The Timberwolves’ regular season gets underway Tuesday in Los Angeles when Minnesota squares off with the Lakers in a standalone game on national television.

There are certainly questions facing these Wolves ranging from how they will handle the success from a year ago that resulted in a Western Conference Finals berth to how they will operate with this new roster construction that doesn’t feature Karl-Anthony Towns and does have Donte DiVincenzo and Julius Randle.

There are 82-plus games to figure all of that out.

But in the days leading up to Game No. 1, here are a few proclamations — educated guesses, bold predictions, whatever you’d like to call them — about what will take place for the Timberwolves over the next seven-plus months.

No. 1: Timberwolves win 59 games and are the No. 1 seed in the West

Why? This goes against the oddsmakers, who currently have Oklahoma City as just worse than even money to be the No. 1 seed in the West bracket, with Minnesota possessing the second-best odds at 4-to-1. The Wolves’ current win total wager is set at 52.5. They won 56 last season.

How does that number rise after trading Towns? Because what that deal did was address a couple of Minnesota’s biggest holes.

The Wolves now have the wing depth to consistently have multiple creators and shooters on the floor at all times, while also potentially being able to trot out different looks with their lineups depending on the opponent.

Minnesota’s depth — Josh Minott has had an excellent preseason and may not find regular minutes — protects it from being derailed by the minor injuries that will occur during an 82-game season.

Yes, floor general Mike Conley turned 37 earlier this month, but Minnesota is flush with young talent such as Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid, who all have a history of making significant leaps from one season to the next.

Even if there are early offensive hiccups as Minnesota fully integrates its new pieces — specifically Randle — the Wolves’ 56 wins a year ago were almost entirely based on their defensive prowess that should show very few signs of regression.

And then there’s head coach Chris Finch, who aggressively coaches to win every game and preaches to his players the importance of competing on a nightly basis. Minnesota may have fewer “didn’t show up” games than any other team in the Association.

No. 2: Minnesota touts a top-5 offense … from January on

Minnesota’s offense was No. 17 last season and just lost one of the most talented scoring big men in recent history.

That doesn’t spell out a major leap forward.

But Minnesota added a couple of guys in DiVincenzo and Randle who are comfortable playing with more pace and shooting a high volume of 3-pointers. When armed with that type of personnel in the 2021-22 campaign, Finch guided the No. 1 offense in the entire NBA post-Jan. 1.

Finch has warned that the exemplary ball movement present in the preseason isn’t guaranteed to carry over to regular-season play, citing how the movement effectively stopped when the lights got bright a year ago. So it’s entirely possible Minnesota again sputters offensively out of the gates.

But once everyone gains a firm grasp of what Finch wants in terms of pace and player and ball movement, Minnesota has the shooting and talent to put up a bunch of points in a short period of time, as exemplified at points throughout the exhibition slate.

No. 3: Donte DiVincenzo is an all-star

Over his final 48 games last season in New York — including the playoffs — DiVincenzo averaged 20.1 points per game, while shooting 39% from 3-point range.

Those numbers — should Minnesota be near the top of the standings midway through the campaign — would at least warrant all-star consideration. And given the trust Finch is already showing in him, it’s not impossible to think DiVincenzo’s role could actually expand with the Timberwolves.

The question will be whether DiVincenzo can maintain a similar 3-point volume in Minnesota. This is where a comparison between DiVincenzo and Malik Beasley comes in.

Beasley was Minnesota’s sharpshooter during the 2021-22 campaign. The Wolves gave him the greenest of lights and ran a number of actions every game to get Beasley looks.

DiVincenzo had .268 “open” or “wide open” 3-point attempts per minute last season in New York, per NBA.com. In the 2021-22 season, Beasley’s number was .265.

Between Finch’s willingness in the preseason to run actions for DiVincenzo, DiVincenzo’s willingness to pull the trigger whenever there’s an ounce of breathing room, Edwards’ gravity and Conley’s growing chemistry with DiVincenzo, the sharpshooter figures to have every opportunity to post big numbers on a nightly basis for a winning team — an all-star formula if there ever was one.

No. 4: Rob Dillingham isn’t in the rotation

On the night of the NBA Draft — after Minnesota traded up to No. 8 overall to select the 19-year-old point guard — Wolves basketball boss Tim Connelly said Finch committed to playing Dillingham this season. Finch backed that statement up soon after.

But things changed with the Towns trade. The arrival of DiVincenzo meant Minnesota has enough ballhandling guards and wings that there isn’t nearly as much need for a point guard like Dillingham to come in to spell Conley, as two of Conley, Edwards and DiVincenzo can likely be on the court at nearly all times, on top of Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Joe Ingles.

When you map out how the coaching staff may allocate the 240 minutes of playing time on a nightly basis, it’s difficult to justify the rookie getting any run.

Plus, throughout the preseason Finch has noted Dillingham has a ways to go both in terms of not being too aggressive looking for his own shot and, obviously, on the defensive end, where the exhibition slate was often rough — expectedly so — for the rookie.

Dillingham has shown numerous flashes with his playmaking and quickness that suggest he will be a valuable asset to the Timberwolves in years to come. But for a team with title aspirations, there simply isn’t the need to rush Dillingham along to play any meaningful minutes this season unless he can prove that he in no way will be a liability in the short term.

No. 5: Timberwolves fall to OKC in West finals

Minnesota would have home-court advantage should prediction No. 1 come to fruition. But edging the Thunder in the regular season is largely based upon the news that free agent center acquisition Isaiah Hartenstein will miss the first six-ish weeks of the campaign with a left hand injury.

But when it’s at full strength, Oklahoma City’s top eight rotation rivals, if not exceeds, Minnesota’s. The Thunder have ample shooting and defense and, when push comes to shove, as great as Edwards is, it’s difficult to pick the 23-year-old over a 26-year-old Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who’s one of the favorites to win NBA MVP this season and has demonstrated the ability to get whatever shot he wants when the game is on the line.

These two teams could be on a collision course not just this season, but for years to come.