When Tim Connelly traded the Minnesota Timberwolves’ present and the future for Rudy Gobert less than two months into his tenure, it signaled that the Wolves were going all-in to win now and try to capitalize on their recent success. Even though he sent most of Minnesota’s role players and draft capital to Salt Lake City, Connelly kept two 2022 rookies on the roster. Wendell Moore Jr. and Josh Minott were never supposed to contribute right away. But do they even fit on the roster that Connelly built for a deep playoff run in the near future?
Both rookies showed flashes of NBA upside during their limited run during the 2022-23 NBA season. A first-round pick in 2022 that the Wolves acquired from the Dallas Mavericks, Moore only played 153 minutes across 29 appearances during his rookie season, scoring 42 points. However, when Minnesota called his number, he showed that he could eventually become an impactful 3-and-D player.
Minott fared similarly during his rookie season, averaging just over 3.1 points per game in 15 appearances. It’s an extremely small sample size, but the second-round pick from Memphis made the most of any real playing time he got. He showed off his size and athleticism with a double-double in a blowout victory over the Utah Jazz in the only game in which he played more than 20 minutes.
Minott and Moore are promising young players who should have nice NBA careers. It’s not their fault that there were barely any playing time scraps to be had this season. As a team that desperately wants to contend, the Timberwolves are not in the business of developing rookie rotational players. Six Wolves averaged more than 30 minutes per game this season. Eight were above 20, and that doesn’t even include constant rotational pieces Naz Reid, Jaylen Nowell, Jordan McLaughlin, and eventually Nickeil Alexander-Walker. That’s 12 players who consistently contributed to the two-time play-in winners who got eaten in the first round of the NBA playoffs two years in a row.
Barring a trade, there are six players currently on Minnesota’s payroll who will definitely be back next year and ahead of Moore and Minott in the rotation. Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, Gobert, Jaden McDaniels, Kyle Anderson, and Mike Conley will be the pillars of the roster heading into next season. Reid could be back as a very talented, very expensive third big, and NAW’s late-season and playoff performance probably earned him a spot on next season’s roster. The Timberwolves will have to address a backup point guard in free agency. They also have to be careful with the contracts they give out in free agency because the new CBA will make it difficult to pay Edwards, Towns, Gobert, and McDaniels what they’re worth. In all likelihood, Moore and Minot will occupy somewhere between the ninth to 12th spots in next season’s rotation.
With the roster construction above, Moore will be the third shooting guard behind Edwards and NAW. Depending on the backup point guard, he’ll be the fifth guard overall. Minott will likely be in a smaller version of the Taurean Prince role as the third small forward after McDaniels and Anderson. He will also be behind the twin towers and perhaps Naz in the frontcourt. With that much talent ahead of them, the two second-year players will still be fighting for playing time. They will also almost definitely get squeezed out of any playoff or crunchtime rotation.
This is new territory for young Timberwolves fans who only know pain and usually spend this time of the season getting their hopes up for a top draft pick. Flip Saunders used to stash the rookies on the bench and rarely develop them. Instead, he preferred veterans who could help them attempt to build a contender around Kevin Garnett. If the career arcs of guys like William Avery, Loren Woods, and Ndudi Ebi are any indication of how Josh Minott and Wendell Moore will be used, it’s not looking good for the two youngsters on the Wolves roster.
The Wolves only have the 53rd pick in the 2023 NBA draft thanks to the Gobert trade, and they will not have their own first-round pick in 2025, 2026, 2027, and 2029. With so little draft capital, the Wolves need to find a way to thread the needle and push for a deep playoff run while finding ways to get their young guys much-needed reps to one day integrate Moore and Minott into the rotation.
As things stand going into the offseason, it’s on everyone to make this work. Moore and Minott have to keep improving to show they belong on a playoff team. Finch must get creative to find ways to get them playing time. And Connelly has to make enough shrewd moves to keep things going in the right direction. The NBA can be a scary place for a late-first and second-round pick. Therefore, Moore and Minott have their work cut out for them to make a name for themselves in the league. However, it might not happen next season or in Minnesota at all.
