With five-and-a-half minutes left in the third quarter against the Utah Jazz, Anthony Edwards attacked the paint, collapsing the defense. He sprayed the ball out to Jaylen Clark, who airballed a triple. Edwards got the rebound and went right back up, putting the Minnesota Timberwolves up 76-63.
Clark was playing in the second meaningful game of his NBA career. After Edwards scored, he gave Clark a high five as they hustled back on defense.
Three possessions later, Edwards found Clark for another open 3-pointer. Jaylen drilled what was his first career 3. Edwards greeted Clark again, this time with an encouraging smile and a pat on the chest.
“I am super happy for him,” Edwards said after Minnesota’s 138-113 win. “I’ve told all the young guys that the NBA is just about opportunity and what you do when you get it. He is one of the guys right now who has made the most out of every opportunity that he’s got in the last two or three games. He’s been playing out of his mind. Man, and I love it.”
Three-and-a-half weeks before Clark recorded six points, three rebounds, two assists, and two steals in Utah, he logged 40 minutes in a G League game. Nobody expected Clark to be back up with the NBA team, making such a big impact less than a month later. Probably not even himself. However, through adversity, Clark and the rest of Minnesota’s young players have taken the first step on a long journey to carve out a consistent role in the NBA.
“I can imagine the confidence that it gives the coaches,” Edwards said after the Utah game regarding Minnesota’s extended rotation. “It gives me a lot of confidence and trust in the young guys. I know it gives them a lot of confidence. I love days like today.”
Minnesota took care of the worst team in the Western Conference. Edwards had 36 points, and the Wolves won their fifth-straight game. Vegas favored the Timberwolves by 7.5 in Utah. It was an anticipated win on paper. Still, the Wolves had played in Phoenix the night before. They were also without Donte DiVincenzo, Mike Conley, and Julius Randle, who only played 10 minutes before he left the game early in the second quarter with a right groin strain.
A window opened for Minnesota’s depth to have its first real crack at meaningful NBA minutes. Edwards is right on the money; the NBA is all about opportunity. And what you do with that opportunity dictates what comes next.
Some young players get their opportunity right away. Ant started his first game in the NBA 18 games into his rookie year. For others, it takes longer. Some rookies must wait until dominos fall around them before they get so much as meaningful playing time.
“Me, Luka [Garza], and Rob [Dillingham], we work every day,” Clark said after the win in Utah. “We have to do the stay in shape league. We have to do that all the time. It kind of gels us as a group, too. We are all rooting for each other any time one of us subs in. And we all play hard as hell. This is what we love to do. We are all super talented. It’s cool that we are finally able to show that on full display.”
Clark missed his rookie year with a right Achilles injury. He also experienced setbacks during his rehab process and was out for a year and two months before he was cleared to start playing basketball again in any capacity.
It was a long, tedious process to get back into shape, let alone return to the level that had scouts projecting him as a potential first-round pick out of UCLA before his injury. Therefore, playing NBA minutes nine months after being cleared to play is likely ahead of the schedule he had in mind.
However, the same isn’t true for Garza and Dillingham.
Fans expected Chris Finch to start leaning on his young guys after the Wolves lost Kyle Anderson, Jordan McLaughlin, and Monte Morris in free agency. “Where we are, we could use a couple of plug-and-play rookies,” Finch told KSTP’s Darren Wolfson before the draft. “As you forecast forward, we are going to need young, talented players to start playing in the rotation more.”
Minnesota acquired two rookies with NBA-ready potential by trading up to select Dillingham with the No. 8 pick out of Kentucky and selecting Terrence Shannon Jr. out of Illinois with the No. 27 pick. The Wolves also had some promising young talent that had been sitting on the back burner over the last few seasons, such as Clark, Garza, Josh Minott, and Leonard Miller.
Furthermore, Finch alluded to expanding his rotation to nine or possibly 10 deep before the draft. Then, the Wolves traded Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks for Randle and DiVincenzo, which had fans wondering if the Wolves had the deepest roster in the NBA.
Is this the season where Finch, who has favored short rotations since he became a first-time head coach with the Wolves in 2021, consistently rolls with a 10-man rotation? It would have made sense with all the moves Minnesota made in the summer and how fatigue prevented the Wolves from putting up more of a fight against the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals.
