Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 big questions for the 2019-20 season

3. What will the power forward spot look like?

While the Minnesota Timberwolves lost Taj Gibson during the 2019 offseason, they were able to land two new power forwards in the form of Jordan Bell and Noah Vonleh.

Still, that position is arguably the weakest on the team, and the one with the most competition, including Bell and Vonleh along with Keita Bates-Diop and the presumptive starter, Robert Covington.

Covington is coming off of his best season since his 2014-15 run with the Philadelphia 76ers and is looking like he’s in rare form.

Currently, he’s out of action with a knee injury, but coach Ryan Saunders is confident that he will return before the start of the season and be the Timberwolves starting power forward. However, there are still some questions surrounding his game.

Can he stay healthy enough to play more than 70 games, something which he’s only done twice in his six-year career? Will he continue his great play? Can he improve his free throw shooting, which currently sits at 76 percent?

All of these are more than enough to give the Timberwolves cause for concern and if he doesn’t show up, he may find himself back on the bench.

Bates-Diop showed a lot of potential with Minnesota last year, and saw some quality production in this year’s summer league. Still, there are a lot of areas where his game needs to improve. First, he’s a horrible free throw shooter, making just 64 percent last year.

Add in to that the fact that most of his points come from inside, as he shot just 25 percent from 3 last year, there’s enough to keep him on the bench in the lineup, but also enough to put enough pressure on Covington to keep his game up.

Bell showed a lot of potential last season with the Golden State Warriors, despite only averaging 3.3 points and 2.7 rebounds per game. He only saw an average of 11.6 minutes per game over his 68 games, but his style of play seems to complement Karl-Anthony Towns‘ game well.

A defensive ball mover, Bell could help Towns down low on either side of the court and has an outside shot at cracking the starting five if Covington doesn’t end up working out.

Noah Vonleh has sort of disappeared following his rookie season with the Charlotte Hornets. He only played a single season with the Hornets, moving on to the Portland Trail Blazers where he had a couple of dismal seasons. Last year, though, Vonleh had the best season of his career.

He avoided any injuries, and started playing at a level that hadn’t been seen from him as a member of the New York Knicks.

Chances are that Vonleh will probably bring up the rear of the rotation for the 4 slot, but if he starts to out-perform himself again next season he might be able to climb up to the second- or third-string power forward.