Will Familiarity Breed Contempt Between the Wolves and Nuggets?

For just the second time in their franchise’s history, the Minnesota Timberwolves are in the second round of the NBA Playoffs. They are impeded by the Denver Nuggets, the reigning champions who defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in five games. The popular national TV shows are occupied with discussing LeBron James and Los Angeles’s offseason strategies. The true ones, though, are anticipating what may turn out to be the most important playoff series in Timberwolves history—one that might crown this year’s NBA champion. Since these teams are well-known to one another, the Wolves should have even more motivation to defeat Denver and advance to the Western Conference Finals.

In doing so, Minnesota would equal their longest postseason run in thirty-five years.

Throughout the NBA’s final ten years, there have been close relationships between these two teams. Tim Connelly was recruited away from the Nuggets by the Timberwolves in order to become the new President of Basketball Operations for Minnesota. During the 2016–17 NBA season, Chris Finch assisted head coach Michael Malone with the Nuggets. From 2015 until 2018, Micah Nori worked as an assistant in Denver, where he made friends with Finch.In the 1980s, Elston Turner spent three years as a player for the Nuggets. Additionally, Corliss Williamson worked under Michael Malone as Nori’s assistant coach in Sacramento.

The coaching staff of the Nuggets is equally associated with Minnesota. Ryan Saunders, the former head coach of the Timberwolves, currently works the sidelines in Denver with David Adelman, Rick Adelman’s son, who assisted the Wolves during his father’s leadership.Former Nuggets player Monte Morris. The fifth pick in the 2016 draft should have gone to Jamal Murray rather than Chris Dunn for the Wolves. In 2004, Denver became the first team the Timberwolves had ever defeated in a postseason series, after the Nuggets eliminated the Wolves in the opening round of the previous season. Everyone you knew in your University of Minnesota cohort from your suburban Minneapolis high school who went on to “bigger and better things” is now employed in Denver’s “real estate” industry. You get the idea. Cities and these franchises are entwined.

The Wolves-Nuggets rivalry has all the makings of a great rivalry; yet, the Timberwolves must win to establish a rivalry. Most people agree that Tim Connelly was the mastermind behind the Nuggets team that, in their 47th NBA season, ultimately won the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Connelly, however, didn’t remain in Denver long enough to win the championship. Finch was a three-time champion in the NBA D-Leagues, the British D-Leagues, and the Belgian D-Leagues, but he moved to Canada only 1.5 years after the Toronto Raptors’ 2019 championship run. Denver lost Monte Morris to death within a year.In college, Karl-Anthony Towns and Mike Conley came dangerously close to winning a title. But in their current form, the Wolves haven’t had any real success in the NBA. In the past 12 months, the Nuggets have won four less playoff games (20) than the Timberwolves have in their entire history (25).

The legendary Maury Povich has concluded that, in reality, the Nuggets are the Lakers’ father. They are, nevertheless, unquestionably Minnesota’s obnoxious elder brother.is set to become an MVP for the third time. With the best coach in the NBA title on the line, Michael Malone is starring down Erik Spoelstra after Jamal Murray blasted two game-winning shots to send the Lakers to Cabo.

Since Kevin Garnett arrived in the mid-1990s, every Wolves fan has yearned for their team to do exactly what Denver is doing. With native stars, they’re taking home every prize imaginable in the media industry. Anthony Edwards, Towns McNaels, and outside players like Rudy Gobert and Mike Conley are Minnesota’s representation. But thus far, that team has only prevailed in one postseason series. All great winners have to begin somewhere, and it’s fitting that Minnesota’s championship aspirations must pass through the Mile High City.

It will be interesting to observe whether the series’ conclusion is influenced in any way by this familiarity. Despite spending just one season at Malone, Finch undoubtedly learned some skills that he brought to this Wolves team. When Ryan Saunders was in charge, Karl-Anthony Towns and he were tight, so Saunders knows what makes Towns tick. A month before he played in his first NBA game during the -shortened 2020–21 season, the 19-year-old youngster who was drafted made a lasting impression on him as the first head coach Anthony Edwards had in the NBA. In his career, Alex Rodriguez is hitting.362 against the Colorado Rockies. Everything is related.

Our goal has been to get to Nuggets-Wolves. To be the champion, you must defeat the champions. Because of the friends they have gained along the way, it will mean even more if the Wolves defeat the Nuggets in Game 1 on Saturday and win the series. This time, Minnesota’s tour of retribution is personal and kicks off on Saturday.