However, Finch used an eight-and-a-half-man rotation for Game 1 in Los Angeles and has used similar rotations throughout the season. Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Naz Reid, and Conley/DiVincenzo have been the mainstays off the bench. When the Wolves are fully healthy, there are no signs of promising young players, aside from short stints for Minott, which Finch recently curtailed because of his poor defense.
“I know I am behind Rudy Gobert, one of the best big man defenders of all time, a Hall of Famer,” Garza explained after the win in Utah. “Obviously, Naz, who was a Sixth Man of the Year. Before it was KAT, and now it’s Julius [Randle]. I’ve been behind really good players. It’s a big, important role to be a guy who is ready when one of those guys goes down or something happens. You still have to win games. These games are huge for us right now.”
Garza only played four minutes in Phoenix, but Micah Nori credited him for hitting a big three in the first half after the game. Less than 24 hours later, with Randle out for most of the game in Utah, Finch went with Garza for 14 minutes, during which Luka recorded 16 points on 6 of 8 from the floor and 2 of 2 from deep.
Once again, Garza looked like a player who could help the Wolves. Every time the team has needed him to step up for real minutes, he has. And when Luka plays in garbage minutes, he’s clearly the best player on the court. However, since Garza signed with the Wolves in 2022, he has had the ill fate of Gobert, Towns, Reid, and Randle ahead of him in the depth chart.
His only opportunity to showcase his talents is in garbage time or when one of them is out. Garza has shown he is too good to be an end-of-the-bench player, but Minnesota’s roster construction has kept him off the court.
The same is true Dillingham, who the Wolves seem to have bumped out of the Game 1 rotation when they brought in DiVincenzo. Fans implored Finch to start playing the No. 8 pick, especially as the team lacked an offensive spark. However, it wasn’t until DiVincenzo went down with turf toe that Dillingham got his first break in the NBA.
The Wolves are 6-3 in the nine games since DiVincenzo’s injury, with wins against playoff-caliber teams, including the Knicks and Denver Nuggets. Dillingham has averaged 15.9 minutes in that stretch, giving Finch a reason to keep him in the rotation once DDV returns. Immediately after rejoining the team from an ankle sprain that kept him inactive for 10 games, Dillingham is averaging 9.4 points and 3.4 assists on 54.7% from the floor and 50% from deep over the last nine games.
As the Wolves maneuver through their first serious injury bug of the season, Dillingham has had to adapt to various lineups, playing 15 minutes with Garza and Clark over the last two games. There has been little consistency with Finch’s lineups recently because of injury, but that hasn’t slowed down any of Minnesota’s young players despite getting no meaningful playing time for most of the season.
“There really isn’t any figuring out,” Dillingham said on Thursday regarding the different lineups. “We work out every day together and get ready for games together. We put in the work. Even [the guys who don’t get to show it all the time] put in the work. It ain’t no different. Playing with [Garza and Clark] is real easy because, when you want to show what you’ve been working on, it’s easy to go out there.”
Dillingham, Garza, and Clark have built a unique connection as they battle the ups and downs of inconsistent playing time, which has helped them make the most out of their recent opportunity.
Clark played well against the Washington Wizards on Saturday, notching nine points and four rebounds on 4 of 9 from the floor in 20 minutes. Dillingham recorded six assists in the first half. However, he shot 0 of 4 from the floor and committed three fouls in seven minutes in the third quarter, and Finch benched him for the fourth quarter. Garza played a limited 10 minutes, shooting 0 of 6 from the floor and 0 of 3 from deep. The Wolves, missing three starters, fell 105-103 to the worst team in the NBA.
We don’t know how long the Wolves will be banged up. Edwards missed Saturday’s game due to illness, so he should return soon. However, they will not re-evaluate DiVincenzo until the All-Star break, and Randle could miss multiple games. The opportunity remains open for Dillingham, Garza, and Clark to make Finch still consider playing them when the roster returns to full strength.
Even if Finch returns to his tight rotation once the Wolves get healthy, Minnesota’s young players have done all they can so far – gaining trust and confidence from those around them by falling back on the work they’ve put in together.