After the Minnesota Timberwolves traded for Rudy Gobert, many have wondered how the Wolves will fare with two starting bigs against a league that has often trended small in the playoffs. When Chris Finch was asked about this potential problem, he said, “certainly teams tend to go small in the playoffs, but… we’re not doing that. We’re gonna have to figure out the way that all these things work, but we feel very confident in our ability to do so and, more importantly, in our players’ ability to do so.”
Finch also expressed that he wants to help his best players succeed. He felt for Karl-Anthony Towns “there’s no better way than to go out and get the best rim-protecting big in the league and try to be different every single night, and make teams adjust to you.”
Finch and the Timberwolves front office have shown they are committed to going against the grain and playing big. As Finch stated, many of Minnesota’s best players are now very tall. Therefore, to best utilize the team’s talent, they will play big ball for much of the game, even when facing smaller teams. It will be exciting to watch them wade into somewhat untested waters to force teams to adjust to their playstyle and dominate them with size.
But just how big can the Wolves play? Assuming Jaden McDaniels is the starting 3 and that it’s true that Anthony Edwards grew two inches since his combine measurement, then everyone in the starting five will be well above average height for their position. The opening lineup of D’Angelo Russell (6’4″), Ant (6’6″), McDaniels (6’9″), Karl-Anthony Towns (6’11”), and Gobert (7’1″) will tower over most opponents with an average height of over 6’8.5″ or 80.5″.
At the beginning of last season, an estimation of starting lineup height averages ranked the Dallas Mavericks first at 80.4″. Many starters on these rosters have changed since Hoop Social calculated the estimation. However, it demonstrates that the Wolves should be on the high end of the average height of starters, given that their current starting lineup would have ranked first last year. As another reference point, the Wolves starting lineup will have a total height of approximately 402.5″. That’s just 11.5″ beneath the tallest lineup to ever start a game (412″), played by the Mavericks in the final game of their 1998-99 season.
There’s no way the Wolves will break that record this season. Dallas started two players who were 7 feet tall at the 3 and 4 with Dirk Nowitzki and Chris Anstey, and Shawn Bradley at the 5, who was 7’6″. However, given how tall the Wolves expected starting lineup already is this season, we could see Finch experiment with some even bigger lineups for a few minutes here and there, forcing teams to adjust to them.
Finch often staggered DLo’s minutes with Ant and KAT last season. It proved beneficial because Russell was a great leader of the bench units. It also ensured that the Wolves always had one of their primary scorers on the court at all times. While DLo’s sub in most games this year will likely be a guard like Jordan McLaughlin or Jaylen Nowell, we could see Finch occasionally mix things up and let Ant lead the offense as the 1. Ant has improved as a distributor over his first two years, increasing his assist numbers from 2.9 to 3.8 per game between his freshman and sophomore years. The Timberwolves will likely want to continue giving Ant time to develop that aspect of his game this season, which may open the possibility of a supersized lineup.
There are two ultra big lineups that I could realistically see playing together, even if it’s only for a few minutes at a time. Suppose you wanted a secondary creator next to Ant at the 1 to take some of the load off of him while adding another wing to get bigger. Then you could experiment with Kyle Anderson at the 1 or 2. Even though Anderson is 6’9″, he played point guard growing up and occasionally played backup point guard minutes with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Anderson is also a very switchable defender who can guard at least the 2-4 positions with aplomb. In point-Ant minutes, he could upgrade the defense while playing the role of a hybrid guard. Most importantly, if Finch kept the starting lineup the same but subbed Slow-Mo in for DLo, it would create Minnesota’s largest viable lineup with an average height of 6’9.6″ and a total height of 408″.
Alternatively, if you wanted to add more shooting next to Ant in a variation of this ultra big lineup, you could play Taurean Prince at the 2 instead. Prince is a career 37.1% shooter from three and has shot above 38.5 percent in half of his six years in the NBA. We also saw him take defenders off the bounce many times last season and either get to the rim or kick the ball out to more open shooters. Prince is 6’7″ and most often played the 3 last year, and he’s mobile enough to defend 2-4 capably. Therefore, he would be another realistic candidate to be on the floor in an ultra-big experiment. That lineup would have a total height of 406″ and an average height of about 6’9″.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that either of these ultra-big lineups will work. When teams play big, they risk being vulnerable to small teams like the Golden State Warriors, who use their quickness to run teams through the blender and tire them out. However, given that most of the wings on the Wolves roster, including McDaniels, Slow-Mo, Prince, and Ant, are talented switchable defenders, there’s a possibility it could be terrifying for opponents.
Imagine finally weaving your way through all those long arms just to face Gobert at the rim. The Boston Celtics’ defense thrived on their switchable wings and bigs last season. If Robert Williams had been fully healthy throughout the playoffs, there’s a possibility they could have beat the Warriors in the Finals. If the Wolves can recreate similarly stingy defense with their personnel, they could have a lot of success playing supersized basketball.
While we may be unlikely to see many minutes of these ultra-big lineups, watching Finch and the coaching staff experiment with different rotations as the season goes on will be exciting. More than anything, I am hoping to speak these lineups into existence. It would be fun to watch the Timberwolves play with one of the biggest lineups in the history of the NBA and tower over their opponents. Regardless, if they are successful this season, they could contribute to ushering in a new era of big ball along with teams like the Celtics, Memphis Grizzlies, and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
