Minnesota Timberwolves: 5 storylines from the first week of games

Minnesota needs another big man, fast

It hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows coming out of Minnesota. For one thing, the winter weather doesn’t allow for that. But for another, these two grueling games against uniquely difficult opponents have exposed one of the Timberwolves’ biggest weak spots: the power forward position.

Coming into the preseason, the Timberwolves presumptive starter at that spot–Juancho Hernangomez–had not had much of a chance to shake the rust off of a nine-month absence. Hernangomez missed out on starting for the Wolves in the preseason in hopes that a limited role could ease him back in. However, his performance was still far below what Timberwolves fans are used to seeing.

The same could be said for Ed Davis. At first, there was hope that he could be the defensive wall that complimented Towns’ high-octane offense. After a few poor preseason performances, the team now seems to view his role as more of an off-court one than an on-court one.

Now, it’s worth mention that the preseason shouldn’t hold too much water when judging regular season performances–the two points leaders during the preseason were Rui Hachimura and Max Strus, and the highest field goal percentage on more than five attempts per game belonged to Jaylen Nowell–but it still shows an area where Minnesota desperately needs improvement.

That sentiment is only aided by the two injury scares Minnesota faced in its game against the Jazz. Both Towns and Naz Reid went to the locker room due to an apparent shoulder and hand injury, respectively. Both players returned to the court. However, Towns admitted he was there as more of a distraction than anything, as he was still sore and couldn’t catch right. If either of those players had to miss any significant time due to injury, the team would lean more heavily on Hernangomez and Davis to perform.