Timberwolves 2020-21 Schedule: Top Games, Championship Odds, Record Prediction

The Minnesota Timberwolves got Karl-Anthony Towns his desired co-star in D'Angelo Russell. Now it's time for both to put in work.

The pair will be tasked with rejuvenating a franchise that has made one playoff berth in the last 16 seasons. That playoff team imploded upon itself before it had a chance of repeating the feat, with Jimmy Butler forcing his way out of Minnesota and taking all of Towns' and Andrew Wiggins' confidence with him.

Now more than ever, this is Towns' franchise. The Wolves acquired Russell at the February 2020 deadline after a nearly yearlong pursuit in hopes of placating their star center, who hasn't exactly expressed enthusiasm about sticking in Minneapolis for the long term.

The team added Anthony Edwards in last month's draft, and the Georgia product should immediately step in as a dynamic scorer. However, Edwards and Russell projects as one of the worst defensive backcourts in the NBA. 

With that in mind, let's check what to expect from the Timberwolves this season.

2020-21 Timberwolves Schedule Details

Season Opener: Dec. 23 vs. Detroit Pistons

Championship Odds:  +12000 (via FanDuel)

First-Half Schedule: NBA.com

Top Matchups

Golden State Warriors 

There should be palpable tension when Andrew Wiggins makes his return for the first time.

Timberwolves fans went from viewing the 25-year-old as the foundational piece next to Towns to nearly throwing a parade when he was shipped out as part of the Russell trade. So to say he left on not-the-greatest terms would be an understatement.

Wiggins will return as part of a championship contender, albeit perhaps the most integral piece. If the Warriors are going to return to the Conference Finals, he is going to have to step into at least a better version of the role previously played by Harrison Barnes in the pre-KD days.

It's possible the version of Wiggins that plays these Timberwolves the first time will be the one Minnesota always wanted. In which case: Get ready for boos, virtual or not.

Regardless of Wiggins' performance level, it will be an interesting contrast of where the two teams stand when they meet up in Minneapolis for the first time since the trade.

Los Angeles Lakers

They're the champs! The franchise used to be based in Minnesota! They have LeBron James! What's not to like?

Sarcasm aside, the Lakers are the barometer of the NBA. The Wolves see Russell and Towns as the future of their franchise, the two players who will lead them back to the prominence of the early-2000s. The efficacy of that plan should stand the test of going up against the Lakers.

Obviously, the Wolves will be significant underdogs every time they go up against the Lakers. But if this is the first year of a build around Towns and Russell, they need to prove they can be at least competitive against the game's best teams.

Season Forecast

The Timberwolves decided to build their future around Russell and Towns, and, well, they're going to get what they paid for. Towns is one of the most offensively skilled big men in NBA history, an excellent floor spacer who also has deft post moves and a high basketball IQ to make passes out of double-teams.

Hitching his wagon to Russell was a mistake. Towns is going to learn quickly that it's not always a great idea to mix work and friendship. Russell is a talented scorer and solid enough passer, but there may be no player who has eaten more empty calories over the last few seasons. Twenty-point scorers aren't often (read: ever) on their fourth team in five seasons, but that's where we're at with Russell. He's a flat-out bad, low-effort defender and isn't elite at any one thing on the offensive end.

To put it another way: Russell is a perfectly above-average NBA starter being paid to be a co-star.

The Wolves have surrounded their one legitimate star (who is probably best as a second banana) and their other highly paid player with...not a whole lot. There just aren't many plus players on this roster. Josh Okogie is an excellent perimeter defender who doesn't do much else well to this point, and Jarrett Culver's rookie season was essentially a mess.

The Wolves will hope for more from Anthony Edwards, but he struggled to make a winning impact in his lone season at Georgia. It's hard to see him being much more than an empty-calories scorer as a rookie. 

The reality is, Minnesota is a team that would struggle to get to 35 wins in the Eastern Conference, much less playing in the more difficult West. This has high lottery mixed with in-fighting written all over it.

Record Prediction: 21-51

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