When the Minnesota Timberwolves lost Donte DiVincenzo to an Achilles tear in Game 3 against the Denver Nuggets, there was no clear replacement for his role and spot in the rotation. No other player offers the same spacing and three-point shooting that are vital to the flow of Minnesota’s offense.
Later, when Anthony Edwards missed Games 5 and 6 against Denver due to knee injuries and was put on a minutes restriction for the first two games against the San Antonio Spurs, there was no easy successor. Other players, like Ayo Dosunmu and Terrence Shannon Jr., were able to scale their game up. Still, none of them offer the same shot-making and gravity dynamics as Edwards.
Now that the Timberwolves are dealing with games lost to injury in the playoffs after being one of the NBA’s healthiest teams over the last handful of seasons, it has been clear that Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo are irreplaceable.
DiVincenzo’s off-ball movement, ability to make defenses react by running off floppy sets and pindowns, and deep spacing are invaluable. So is the fact that he’s a pass away from the on-ball threat at the hash mark on the wing. It has been even more obvious in the Timberwolves matchup with the San Antonio Spurs, who rely on drop coverage with Victor Wembanyama and Luke Kornet.
The Timberwolves have no other way to replicate this gravity. They have had issues with shot selection while working around Victor Wembanyama’s rim protection prowess. The most logical way would be to fire from three, which would allow them to work around San Antonio’s bigs sitting back in screen coverages.
Edwards is likely their next-best option, but he’s dealing with ailing knees that limit his mobility, and they would be wise not to overexert him. Naz Reid is another dynamic option, but his lingering shoulder injury is hampering his shooting. It’s hard to replicate this usage when the three best shooters on the team are all injured.
They may be able to get by in the regular season and in short stretches when others can step up. Still, relying on others to be consistent as their usage scales up is never going to be reliable over a larger sample – let alone in the playoffs.
Injuries happen. Players must labor through an 82-game season, and the sport is inherently physically taxing. An injury to a star player or key role player, as specialized as DiVincenzo, will eventually pose challenges for a team. Still, it also creates an immediate opportunity for others who may have been held back or assigned to a specific role.
The chain reaction down the depth chart allows others to step into more prominent roles. However, it’s a slippery slope. Now that the Timberwolves are attempting to fight through multiple injuries in the playoffs, they are seeing some of the harsh realities of their injured roster.
The Timberwolves were able to get a better read on the back end of the rotation when Edwards missed games throughout the second half of the regular season. Still, the regular season is drastically different from the playoffs.
There are two directions a team can go while facing injury adversity. They can rally and find a sense of randomness within different roles. Or they can struggle to fill the skill sets, highlighting that their depth players are just role players. Much of it depends on roster construction and sample size.
Minnesota found success at the end of the Denver series by playing through Dosunmu and Shannon. However, now that they are in the midst of their series against San Antonio, they are beginning to see the harsh realities of the latter.
The Timberwolves have their clear scale-up candidates. Jaden McDaniels, Ayo Dosunmu, and Terrence Shannon Jr. are their core players who could show more on offense. Still, the Wolves often shift them into different roles to coexist with Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert, and Julius Randle.
While Minnesota was able to get those deeper reads on its roster when injuries forced Chris Finch to make more rotational decisions, it was clear that the team needed a healthy roster to compete at the highest level. In their regular-season games, the importance lay in the fact that Finch had no choice but to play players who had either struggled to find consistency or didn’t have enough to play winning basketball.
Others, such as Jaylen Clark, Joan Beringer, and Kyle Anderson, stepped into rotational roles and played regular-season minutes as the team dealt with a banged-up roster. The reserves are just not set up for playoff minutes. They either have too many shortcomings in their game that can be exploited or a troublesome archetype.
The Timberwolves got the job done, taking one game on the road against San Antonio. Still, they will continue to face the harsh reality of their injuries. Others can step up, but some facets of the half-court offense and its schematics are irreplaceable. Matters have gotten worse with Dosunmu now dealing with lower-body injuries, on top of Reid and Edwards being hampered, and DiVincenzo out indefinitely. Still, as we saw in Game 1, there are areas for success.
Minnesota is just going to have to become comfortable with being in flux.
