Former Timberwolves in the playoffs
By Ben Beecken
For the past 12 years, Timberwolves fans have been stuck watching former Wolves players play postseason basketball on other teams, and this year is no different.
This year, there are four former Timberwolves who are each playing relatively large roles on their current teams. Depressing? In some cases, perhaps.
Let’s take a look at those four and what they’ve done thus far during the playoffs as the first round winds down.
Jefferson is, of course, the top former Wolf in terms of production in the playoffs. Big Al is now in his age-31 season and this is the fourth time that he’s appeared in the postseason and his second showing with Charlotte.
Through the first five games of this year’s playoffs, Jefferson was averaging 14.2 points and 6.4 rebounds while shooting 51.6 percent from the field while the Hornets took a 3-2 lead in the series against the Miami Heat before losing the potential clincher on Friday night.
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Jefferson is the focal point of the Hornets’ offense, and they’ll need his production to increase if the Hornets are going to make a push through the second round.
The former Timberwolves shooting guard averaged 22.6 minutes per game this season for Erik Spoelstra’s Miami Heat, putting up 8.9 points per contest despite seeing his three-point percentage dip to just 32.3 percent.
His minutes have been slashed considerably as Spoelstra has shortened his rotation for the playoffs. Over the first five games, Green had only played 22 total minutes, scoring eight points on 3 of 11 shooting from the field.
The former Wolves’ draft night acquisition was a key rotation piece for the Oklahoma City Thunder after the deadline deal that brought him to OKC. He played 21.2 minutes per game for Billy Donovan with modest averages and below-average shooting numbers.
As with Green, his playoff minutes have dropped considerably. Foye only saw the floor for 12.2 minutes per contest over the five-game series with Dallas, making 3 of 10 three-point attempts and averaging 2.2 points and 1.4 assists per contest.
Beasley did it once again — he played overseas during the first portion of the regular season and joined a playoff team just before the spring deadline to be eligible for postseason play.
This time around, he was signed by the Houston Rockets. Surprisingly, he played 18.2 minutes per game in the regular season, averaging 12.8 points and 4.9 rebounds off the bench.
The Rockets were bounced out of the playoffs after just five games against the mighty Golden State Warriors, but Beasley scored 10.4 points and pulled down 4.2 rebounds in 18 minutes per game. He’s only 27 years old, and if he wants to stay in the NBA for a full season come fall, he’d no doubt have an opportunity to do so.
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This list doesn’t even include a couple of players who were Wolves just a matter of weeks ago in Kevin Martin and Andre Miller, as they haven’t played consistent minutes as part of Gregg Popovich’s regular rotation, but the list of former Timberwolves finding success elsewhere sure seems to go on and on and on, doesn’t it?