Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 takeaways from the new roster
By James Grieco
2. Interesting lineup choices
After remaining conspicuously quiet throughout much of the season, it seems Tom Thibodeau was more relaxed after Butler was traded too. Over the past two games, his trademark grumble has returned to live television! The amount of times you could hear him yelling “CUTTERS!” and “STAY AT HOME!” through the live mics was wonderful.
I won’t criticize Wednesday’s lineups per se, but the rotations did raise some questions. Covington started, sliding into Butler’s place, while Saric came off the bench. RoCo got a taste of his new head coach’s basketball philosophy too, logging over 41 minutes. Lucky, he did not protest after the game, unlike a former Timberwolves’ player would have done.
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Saric, however, only played 20 minutes, the majority of which came without Karl-Anthony Towns. Saric is a great fit around KAT and should figure into crunch-time lineups as the season goes along, which made his lack of playing time with the starters a strange decision.
Derrick Rose was unavailable for the game, but that didn’t seem to alter the rotation too much, as Jeff Teague simply played more minutes — 37 to be exact. Why Teague — who has already missed six games this season and had multiple knee injury scares against Brooklyn on Monday — played so much is a mystery. He played well, putting up 14 points and 14 assists, but most of that damage came in the first half.
Tyus Jones got the short end of the stick, as usual, only getting 11 minutes of action despite Minnesota only having two point guards available. What did Jones do? He produced like always, putting up a +16 point differential on the night despite not taking a single shot. Jones may not be the second coming, but he knows what to do on a basketball court.
Another note — Anthony Tolliver, one of Minnesota’s best 3-point threats, did not play at all. Although Minnesota rarely runs actions to get Tolliver shots, he is a floor-spacer and has been part of the bench’s overwhelming success so far this season, so he should not be booted from the rotation.
Once Rose returns, the Timberwolves will be deep. Including Tolliver, they have 11 players worthy of getting minutes, which means that Thibodeau will have to cut back on the starters’ workload to get everyone involved and keep them happy. There is absolutely no justification for benching Gorgui Dieng, Tyus Jones, Anthony Tolliver or Josh Okogie.