If the Golden State Warriors were going to lose another game this season, the smart money would have been on that trip to San Antonio. If they are really going to beat that 72-win Bulls team then that’s the minimum they can afford. After losing to the Boston Celtics at home, busting their 54 game unbeaten streak in Oakland, they had six games remaining. They could afford to drop one of those games and still top the 1995-96 Bulls. Those two Spurs games, one home and one away, were the big dangers there. Maybe they’d have trouble with a desperate (but hobbled) Grizzlies team. But they certainly wouldn’t be dropping one to a non-playoff team. Not a 25 win Timberwolves team that hasn’t made the playoffs in a generation. Not at home in front of their own crowd. Not after leading by as many as 17 points.

Yet that’s exactly what happened. The Minnesota Timberwolves defied the odds on the back of 35 points from Shabazz Muhammad and 32 from Anthony Wiggins, plus some increasingly common magnificence from Karl-Anthony Towns, to take the Warriors into overtime and beat them there, winning 124-117. GSW needs to win out from here to Beat The Bulls. The T-Wolves? Well, win out and they can still get to 30 wins. It’s unlikely that’ll get them out of the bottom five.

And you know what? They don’t care. Not at all, because that franchise and those fans know that time is the only factor holding this team back. If they aren’t pushing the playoffs next season then it’ll be the season after that but there’s no way that these Minnesota Timberwolves aren’t a consistent winning team by the time Karl-Anthony Towns turns 25.

2004 was the last time the Timberwolves made the playoffs. Kevin Garnett won the MVP that season and they beat the Nuggets 4-1 in the first round – a Nuggets team featuring an exciting rookie forward named Carmelo Anthony – for the franchise’s first ever playoff series win after seven consecutive first round exits. They then topped Chris Webber’s Sacramento Kings before falling to the Los Angeles Lakers, whose Kobe/Shaq combination had its last dance in losing 4-1 to the Detroit Pistons in the Finals. Point being, it was a long time ago.

Three years later KG was traded to Boston after 12 years, 927 games and unprecedented success with the Wolves. In return they picked up an insane package featuring seven players, a future first round pick plus their own future pick (which they’d traded to the Celtics a year earlier). Things had been bad in Garnett’s last few seasons, missing the playoffs and struggling to stay relevant. Once he left that struggle was over. It would be five more seasons before they even won 30 games again, but they were clever. They hoarded draft picks. Between 2009 and 2011 they picked nine times in the first round. If only they’d been better on the draft boards then they might already be challenging for titles but after shifting players all over the place to accumulate high picks they fell into the biggest trap of all when it comes to using the draft to find top talent: bad luck.

That’s all you can say, there are too many variables. The better the scouts, the better the focus, the better the definition of talent you’re looking for, the better your chances. But ultimately nobody knows for sure how things will turn out. Hence Draymond Green slipped deep into the second round the other year. Hence neither Michael Jordan or Kevin Durant were first overall picks. There are so many intangibles when it comes to developing youngsters out of college (or high school, as with Garnett) that no matter how well you’re able to stack the odds with multiple picks, you’re still at the mercy of luck.

Having said that, picking fifth and sixth overall in 2009, the Minnesota Timberwolves had already seen sure things like Blake Griffin and James Harden go, as well as Hasheem Thabeet to Memphis at two but we won’t mention that. By 2016 these dudes are all in their seventh years and we know what they are. Not a great draft, we can say that, and that’s another thing that went against the Wolves. However there are six players that have made All Star games from that class and three of them multiple times. Four of those players were still available at five and six but the Wolves didn’t select Jeff Teague and they didn’t select Jrue Holiday. Nor did they pump for DeMar DeRozan. They took Ricky Rubio at five, a flashy point guard out of Spain who can pass like Steve Nash (but cannot shoot), fair enough. These years later Rubio is still there and starting. It’s not impossible that he makes an ASG someday, should this team start hitting its potential (although at best he’ll be the third star on that team), he’s not the issue. The issue was in taking Johnny Flynn at six ahead of Steph Curry.

A year earlier they had picked O.J. Mayo at five and traded him on draft night to the Memphis Grizzlies in a complicated deal that landed Kevin Love in Minnesota. For a few years there it was hoped that Love and Rubio could turn the franchise around, Love won the Most Improved award in 2011, as well as a couple All Star appearances and some US national team selections. Injuries held both of them back, though, and despite the hype they never did get into the postseason, going 40-42 in 2013-14 was as close as they got (nine games out in tenth – that was a brutal Western Conference that year, the Suns won 48 games and missed out).

