Third TWolvesRise Article! Almost 8,000 words, in six parts, previewing the Nuggets series. Give it a look if you have time, and any feedback or engagement on the post is appreciated massively. Part One: Introduction Well, we made it folks. Once it became clear that the Rudy Gobert trade was working in year two, that the team was coming together, that Anthony Edwards was taking a leap as a scorer, every Wolves fan knew that to get where we all ultimately hope to go, we would have to get here first. The Nuggets are the clear best team in the league after last season’s championship run. Timberwolves GM Tim Connelly, also the architect of the Nuggets roster that exists today, knew the Nuggets were destined for greatness, and soon. He planned for the nuggets specifically when building this team, when going all in for Gobert. He knew before they won the championship how good the Nuggets are (in large part because he put the team together) , how good Nikola Jokic is, and built the Wolves, with all their size, length, athleticism, and defensive versatility with stopping the Nuggets at the forefront of his mind. Last year, coming off a rocky season, plagued by chemistry issues, down 2 of their key players in Jaden and Naz, and with Gobert still far from his best physically after battling injuries all season, they were still able to make life tough on the Nuggets. This year there is no “happy to be here” vibe from the Wolves this season. They were thrilled to sweep the Suns, of course, but don’t let that be mistaken for satisfaction. The Wolves know there is still a job to finish, that the Suns series, while extremely encouraging and impressive, was only the beginning. On the whiteboard in their locker room before game 1, someone wrote 16. That number now reads 12, with a broom propped up next to it. After demolishing the Suns, the Nuggets loom as an existential threat to this team, this playoff run, and all the incredible vibes in Minnesota right now. The defending champions have done absolutely nothing all season to make you think they shouldn’t be considered the favorites to repeat, other than perhaps having the misfortune of playing in the big boy conference, whereas Boston should be able to cruise relatively effortlessly to the NBA finals, with no other serious contender in the conference. (Seriously, after 25 seasons in which the West was the clearly superior conference in probably 24 of them, the NBA at some point will need to seriously consider seeding the playoffs 1-16 regardless of conference if they want to be taken seriously from a competitive integrity standpoint.) This series should be a classic. Not often do two of the three best teams in the league meet in the second round of the playoffs, but with the East a mess after Boston up top, and a talented and promising Thunder team still clearly at least a year away, most would name the Wolves and Nuggets the two best teams in the West. Unfortunately the Thunder, a team with no playoff experience, were massively let down by their front office continuing to hoard picks despite not having room on the roster for more developmental players, and a desperate need for more size. The Thunder, assuming they can get past the Mavs or Clippers (which I actually do not believe will happen. The winner of LAC/DAL will beat OKC and meet the winner of DEN/MIN in the Western conference final) would get absolutely bullied off the floor by the size of either Denver or Minnesota. The only recent series that took place in the second round with this level of stakes, with two teams generally agreed to be among the top three in basketball, was Brooklyn vs Milwaukee in a second round series in 2021 that wound up living up to the billing and then some, with KD unfortunately just barely having a toe on the line in what was incredibly close to being one of the legendary shots in the history of the NBA, a shot that would’ve won the Nets game 7 and therefore the series. But how does Denver match up with Minnesota? What can Minnesota do to try and dethrone the champs?