
The Timberwolves are far from the only team that dealt with players being in and out of health and safety protocols during that time, but under Gupta's leadership, they were able to weather the storm.
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Although Gupta isn't solely responsible for the team's on-court performance, he remains in touch with the coaching staff.
"Very open, very honest, direct," Finch said of their communication. "We have great conversations. It's two ways. He's always including me on their process and he's always asking for feedback on the team and throughout our whole coaching staff, not just myself."
Finch and Gupta have a previous working relationship while they were both with the Houston Rockets. The former was the franchise's D-League coach while the latter was a key emerging cog in Houston's front office staff.
In an unpredictable field such as sports, it's difficult to extrapolate and predict anything with certainty. Having said that, if we were to extend the Timberwolves' current winning percentage of 51.1 percent through their remaining 35 games, it amounts to at least 17 more wins, which would take their season's tally to 41. That would be the franchise's second-best win tally since the 2004-05 season.
If not anything else, things are going in the right direction for the Timberwolves, and Gupta should receive plenty of praise for that.
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