It turns out that the guy who had the audacity to try a 720 dunk is optimistic about his team. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Andrew Wiggins said that he believes the young Minnesota Timberwolves can reach the postseason next year.

I think we’re going to have a way better season than we had this year. We just had a lot going on. We’ve got some new pieces. I think last year we could’ve beat any team on any given day. This year we need to be more consistent with it. We can make the playoffs. Nothing is easy, we gotta work and our coach is going to make us work.

Wiggins is right; last season, they could beat any team on any given day. In April, they beat the Golden State Warriors in overtime when the Warriors were going for their 70th win. Minnesota also defeated the Thunder, Clippers and Raptors, bright spots in a losing season. Often, the Wolves had more talent than their opponents, but they lacked the cohesion and defensive focus that came more easily to experienced teams. The hope is that, under coach Tom Thibodeau, everything will come together.

Right now, it’s easy to be optimistic about that. Maybe Wiggins can be an All-Star, and maybe Karl-Anthony Towns can make an All-NBA team. There’s reason to believe that Zach LaVine, Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng will all develop, too. When Thibodeau became the coach of the Chicago Bulls, they went from a 41-win team to a 62-win team. Why can’t the Wolves go from a 29-win team to a 42-win team?

Andrew Wiggins knows expectations will be higher next season. USATSI

Here’s what stands in Minnesota’s way: The Western Conference will be tougher, as it looks like the Utah Jazz, Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans will be significantly better next year. The same is could be true for the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks. Even teams like the Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Lakers are expecting improvement. This might be one of those years where you need 49 wins to make the playoffs in the West, and Thibodeau’s magic won’t necessarily turn one of the league’s worst defensive teams into one of the best in a single season.

Remember the 2003-04 Wolves? The ones who won 58 games and made it to the Western Conference Finals, led by MVP Kevin Garnett, Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell? Fun fact: Fred Hoiberg was a role player on that team and he just compared his Chicago Bulls to them. Not-so-fun fact: That was the last time Minnesota made the playoffs.

In January of 2013, Minnesota was ninth in the West and decided to promise its fans that it would make the playoffs, or season-ticket holders the following year would receive a 10 percent discount. The Wolves put an ad in the Star Tribune declaring that the days of the “building season” were over. An assortment of injuries meant they finished that year 31-51, and they followed that up by going 40-42 season in Rick Adelman’s last hurrah as coach. Then came the Kevin Love-for-Wiggins trade and, suddenly, Minnesota was a 16-win team, which set the franchise up to draft Towns.

In some ways, then, a trip to the playoffs would be a long time coming, but in others, it would be ahead of schedule. Can the Wolves do it? Wiggins should certainly think so. There should be no promises this time, though.