It’s 2025, and space travel is now available to civilians. You can stream your favorite HBO Max show in the middle of nowhere and ignore a phone call and text by looking at your wrist.
However, no matter how far technology advances, something will never change — the ups and downs of rotating a 12-person basketball roster.
In the NBA, where the talent is overwhelming on every team, rotational problems could be a jostle of things. But it all usually boils down to cohesiveness. Which starters do you leave in while inserting bench players throughout a game? What perfect mix gets the best energy? Guard-heavy or post-heavy tonight vs. this particular team?
With such a loaded Minnesota Timberwolves squad, those are exactly the dilemmas that head coach Chris Finch has faced all season. Last year, the Wolves finished 56-26, 10 games better than where they currently sit in the standings.
After acquiring Julius Randle from the New York Knicks, his consistent adjustment to Minnesota’s offense has been one of the biggest hurdles. Then you have the bench struggles. Outside of the reigning Sixth Man of the Year Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, the reserves’ production has been inconsistent all season. As a result, Finch has limited the bench players’ minutes.
Every starter except Mike Conley logs over 32 minutes a game this season. Still, that doesn’t mean the Wolves don’t have accomplished players ready to go at any given point when called upon. Look at Minnesota’s talented depth chart:
- Donte DiVincenzo (who also came over from the Knicks trade) hasn’t had the same offensive impact this season. Still, he averages 11.5 points and a career-high 3.7 assists per game and can go off for 25 points any night.
- Rookie Rob Dillingham is a highly talented guard and John Calipari’s final Kentucky one-and-done darling. He doesn’t see more than 10.9 minutes a contest (when he plays) but still scores 4.7 points a game.
- Terrence Shannon Jr. is another 2024 first-round pick who only plays 10.8 minutes a game. Although a rookie, his defensive prowess, athleticism, and energy indicate he’s NBA-ready.
- Joe Ingles has averaged double-digit points in three different NBA seasons. He also finished runner-up for Sixth Man of the Year in 2021 and rarely plays.
- Josh Minott only plays 6.2 minutes a game, but he has also developed into an extremely capable NBA player who has bulked up. Did you not see him bumping Aaron Gordon around against the Denver Nuggets last Tuesday in their 140-139 double-overtime win?
- Luka Garza plays only 5.7 minutes a game. The 6’10” forward/center is a professional scorer who averaged 24.0 points his last two years as an Iowa Hawkeye and only 23.8 points per game in his NBA G League assignments.
- Leonard Miller might be Minnesota’s best-kept secret. He has appeared in 12 games all season and only 2.6 minutes per. However, in this year’s NBA G League season, Miller averaged a monster 25.2 points and 11 rebounds a game.
Now, with all that said, the Timberwolves are 15-5 over their past 20 games. During that span, Randle is starting to put up the same kind of stat lines that earned him his All-Star
appearances.
Rudy Gobert has been on an offensive tear lately, scoring and rebounding in double digits. Over the past seven games, he has averaged a colossal 18.5 points and 16.2 rebounds.
Conley’s minutes are down a tad this season, but he’s still always efficient on both sides of the ball. Essentially, Conley and DiVincenzo are used as a two-headed monster at
the guard position, with their combined stats being 19.0 points, 8.5 assists, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.4 steals, respectively.
Not only is Jaden McDaniels still a versatile defender at multiple positions and a defensive perimeter specialist, but he’s also averaging career-highs in points (12.3), rebounds (5.8),
assists (2.0), and steals (1.4).
Anthony Edwards is, well, a ‘Next Level Ant’ and is crushing in it. He’s averaging 27.4 points a game
after the 114-109 Saturday win over the Philadelphia 76ers and has 303 made 3-pointers this season.
That’s more than any player outside of Stephen Curry.
“Me and my trainer (Timberwolves assistant coach) Chris Hines are in the gym every day, every night and we work on that trey-ball faithfully,” said Edwards after the victory over Philadelphia. “We work on the midrange too, but we know in order for me to get downhill like I’d like to, I got to be able to spread the floor and space the floor and shoot the trey-ball at a high level.”
Fear not, Timberwolves fans. It may have taken Finch and the players two-thirds of the season to figure it out, but they’re definitely on track now. The Wolves are only 2.0 games behind the Los Angeles Lakers for the third seed in a tightly contested Western Conference with four games remaining.
