The Timberwolves just made life even harder for the Nuggets

Few rivalries in the NBA have escalated as quickly as the one between the Denver Nuggets and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Over the past several seasons, the Wolves have positioned themselves as the team most capable of giving the Nuggets fits.

Long, athletic, defensively suffocating and stocked with the kind of scrappy guard play that has consistently exposed Denver’s perimeter shortcomings. This past spring, that dynamic came to a head.

Minnesota knocked the Nuggets out of the first round of the playoffs despite battling significant injuries to its backcourt. Donte DiVincenzo was ruled out for the series. Anthony Edwards missed games. And the Wolves still found a way to send Denver home.

That was already a sobering reality for the Nuggets to sit with this offseason. Then, this past week happened. Minnesota traded for LaMelo Ball.

On a recent edition of “Stokley and Evans, with Mark Schlereth” on 104.3 The Fan, the hosts walked through what the move means for the broader Western Conference picture, and more specifically, what it means for a Denver team that just lost a series it had no business losing.

Mike Evans framed the new reality with brutal clarity.

“We saw the Nuggets struggles to stop Terrence Shannon and Ayo Dosunmu. What do you think about trying to stop LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards?” Evans asked.

That’s the question that should be keeping the Nuggets front office up at night. Denver had no answer for Minnesota’s backup guards in the playoffs. Now, those backups are about to be deployed alongside a player who has averaged 20.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 7.3 assists for his career, a creator capable of breaking down defenses at all three levels and getting to spots most defenders can’t bother.

The Wolves didn’t just upgrade their depth. They added a legitimate offensive engine to a roster that was already too much for the Nuggets to handle.

Evans then turned the conversation toward the broader implications for Denver’s offseason strategy.

“If you were somebody that believed in the idea of running it back with the Nuggets, does a move like this change that?” he asked.

Mark Schlereth didn’t hesitate.

“Sure. Of course it does, because you look at that backcourt right now. You couldn’t defend, like you said, you couldn’t defend the backups,” Schlereth said.

That’s the hard truth the Nuggets have to confront. The path back to the Western Conference Finals already required Denver to figure out how to beat Minnesota. Now, with LaMelo Ball joining Edwards, DiVincenzo, Dosunmu and Shannon, the Wolves have constructed one of the deepest and most dangerous backcourts in the league. Running it back with the same roster and hoping for different results isn’t a plan. It’s denial.

The Nuggets have decisions to make this summer. Peyton Watson’s extension. The futures of Aaron Gordon, Cam Johnson and Christian Braun. Whether Jamal Murray is truly untouchable. Every one of those conversations just became more urgent.

The Western Conference isn’t waiting for Denver to figure out its perimeter problem. And now, neither are the Timberwolves.