After The Timeout · NBA 2026-27 guide

Western Conference · tip-off October 20

Minnesota Timberwolves

Our win estimate next to the market's, the last three seasons, who came and went, and the rotation we expect.

Our estimate

45 wins

Median of 20,000 simulated seasons. Middle 80%: 39 to 50 wins.

The market

50.5 wins

Where the Kalshi yes price for "wins or more" crosses 50%.

Last season

49-33

2025-26 · net rating +3.3 (10th in the NBA)

Our estimate is 5.1 wins below the market.

Treat the gap as a flag, not a verdict. In backtests on 2024-25 and 2025-26 (60 team-seasons) this kind of estimate missed a team's win total by 8.3 wins on average. Last season's wins pulled toward 41 missed by 9.0. Ratings built from games alone said 43 wins for this team.

Trey Lyles (27 projected minutes) has no 2025-26 regular-season games on file but is in the rotation we expect. Our roster rating counts him at his most recent full season.

Two ways to count wins

Our range against the market

The blue bar is the middle 80% of our simulated seasons. The orange line is the market's win total.

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 50.5 market wins in an 82-game season
Our median 45, middle 80%: 39 to 50 Market 50.5

Where we think they finish in the West

Top 6: 64% Play-in, 7th to 10th: 33% Outside the top 10: 2.9%
Market prices by strikeKalshi, captured Oct 19, 4:38 pm UTC
Wins or moreBidAskMidOur odds
2094¢ 100¢ 97¢ 100%
2594¢ 100¢ 97¢ 100%
3095¢ 100¢ 98¢ 100%
3593¢ 100¢ 97¢ 99%
4089¢ 94¢ 92¢ 89%
4565¢ 71¢ 68¢ 53%
5051¢ 53¢ 52¢ 14%
5530¢ 34¢ 32¢ 1%
6013¢ 17¢ 15¢ 0%
655¢ 17¢ 11¢ 0%

A strike with no bid is treated as unpriced. The market win total is a straight line between the two strikes that straddle 50%.

What the scoreboard said

The last three regular seasons

Ratings are points per 100 possessions. Possessions are estimated from box scores, so treat them as close, not exact. Ranks are out of 30.

2025-26 · 49-33 (10th in wins)

Points per game
118.07th
Allowed per game
114.612th
Offensive rating
114.612th
Defensive rating
111.38th
Net rating
+3.310th

2024-25 · 49-33 (10th in wins)

Points per game
114.313th
Allowed per game
109.35th
Offensive rating
114.59th
Defensive rating
109.56th
Net rating
+5.04th

2023-24 · 56-26 (4th in wins)

Points per game
113.018th
Allowed per game
106.51st
Offensive rating
113.716th
Defensive rating
107.21st
Net rating
+6.53rd

Our preseason ratings

Offense
+0.708th
Defense
-0.4613th
Net, games only
+1.1613th
Roster value
+1.69

Offense, defense and net are points per game against an average team, fitted on every completed game before tip-off (defense: lower is better). Roster value is the on-court net per 48 minutes of the players on the roster list, weighted by minutes.

Who came and who left

Offseason moves

Built from the DraftKings roster list and 2025-26 box scores. Players who left had at least 500 regular-season minutes here last season.

In (5)

  • LaMelo Ballfrom CHA
    28.0 min, 20.1 pts a game
  • Cody Williamsfrom UTAH
    24.3 min, 8.8 pts a game
  • Jonathan Kumingafrom ATL
    23.1 min, 12.2 pts a game
  • Trey LylesReturningLast played 2024-25 for SAC
1 moredepth and rookies
  • Isaiah EvansRookie / newNo NBA box score on file

Out (3)

  • Julius Randlenow with BKN
    33.1 min, 21.1 pts a game
  • Naz Reidnow with CHA
    26.1 min, 13.6 pts a game
  • Mike Conleynow with BOS
    18.4 min, 4.5 pts a game

The rotation we expect

Top eight by projected minutes

Minutes come from our DFS minutes projection and are not scaled to a 240-minute game. Open a player for three seasons of per-game lines and shooting.

