As Aaron Rodgers famously said during a rocky moment in Green Bay’s 2014 season, Minnesota Timberwolves fans need to R-E-L-A-X.
Not Unlike Last Season
The anxiety is understandable. A team with Finals ambitions has opened the 2025–26 season in fits and starts, sitting at 17–9 as of today.
A chunk of those nine losses came in games Minnesota should have banked comfortably: the Los Angeles Lakers without Luka Dončić or LeBron James, the Phoenix Suns without Devin Booker, and the Sacramento Kings. Even some wins — like a couple of nervy finishes against the lowly New Orleans Pelicans — have amplified the uneasiness.
But the slow burn shouldn’t be unfamiliar. At this time last year, Minnesota was hovering just above .500 and struggling to integrate new additions Donte DiVincenzo and Julius Randle. Then the calendar flipped, the Wolves found their rhythm, and suddenly they were one of the league’s best teams, marching all the way to their second straight Western Conference finals.
Last season didn’t start well. It ended great. There’s a decent chance this year follows the same script.
Lack of Effort and Focus
This time, the issue isn’t roster integration—it’s focus and energy. The Wolves keep stumbling out of the gate, playing down to weaker opponents and letting inferior teams hang around long enough to force fourth-quarter battles they shouldn’t be in.
Some fans argue that, despite a better record than last December, this year’s flaws feel more alarming.
That’s fair. Giving away possessions, sluggish starts, and low-motor stretches are harder to excuse for an experienced team with championship aspirations.
But the NBA season doesn’t really begin in earnest until Christmas. Once the holiday passes and the All-Star break approaches, you can expect the Wolves’ urgency to rise with it.
Coaching
Head coach Chris Finch has borne much of the blame for the team’s malaise. It’s part of the job—preparing, motivating, demanding—but critics are overstating the extent of his control.
Finch isn’t the one failing to box out. He isn’t throwing lazy passes that turn into runouts. He isn’t dribbling into stagnant isolations when the offense needs flow. These are player-driven lapses, not schematic failures. At some point, grown professionals have to bring their own fire.
And it’s worth remembering: the Finch era is the most successful stretch in franchise history. Calls for his firing in mid-December say more about the emotions of fandom than the reality of the situation. The grass is not always greener.
Perspective Matters
Minnesota’s issues are real, but they’re also fixable. Better energy solves the slow starts. Better focus addresses the turnovers and rebounding lapses. And once the calendar hits January, this team has shown it knows how to lock in.
If the Wolves are still sleepwalking through games by mid-January—still drifting, still inconsistent—then it’s fair to sound alarms and revisit the Finch conversation. But until then?
Timberwolves fans need to relax.
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