Nick Wright has spent most of the 2026 NBA Playoffs warning anyone who would listen that the Minnesota Timberwolves should never have been given the heavy underdog tag they wore into the second round. After Minnesota stunned Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 on Monday night — Anthony Edwards returning from injury for an 18-point cameo, Wembanyama producing arguably the greatest individual playoff defensive performance of the modern era in a losing effort — Wright went on his What's Wright? podcast and called the upset on the air.
"Saturday morning, the Minnesota Timberwolves — let me just get a little context — Saturday morning, the championship odds, the Thunder were minus money favourites. The Spurs were the second biggest favourites. The Timberwolves Saturday morning were 200 to one to win the championship."
Wright's argument was that the market had badly mispriced Minnesota relative to teams it should have been ahead of in the playoff hierarchy. He compared Minnesota's odds to Orlando's 400-to-one ahead of the Game 7 the Magic would lose, and pointed out that the Timberwolves were already in the second round, with their best player due back from a knee issue.
"How are you telling me Minnesota — that was already in round two and that I believed Ant could come back — you're telling me they're only twice as likely to win the championship as Orlando, which was as dead as any team I've ever seen going into a Game 7?"
The Game 1 result, with Edwards available for limited minutes and the Wolves still finding a way to steal a road game from a healthier-looking Spurs side, has only sharpened Wright's view of where the series is heading. He repeatedly returned to the fact that Wembanyama is not yet himself.
"Listen, if Wemby's healthy, they can win the title. And he's clearly not fully healthy."
That qualifier matters. Wembanyama posted 12 blocks in Game 1 — a playoff record — and was a few stops from a quadruple-double. By the standard of a top-five player in the league, he was magnificent. By the standard he had been hitting before the late-season concussion that briefly removed him from the bracket, Wright argued, there was still a gear missing.
The bigger surprise of the conversation was Wright's framing of Chris Finch. The Minnesota head coach, taking over a team that had been written off twice in this postseason — once when Edwards went down in the first round, again when the Wolves entered Game 1 with him barely cleared — has produced the kind of run that Wright suggested now puts him in rarefied air.
"I think Chris Finch might just be a flat unbelievable coach," Wright said. "Where would you rank him in the coaches in the NBA? I'll be prisoner of the moment, but right now it's hard to say he's not the best coach. Spo and Kerr have all the accolades, but right now he feels like he might just be the best coach."
Wright leaned into a quote Finch had given several weeks ago, when the Wolves' indifferent regular season had drawn outside criticism.
"Chris Finch said a few weeks ago, 'Yeah, my guys told me they just didn't care about the regular season. They'd be ready to go for the playoffs.' And he didn't know whether or not he could believe him, but he believes him."
The body of Wright's argument leaned on the cumulative weight of what Minnesota has done. The Wolves beat Denver in six games in the first round despite playing significant stretches without their best perimeter offensive player. In the opener of the second round, with Edwards still on minute restrictions and Wembanyama playing what may end up being the defining defensive game of his early career, they went into the Frost Bank Center and stole home court.
"They've won five of their last six games, all against Denver or San Antonio," Wright said. "And they have not been at full strength for any of them. Pretty good."
The pick is in. Wright has the Wolves over the Spurs in the second round, and — assuming Edwards is closer to himself than the Game 1 cameo suggested — a path that does not look as outlandish today as it did at 200 to one on Saturday morning.
