After a night where Anthony Edwards scored a career-high 48 points in San Francisco, you’d hope we’d be singing the praises of a big win over the Western Conference-leading Golden State Warriors. Instead, no one else showed up. KAT got punked by Andrew Wiggins twice, and the Wolves lost their sixth straight game.
It’s still early in the season, but it’s increasingly concerning that nobody outside of the “Big 3” of Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, and D’Angelo Russell has stepped up to fill a role the Wolves desperately need.
Ant, KAT, and DLo combined for 83 of Minnesota’s 110 points in Wednesday’s game against the Warriors. Russell had 18; KAT, 17. Naz Reid chipped in a season-high 16, but no other player scored more than five points. Minnesota and the Oklahoma City Thunder are the only two teams in the NBA with only three players scoring in double figures. It’s nearly impossible for the Wolves to win if any of the top three scorers have an off night. D’Angelo Russell is struggling mightily to start the season, and the lack of a fourth option is one of the many reasons this team is 3-7.
Who can step up and fill that role and give the Wolves a much-needed fourth option?
Josh Okogie began the year as a starter but is falling deep down the rotation. The Taurean Prince deal has been a disaster. Ricky Rubio is flourishing with the upstart Cavaliers, while Prince is 8-35 (22.9 percent) from the field and 4-24 (16.7 percent) from three. Patrick Beverley is 33 years old and still getting acclimated to his new team. So who is it going to be?
The obvious answer is Malik Beasley. He led the Wolves last year while Towns and Russell were out, and Edwards struggled to gain a foothold in his chaotic rookie season. Beasley averaged a career-high 19.6 points per game last year, hitting 39.9 percent from three. This year he’s averaging just 9.3 points through the first ten games and shooting a woeful 31.9 percent from deep. The regression likely comes from Beasley’s tumultuous offseason in which he spent 78 days in jail stemming from the incident where he pointed a gun at a family parked outside of his home. Beasley was released from prison on Aug. 17th and looks to be still playing himself into game shape.
The other issue with Beasley this season is that he looks super awkward coming off the bench. The offense craters when Edwards and KAT take a seat, and so far, Beasley hasn’t found a way to lead the bench to continued success. It’s up to Chris Finch to find the right spot for Beasley to shine. It could be worth inserting him into the starting lineup to get his swagger back.
Jarred Vanderbilt has arguably been Minnesota’s third-best player through ten games. The fourth-year power forward is the heart and soul of the team and is one of the few players to provide energy on a lackadaisical roster. Vando leads the team with a 16.1 percent rebound rate and provides solid defense, but he’s a zero on the offensive end. He’s averaging 5.1 points per game and shooting 17-28 (60.7 percent) at the rim so far this season. However, Vanderbilt is only 3-13 (23.1 percent) from the rest of the floor and has only attempted eight jump shots, making one of them. Opposing defenses don’t have to guard Vanderbilt, leaving them free to double Towns in the post or help on Russell or Edwards.
Naz Reid seems to be the one player outside of the big three who wants to contribute to winning on a nightly basis. The third-year center is fifth on the team in scoring at 9.1 points per game and third in three-point percentage, knocking down 34.5 percent of his shots. He’s improved his defense this season but must improve his rebounding if he wants to take the next step in his career. Reid is grabbing just 3.4 rebounds per game for the worst rebounding team in the NBA. That has to be better for Minnesota’s only true backup big.
However, the player I think most fans want to see take the reins and make the Big 3 a Big 4 is Jaden McDaniels. Most Timberwolves fans pegged McDaniels as a breakout candidate after a surprising rookie season and dominant Summer League performance. But it’s been a sophomore slump so far for the skinny 21-year-old from Washington. He’s started all ten games but is scoring just 4.4 points per game and shooting 37.5 percent from the field and 25 percent from deep. While McDaniels is providing Minnesota with versatile defense, he’s getting lost in the shuffle on offense, with Edwards, Towns, and Russell taking a my-turn-your-turn approach early on.
As a team, the Wolves are taking 92.6 shots per game. Between them, Edwards, Towns, and Russell take 55 of them, leaving 37.6 for the remaining eight guys in the nightly rotation. McDaniels is seventh on the team, hoising only 4.8 shots a game. For McDaniels to sprout into a nightly contributor, he must find a way to carve out six to eight shots per game and start hitting his corner threes. It might be worth shaking up the lineup by moving Vanderbilt and Beasley into the starting lineup to allow McDaniels to grow and shine with the bench squad.
It’s early yet, but the panic meter is slowly ticking up in the Target Center. For the Wolves to turn things around, someone outside of the holy triumvirate of Edwards, Towns, and Russell must step up and steady the ship when one, two, or all three of Minnesota’s stars are struggling. So far, no takers. But there are options. They just need to find the right way to help this team win and assuage Wolves fans’ early-season doubts that have plagued this franchise for 17 years.
