The Spurs tip off the NBA Finals tonight on ABC.
Victor Wembanyama — the same guy who posted 19.8 and 12 against the Timberwolves in the second round — is playing for a championship. He’s 22. It’s his third season. And the Minnesota Timberwolves are watching from the couch like the rest of us.
That’s the whole article, honestly. But let’s make it hurt a little more.
Game 6 at Target Center was a 139-109 blowout. The Spurs went on a 20-0 run in the second quarter and the game was effectively over by halftime. Stephon Castle dropped 32/11/6 on 11-of-16 shooting. Ant shot 9-of-26 and finished with 24 points. The Wolves lost their own elimination game at home by 30.
Ant, to his credit, said exactly what he felt: “I just tip my hat to them. They’re just the better team.”
Then he dapped up Spurs players with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, which went viral and split the fanbase. Ant defended it: “When you win a playoff series, everybody’s celebrating at the end of the game.” Honestly, he’s right. The game was over. What was he supposed to do, stand there and stare at the scoreboard?
The problem is what came next.
The Spurs turned around and beat OKC in seven games in the Western Conference Finals. Wemby went for 41 and 24 in Game 1. He was named WCF MVP unanimously — 9-of-9 media votes — averaging 27.3 and 10.9 over the series. He now has 60 postseason blocks, tied for the most in a single postseason in 19 years.
And then Nike, who doesn’t even have Ant on their roster, posted the “Believe This” ad. For those who missed it: Edwards ran an Adidas campaign for his AE 2 shoe called “Believe That” where he literally portrayed Wemby as a lanky green alien and hit a jumper over him. Nike’s response after the Wolves got eliminated was to post Wemby’s Finals run under the tagline “Believe This.”
Corporate trolling is ugly. That one landed.
Ant’s quote about Wemby during the series was “He’s like 8’5 when he spreads out. It’s hard to beat them when he’s on the floor because of his defense.” That’s not a sound bite. That’s a scouting report. And it’s a problem the Wolves didn’t solve across six games.
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So what now?
The Timberwolves have $193.4M committed across 10 players and are sitting -$93M in cap space with $925K of room under the first apron. Tim Connelly said “everything’s on the table” this offseason, which is front-office speak for “we know we need to do something and we don’t know what.”
Minnesota #Timberwolves Offseason Notes
▪️Cap Space: -$93M
▪️1st Apron Space: $925k
▪️Tax Space: -$4M
▪️#17, #31 draft picksFree Agents/Options
▪️Nickeil Alexander-Walker, UFA
▪️Julius Randle: $31M player option
▪️Naz Reid: $15M player optionNotable Contracts
Rudy Gobert: 3…— Spotrac (@spotrac) May 29, 2025
The two names at the center of every trade conversation are Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle. Gobert has three years left on his deal and is increasingly regarded around the league as the roster ceiling — elite when the Wolves need a foundation, but not a finals-caliber center when the game moves above the arc. Randle has a $31M player option. Naz Reid has a $15M option. Donte DiVincenzo tore his Achilles in Round 1 against Denver and is likely out until early 2027.
The draft picks the Wolves can move are No. 17 and No. 31. That’s the trade ammunition.
There are three roads: trade Gobert and try to land something moveable enough to chase a second star, stand pat and bet on health and continuity, or make smaller moves around the edges and see if Edwards can carry them further next year. None of them come with a guarantee. The first road requires a third team and an asset haul the apron constraints make nearly impossible to assemble.
What the Wolves can say: Edwards averaged 23.7 a game in the series. He’s 24 years old. They beat Denver in the first round without DiVincenzo, without four other rotation players, on the back of a Jaden McDaniels 32-point game in the clincher. The window is real.
What they can’t escape: Wemby is in the Finals in Year 3. He posted a 39-point, 15-rebound, 5-block line in Game 3 of the Wolves series alone. He’s going to be in the conversation for the next decade. The gap between him and every other young star in the league just got a lot more visible.
Ant knows it. He said it plainly. The Wolves front office knows it.
Now they have to figure out what to do about it. The Finals haven’t even reached halftime of Game 1.