A relevant point on team building: it’s all about bringing in talent. Whether you hit the jackpot in the draft or you make the big sell to a major free agent or sucker some poor jokers in a trade, that’s what it’s all about and, again, so much of it comes down to luck. Player chemistry, coaching situations, environmental things, injuries… so many things have an effect on performance on the court even after you’ve bagged that key player, but that’s not the point as far as General Managers go. Their job is to get the team into a place where they can compete and then try stay there. In order to stay there it’s hugely important to keep injecting quality players into that squad. Veteran free agents that can add something new, young players from the draft to evolve into something valuable. The worth of those trades and draft picks aren’t always told in their own time. Transactions are taking place every day in the NBA and one trade leads to another and shifting assets is a real art form.

For example, the notorious Harden Trade. James Harden wanted to start for Oklahoma City, the team wasn’t ready to put that on him. So they traded him to Houston (along with a couple irrelevant players) and in return they picked up Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin and three future picks. Neither of those players is still on the team and Harden has gone on to become a perennial MVP candidate. It’s a punchline in the NBA that the Thunder got fleeced there but it isn’t that simple. With those draft picks they got Steven Adams, Mitch McGary and Spaniard Alex Abrines (who has since re-signed with Barcelona so we won’t see much of that second round pick, probably). Adams is quality, we love Kiwi Steve. McGary is a guy who brings good energy off the bench and can easily offer something to most teams. Sure, getting James Harden was the better end of the deal but whats if OKC used Adams and McGary as key pieces in a trade for, say, a Kevin Love or DeMarcus Cousins or some other game-changer. All of these moves have repercussions down the line.

Speaking of Cousins, Minnesota passed on him (and Paul George, Gordon Hayward and Greg Monroe) in order to pick Wesley Johnson in 2010 at fourth. And they passed on Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson, Kemba Walker, Tristan Thompson, Tobias Harris and plenty others to get Derrick Williams at #2 in 2011. Johnson was later traded to Phoenix in a three-team trade that also cost them a first rounder and returned mostly just cap space and cash (and two second rounders). Derrick Williams was swapped with the Kings for Luc Mbah a Moute. This is plenty of why they weren’t able to get there with Rubio and Love as the cornerstones: there wasn’t the ability around them. Continual poor drafting and a weak team that wasn’t attracting free agents meant the team was stagnating… yet they still had a power play up their sleeve.

In 2012-13, the Timberwolves won 31 games – the most the franchise had ever won without Kevin Garnett on the team. They brought in former head coach Flip Saunders as President of Basketball Operations and drafted Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng (the former in a draft day trade). The following season was that 40 win effort and they then drafted Zach LaVine at 13th. The first overall pick was a Canadian lad named Andrew Wiggins, taken by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Later on they went and traded Mbah a Moute and Alexey Shved in a three-team trade which got them Thad Young from Philly in return. In a related move, this happened:

KEVIN LOVE TRADED TO CAVALIERS – August 23, 2014

You know this story. LeBron James was leaving Miami, he wanted to go home. So LeBron James went home. He wrote a letter to announce it and that letter shouted out a number of new teammates but didn’t include their new rookie star Wiggins, and after a 30 day stand down period to let the ink dry on Wiggins’ contract, he and Anthony Bennett joined Young (and a $6.3m trade exemption) in Minnesota.

Bennett was the number one pick of the 2013 draft but had been (and still is) considered a major flop. There was reclamation potential there though it didn’t pan out and he was waived 13 months later and after a stint in his birth nation of Canada with the Raptors, he isn’t currently in the league any longer. Wiggins, meanwhile, would win Rookie of the Year.

As for Thad Young, he had a half of a very good season in Minny before he was swapped for Kevin Garnett, the prodigal son returning and linking up once more with his mentor Flip Saunders, who had also taken on head coaching duties. There are those long term repercussions coming through again.

The lottery came through for them as they won the top pick and with it they took Karl-Anthony Towns. A few months later Saunders passed away from Hodgkin’s-Lymphoma, an utter tragedy. But did leave this team with the corner thoroughly turned.

