Club 520 Host Jeff Teague on How Far the Timberwolves Can Go in the West

Jeff Teague did not pick the Spurs-Wolves series.

The Club 520 podcast host got asked Tuesday whether Minnesota's Game 1 win over San Antonio exposed a path for the Wolves to repeat the formula. Teague's answer was yes, and. The big bonus, in his read, was Anthony Edwards coming back faster than anyone expected.

"I didn't expect that," Teague told Rich. "I mean, I don't know what they're doing in Minnesota. I wish they would have did that when I was there."

Edwards, Teague said, changes the series the moment he is in uniform. Eleven points in the fourth was the box-score evidence. The presence is the rest.

The X-factor, in Teague's read, is De'Aaron Fox.

"Wimby, he's going to have better games. Defensively he was amazing," Teague said of Victor Wembanyama. "But Fox has to be special for this team to make noise. Last night, that wasn't his best game. We know he's a really good player. He dominates in the fourth, mostly, but he's going to have to step it up and play well."

Teague has the series going seven. He thinks San Antonio is good. He thinks the Wolves have been there before and Edwards is a problem. He sees Julius Randle's Game 1 performance as legitimate. What he does not have, by his own admission, is a winner.

The reason, Teague said, is the rolodex. He played in Minnesota. Naz Reid is one of his guys. Fox is one of his favorite players. He figures the line goes through nearly every roster he has ever been part of.

"At the end of the day, you're going to have to take a stand against somebody that you like or played with or is your guy," Teague said. He decided Game 1 does not really count. He calls those filler games. Game 2, he said, will tell him what he needs to know.

The pivot brought him to the Knicks, where he did acknowledge that Jalen Brunson is the closest thing to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander left in the postseason. He thinks Brunson scores at SGA's level. He thinks the Knicks have the wings, the size, and the rim protection if Mitchell Robinson can ever stay on the floor.

"If he could just make a free throw," Teague said. "When he's on the floor, man, he's a dominant player. Offensive rebounding, protecting the rim, really good defender. But you just can't keep him on the floor because of the free throws."

Teague's read on the Knicks against OKC is that it would be a competitive series. That, from the Indiana kid, was the highest compliment available.