Cody Williams New here F · age 21 · 35.0 projected min 2025-26: 67 g, 8.8 pts, 3.0 reb, 2.0 ast

2025-26 · UTAH

67games
24.3min
8.8pts
3.0reb
FG46.8%238/509
3P21.4%28/131
FT70.6%84/119

2.0 assists a game

2024-25 · UTAH

50games
21.1min
4.6pts
2.3reb
FG32.3%83/257
3P25.9%35/135
FT72.5%29/40

1.2 assists a game

2023-24

No regular-season games on file.

Anthony Edwards G · age 25 · 31.5 projected min 2025-26: 61 g, 28.8 pts, 5.0 reb, 3.7 ast

2025-26 · MIN

61games
35.0min
28.8pts
5.0reb
FG48.9%602/1231
3P39.9%205/514
FT79.6%348/437

3.7 assists a game

2024-25 · MIN

79games
36.3min
27.6pts
5.7reb
FG44.7%721/1612
3P39.5%320/811
FT83.7%415/496

4.5 assists a game

2023-24 · MIN

79games
35.1min
25.9pts
5.4reb
FG46.1%718/1558
3P35.7%190/532
FT83.6%423/506

5.1 assists a game

Ayo Dosunmu G · age 26 · 31.2 projected min 2025-26: 69 g, 14.8 pts, 3.4 reb, 3.6 ast

2025-26 · CHI/MIN

69games
27.3min
14.8pts
3.4reb
FG51.7%386/747
3P43.9%123/280
FT87.6%127/145

3.6 assists a game

2024-25 · CHI

46games
30.3min
12.3pts
3.5reb
FG49.2%221/449
3P32.8%62/189
FT78.5%62/79

4.5 assists a game

2023-24 · CHI

76games
29.2min
12.2pts
2.8reb
FG50.1%360/719
3P40.3%119/295
FT81.0%85/105

3.2 assists a game

Jaden McDaniels F · age 26 · 30.7 projected min 2025-26: 73 g, 14.8 pts, 4.2 reb, 2.7 ast

2025-26 · MIN

73games
31.7min
14.8pts
4.2reb
FG51.5%417/809
3P41.2%103/250
FT83.5%147/176

2.7 assists a game

2024-25 · MIN

82games
32.0min
12.2pts
5.7reb
FG47.7%398/834
3P33.0%100/303
FT81.2%104/128

2.0 assists a game

2023-24 · MIN

72games
29.2min
10.5pts
3.1reb
FG48.9%307/628
3P33.7%86/255
FT72.2%57/79

1.4 assists a game

Rudy Gobert C · age 34 · 30.4 projected min 2025-26: 76 g, 10.9 pts, 11.5 reb, 1.7 ast

2025-26 · MIN

76games
31.3min
10.9pts
11.5reb
FG68.2%335/491
3P0.0%0/5
FT52.6%159/302

1.7 assists a game

2024-25 · MIN

72games
33.2min
12.0pts
10.9reb
FG66.9%341/510
3Pn/a0/0
FT67.4%184/273

1.8 assists a game

2023-24 · MIN

76games
34.1min
14.0pts
12.9reb
FG66.1%406/614
3P0.0%0/3
FT63.8%249/390

1.3 assists a game

LaMelo Ball New here Questionable G · age 25 · 30.4 projected min 2025-26: 72 g, 20.1 pts, 4.8 reb, 7.1 ast

2025-26 · CHA

72games
28.0min
20.1pts
4.8reb
FG40.7%506/1244
3P36.8%272/740
FT89.9%161/179

7.1 assists a game

2024-25 · CHA

47games
32.0min
25.2pts
4.9reb
FG40.5%406/1003
3P33.9%179/528
FT84.3%193/229

7.4 assists a game

2023-24 · CHA

22games
32.4min
23.9pts
5.1reb
FG43.3%183/423
3P35.5%70/197
FT86.5%90/104

8.0 assists a game

Trey Lyles F · 26.7 projected min 2025-26: no regular-season games on file

2025-26

No regular-season games on file.

