With the NBA Draft behind us and a variety of free agency moves already finalized, we are beginning to get an idea of what the NBA landscape will look like in the 2023-24 season. The Minnesota Timberwolves have been prioritizing their current roster with the re-signings of Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

In free agency, the Wolves have stayed largely conservative. They added Shake Milton and Troy Brown Jr. to offset the loss of Taurean Prince, but it does not appear they will try to make a splash by adding any big names.

All in all, Minnesota’s roster looks to be set for next season, barring a few more likely changes near the bottom of the depth chart. The Timberwolves will be returning a squad that earned the eighth seed in the Western Conference in 2023, despite some major injury troubles. Even so, not everyone is giving them their due respect.

The latest win/loss betting odds lack any respect for the Timberwolves.

Roughly three months from the start of next season, DraftKings officially released their betting odds for win totals for each NBA team in 2023-24. After going 42-40 last season, DraftKings set Minnesota’s over/under win total at just 43.5.

All things considered, this is a pretty ludicrous number for the Timberwolves next season. A team that played without one half of its starting frontcourt for 52 games in 2022-23 managed to win 1.5 games less than DraftKings’ projection for Minnesota next season.

That does not even factor in all the additional bad injury luck the Wolves encountered last season. Rudy Gobert, Kyle Anderson, Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid, and even Anthony Edwards all missed games due to injury last year. And for what it’s worth, Jordan McLaughlin’s absence for the large majority of the season likely contributed to his steep fall-off as well.

As a whole, Minnesota encountered some of the worst injury trouble one could imagine in their first year with Rudy Gobert on the roster. If the Timberwolves get any amount of injury luck compared to last season, it would seem they should be primed to knock this number out of the park.

• Published on 07/14/2023 at 22:00 PM
• Last updated at 07/14/2023 at 22:00 PM