How do small teams counterattack? Reference Pacers and Timberwolves?

For the 2025 NBA playoffs, it looks too much like the NCAA Championship.

The Cavaliers, the leader of the Eastern Conference, were eliminated early in the second round after a 64-win season, while the leader of the Western Conference, was opposite to the Cavaliers. They won and advanced after seven battles with the Nuggets. In the division final, they defeated the Timberwolves, who dropped the two major teams of Lake Yong. The defending champion Celtics missed the division final with Tatum's serious injury. The Knicks, who played a strong season, were tenacious and walked to the end with a healthy lineup, but in front of the offensive team Pacers, it was still difficult to hide their losses.

From a certain point of view, this season's playoffs can indeed be regarded as the best playoffs in recent years.

The two division final teams last year, the Timberwolves and the Pacers, advanced to the final four again this season. Although there were wins and losses in the end, it was definitely not just luck to the team to reach the division finals for two consecutive years, especially for these two teams. Before last season, the Pacers had not been able to get such a far position for a full ten years; while the Timberwolves had been away for 20 years and did not make any breakthroughs until the 2023-24 season.

Although it seems that it is not valuable to reach the division finals for two consecutive years in front of the finals or even the championship, considering that the Pacers and the Timberwolves have not achieved this in the past ten years and have done it now, this cannot be explained simply by good luck.

In this era of frequent transfers of stars and significantly dispersed players' talents, it is not easy for two small market teams to achieve such success. No matter what the Timberwolves are next season and whether the Pacers can eventually win the championship, these two successful cases will inevitably attract other small market teams to replicate their reconstruction route.

But the question is whether other small-market teams in the league should imitate them.

At present, this question is still difficult to answer. The reason behind this is simple, the Timberwolves and Pacers chose completely different paths last season.

Pacers reached the Eastern Conference Finals last year, basically maintaining their original lineup in the offseason, hoping to grow up with young players. In addition, two All-Star players led the team, this strategy not only maintained the final results of last season, but even got a further opportunity to return to the finals stage after 25 years.

In comparison, the Timberwolves also reached the Western Conference Finals last season, but they chose to trade the second leader of the team in the offseason just because they don't want to pay huge salaries. While it was a bold enough option, it did take effect and the Timberwolves once again made it to the division finals. Although we have been eliminated early, we cannot completely erase the Timberwolves' achievements this season.

Then the question arises. How should they choose for these small market teams? There is no talented player with the top five picks on the Pacers' lineup, but they did not choose to play badly to exchange for draft picks, but instead boldly deal with the team's combat power, such as trading quality players such as Sabonis Jr. and Bruce Brown. In addition, the Pacers are generous enough to trade draft picks. Previously, in order to get Siakam, the Pacers gave out three draft picks, and then they actively drafted Taobao and selected Nembhard with the second round of picks.

For these choices, take the initiative to clean up assets, boldly take advantage of star players who do not conform to the team system, and actively find potential players in the draft. Even management with medium-level trading levels is actually capable of making these choices, but the key is whether the team's senior management can continue to make the right choices.

Some of these choices have a great influence, such as Sabonis Jr., trading Halliburton; some choices are meticulous choices, such as getting Nesmith from the Brogodon transaction case, etc. And until the playoffs stage, these big and small choices finally began to work.

From an operational perspective, it is naturally difficult to choose the Pacers mode. After all, under the competition of the NBA, it is not easy to build a team without relying on superstars. The Pacers' success is not luck. They never chose to take shortcuts, but kept staring at a firm goal and constantly polishing it, and finally achieved success this season.

Look back and look at the Timberwolves' team building path. It is probably difficult for other small market teams to imitate.

Compared to the Pacers' accumulation of strength, the Timberwolves' success seems to be more like a mistake.

In the 2020 draft, the Timberwolves and the Warriors won the first and second picks respectively. In the end, the Timberwolves chose Edwards, while the Warriors chose Wiseman, who was unable to prove his talent in the end. The different choices also led to a far-reaching difference in the fate of the two teams.

Of course, we still need to affirm the Timberwolves. They have successfully integrated an almost brand new team and returned to the Western Conference Finals. Randall, who came from the Knicks, had excellent running-in and his playoff performance was also worthy of praise. Coach Chris Finch was smart enough to cleverly integrate various new members into the lineup. And most importantly, the leader of the Wolf King Edwards gradually changed from a singles scoring player to a real team leader.

But outside of all these internal changes in the team, we cannot ignore the crazy operation of trading Towns. It's definitely bold enough for this choice. After the team was separated for 20 years, it was not expected that the management actually chose to completely reorganize the lineup. According to subsequent reporters, the Timberwolves boss was actually willing to pay luxury taxes at that time, and it was not necessary to send Towns away.

But now, it doesn't matter how the truth behind it is. Even though they were eliminated early this season, they still showed great potential. The team's lineup is strong enough to build a playoff lineup around Edwards for many years in the coming years, continue to strive for the division finals, and even the championship trophy..

In addition to trading reinforcement, the team also received high-quality choices such as Alexander and Naz Reed. Just like the Pacers, Nembhard and Nesmith, it is a high-quality operation to activate the team.

But even so, the Timberwolves' team building model is more or less lucky. We cannot expect other teams to win the No. 1 pick every time they play badly. The best negative cases are the Jazz and Wizards; and we should not trade the second leader of the team without being sure of it. Even the Gobert trade, which is considered successful this season, is difficult to be regarded as an operation that other teams can follow.