2024-25 · SAC

69games
19.6min
6.5pts
4.6reb
FG42.0%157/374
3P34.0%81/238
FT70.0%56/80

1.2 assists a game

2023-24 · SAC

58games
20.0min
7.2pts
4.4reb
FG44.5%143/321
3P38.4%84/219
FT70.0%49/70

1.2 assists a game

Donte DiVincenzo G · age 29 · 25.4 projected min 2025-26: 82 g, 12.2 pts, 4.1 reb, 3.8 ast

2025-26 · MIN

82games
30.5min
12.2pts
4.1reb
FG40.6%339/835
3P37.9%244/644
FT74.3%78/105

3.8 assists a game

2024-25 · MIN

62games
25.9min
11.7pts
3.7reb
FG42.2%250/593
3P39.7%174/438
FT77.8%49/63

3.6 assists a game

2023-24 · NY

81games
29.2min
15.5pts
3.7reb
FG44.3%445/1004
3P40.1%283/705
FT75.4%86/114

2.7 assists a game

How to read this

Method and limits

How our estimate is built
  • Our estimate starts from the roster. Each player's on-court net points per 48 minutes (from his most recent full season, pulled toward zero when the sample is small) is averaged by minutes across the roster list, then turned into wins at about 2.9 wins per point of net.
  • That win total is then pushed through the real 2026-27 schedule 20,000 times, using a home win probability for every game, to get the range and the playoff and play-in odds.
  • Ratings built from games alone (6,153 games before October 20) are kept as a comparison. They fade old games over the offseason, which pulls every team toward average.
  • The market number is the wins where Kalshi's "wins or more" price crosses 50%, read off a straight line between strikes five wins apart.
What the estimate does not know
  • Possessions are an estimate from box totals, not tracked possessions.
  • The season simulation uses each game's win probability from the ratings and nothing else: no rating uncertainty, injuries, trades after the cutoff or in-season rating updates, so the 10th-90th percentile band is narrower than a real season's spread.
  • The 2026-27 schedule file lists 1200 games (80 per team on average) rather than 1230. Each team's missing games ([2] per team) are played against an average opponent at a neutral site with no rest terms.
  • Projection method: (d) roster values. In the walk-forward study its hold-out MAE was 8.3 wins (n = 60 team-seasons) against 9.0 for last season's wins regressed toward 41. Typical error is still about 8 wins per team, so treat every number as a wide estimate.
  • Roster values use each player's box-score plus-minus, which is not adjusted for teammates. Players with no box-score history count as average at 10 minutes a game.
  • Ties in the seeding are broken at random; head-to-head and division rules are not applied.
  • Every team has a usable market median.
  • Market median uses the midpoint of the yes bid and ask for each strike and a straight line between the two strikes (5 wins apart) that straddle 0.5; a strike with no bid is treated as unpriced.
  • Rosters are the DraftKings Best Ball player list for draft group 150564, kept only where the player is on his team's current ESPN roster (ESPN team rosters, 2026-10-19): released and departed players are out. Players DraftKings lists as Out are not in the engine's pool, so they have no projected minutes and are not in the top 8; each team's moves block names them.
  • Projected minutes are the engine's per-player estimates from box scores through 2026-04-12; they are not scaled to the team's 240 minutes and do not model new teammates.
  • Box scores start in 2021-22; a player with no box score on file is marked as a rookie or new, which can include veterans returning from abroad. Ages come from the ESPN player directory (2025-26 file) and are missing for players it does not list.
  • This team has 2 games the schedule file does not list yet; they are treated as games against an average opponent.

Data built Oct 19, 2026. Estimates are ours and can be wrong.