That’s the journey. This is where they are now. The Timberwolves are a team that’ll win somewhere between 26-30 games and Karl-Anthony Towns will win the Rookie of the Year. So not only is this team sending out two first overall picks each night but those two players are going to win back to back ROYs for the same team. The last time that happened? 1974 when Ernie DiGregorio backed up Bob McAdoo’s win for the Buffalo Braves (now the LA Clippers). To have those two future superstars in a line-up that also features Ricky Rubio, Zach LaVine and Gorgui Dieng with Shabazz Muhammad coming off the bench is incredible. Three of those guys were born in 1995. Dieng is the oldest at 25. All that they lack is experience and that’s coming game by game.

But the Wolves weren’t stupid. Bringing in Saunders and Garnett was as much about adding leadership and mentorship as anything. It was expected that the pair would look to buy into team ownership after Garnett retires and there’s a very real chance that KG still will. They’ve also added veteran minds such as Andre Miller and Tayshaun Prince to that purpose as well. It took years of mishaps and delayed rewards but in getting Wiggins and Towns in consecutive years they’ve finally changed the course of their team for the best. Look around the league, if you have two All Stars then your team is making the playoffs pretty much every year. If you have three then you’re challenging for the title. The best players are the toughest ones to find but the Wolves already have that and now it’s a matter of bringing on guys like Tyus Jones and padding out the back of that roster with role players.

So now would be a proper time to get on that bandwagon. They aren’t there yet but they could be soon, much sooner than any other non-playoff candidate (except maybe for the New Orleans Pelicans). They’ll probably look at a new coach in the offseason, Sam Mitchell having taken the job in the interim while Saunders was sick. Tom Thibodeau, anybody? Come on, any coach worth his wages is gonna be lining up to coach Towns, Wiggins and company. Plus you cannot understate the fact that they’ll be getting another go at a high lottery pick this year too. Just imagine if Ben Simmons or Brandon Ingram fall their way.

Minny started the year 4-2 amidst all the emotion of Flip Saunders’ untimely death. But they went 6-26 through December and January to hammer home another year in the lottery. Though look closely and you could see the development of this team well before the Golden State win that cemented their path to a TV audience. In the game previous Towns had made 21 rebounds in a loss to Dallas. The 20 year old outrebounded his age! Plus he was one assist away from a triple-double. He has 49 double-doubles in his rookie season. Wiggins has become a regular 20+ point scorer and since the All Star break he’s averaging 21.0p/3.6r/2.6a. Both of those two play superb defence, in fact Towns is already one of the best defenders in his position. Zach LaVine is a guy that the Wolves had trouble fitting in, trying him off the bench as a point guard for a while, though he’s really finding his role now as a starter and something of a ball-handling 2-guard playing alongside Rubio, rather than in place of him. Wiggins has so much range, he can comfortably defend in the forward positions, and has scored 30+ on ten occasions this season. He, LaVine, Towns and Muhammad all have a 35 point game to their name. Consistency and playing under late-game pressure are still big problems but of course they are. This is a ridiculously young team still learning its way. And dammit are they fun to watch.

The first thing to address is three point shooting. LaVine is a freak of an athlete, check out his dunk content efforts. He is also the only guy on this team shooting well from deep. He’s at 38.8%, Kevin Martin was sinking them but he’s now a Spur and while they have a couple decent bench guns (like Nemanja Bjelica), Towns cannot be the second best deep shooter in that line-up. Rubio is a notoriously poor jump shooter at PG. He needs better jumpers around him to be at his distributive best, so that’s on Wiggins (30.1%), Muhammad (28.9%) and whoever else they may bring in to get better. Wiggins has shown small improvements from last year to this and we’ve seen around the league that shooting can be taught. He could do to add a few pounds if he’s gonna permanently guard small forwards but Good Lord those feet:

Hey, look, the luck fell the Timberwolves way with the Kevin Love trade. You can’t account for that, but you can keep putting yourself in position for things like that to come your way and you can draft good players and you can build an atmosphere around the team in which rookies can learn and develop (*cough* unlike the Lakers *cough*). It’s not necessarily going to work, best laid plans and all that. Except that it might. And ‘might’ is a lot better than what it could be. Compared to the LA Lakers playing hardball with their prospects as they chase a big name free agent, or the Philadelphia 76ers and their perpetual tanking strategy of trading in every asset they can find for one further away from paying off, the Timberwolves have found a happy medium. A human option where risks are encouraged in the name of development and that development is there to see on the court. Man, that’s where it’s at. There may have been a few speed bumps on the way but the Minnesota Timberwolves are doing this rebuilding thing right.

It's all just a matter of time now.