Is Minnesota better in 2025-26 than 2024-25? Chris Finch weighs in

The The Minnesota Timberwolves are stuck in a dogfight in the Western Conference, and after easily defeating the Dallas Mavericks, 122-111, in their first game after the All-Star break, they are still in sixth place in the standings. Promotion will be tough, which in turn will force the Timberwolves to raise their standards to compete against their peers.

Right now, though, the Timberwolves are simply looking for ways to be better than the team they were the day before and the day before that. They don’t really get along with others; what matters to them is unlocking their full potential.

Currently, however, the head coach Chris Finch said yes he doesn’t know if the Timberwolves are still around, especially compared to last season.

“When you sit back and look at it, we have pretty high internal expectations. If you took the temperature of the team internally, we’d probably be a little disappointed with where we’re at. We feel like we should be a little further. We’ve just been inconsistent on defense at times, and that’s hurt us. The West is even more competitive this year,” Dumber Movesore said Tinehoves said this year.

“I don’t know if we are better. We will measure that at the end of the season. But we know who we should be when we are a good team. And sometimes we deviate from that.”

Here’s Chris Finch when asked if this season’s Wolves team is better than last season’s team.

“When you sit back and look at it, we have pretty high expectations internally. If you were to take the temperature of the team internally, we’d probably be a little disappointed with where we’re at… pic.twitter.com/kN2UpcVTKT

— Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) February 20, 2026

The Timberwolves know the next step is to get over the hump

The Timberwolves may have made it to the conference finals in 2024 and 2025, but they weren’t very competitive when they got there. They lost to the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder in five games; they let a couple of winning streaks slip away against the Mavs, but against the Thunder they were outclassed for most of that five game series.

The gauntlet didn’t get any easier for the Timberwolves. The thunder is still looming. The Nuggets have so much depth. But they have the ability to get over the humpthat’s for sure.