What Suns Can Learn from Timberwolves

The Timberwolves have dominated this postseason - here's what the Suns can learn from it:

Apr 28, 2024; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) shoots against the / Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns have a ton of soul-searching as the offseason - which has a considerable amount to do with the four-game defeat of the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of postseason play.

Ironically, the Suns have a lot they can learn from the dominance the T-Wolves have exhibited in the playoffs -as they are currently up 2-0 against the defending champion Denver Nuggets.

What are some major things the Suns can take from Minnesota's emergence?

Continuity Matters

The Timberwolves, in many ways, were in the same position as the Suns find themselves currently - a team that supposedly swung-and-missed on select key transactions. A team that was expected to be stuck in no man's land for the next several seasons.

Then, Minnesota figured things out.

Head coach Chris Finch tightened some screws around the rotation/game planning. Rudy Gobert appeared much more comfortable. Anthony Edwards took another leap.

"A connected team is a strong team" said Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo last October.

This certainly appears to be the case here - and the Suns certainly could become an example of a team that could make a leap next season.

Suns Must Toughen Up

Whether the Suns address this through coaching staff changes, personnel changes, or a bit of everything - it was fairly clear that they did not have the ability to go toe-to-toe with Minnesota's sheer brutality on either end.

Phoenix has to address the mindset of the squad - either mentally or physically - perhaps again, maybe both.

This isn't to say the Suns are mentally weak by any means, but the T-Wolves are clearly on another stratosphere currently from that perspective - the proof is in the current bludgeoning of the Nuggets.

Suns Must Hit on Role-Player Adds

Many of the key contributors on this T-Wolves team were very much under-the-radar additions at opportune times - the Suns currently have a pair of those types of players in Grayson Allen and Jusuf Nurkic - yet it is still abundantly clear that the front office must continue to build off of it.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Mike Conley Jr. were both relative afterthoughts when Minnesota acquired them in Februrary 2023.

Sixth-Man of The Year winner Naz Reid signed with Minnesota as an undrafted free agent in 2019.

These "around-the-margins" moves are currently paying dividends for the Timberwolves as they have curated the roster around the trio of stars in as good of a fashion as possible.

The Suns could learn from this success in a number of ways - and a few tweaks could potentially lead fans to forget that the 2023-24 season ever happened a year from now.