Justin Patton makes his debut with the Iowa Wolves

Justin Patton makes his 2017 debut for the Minnesota Timberwolves franchise by suiting up for their G-League team, the Iowa Wolves.

The Minnesota Timberwolves gained strength to their bench in the offseason, with the likes of Jamal Crawford being added, while Taj Gibson‘s arrival in Minnesota pushed former starter Gorgui Dieng into a backup role too. Tyus Jones has shown immense growth at the point guard position, particularly in his stretch of starts while Jeff Teague was injured.

Yet, the Timberwolves are still playing their starters among the top minutes in the league. The lowest-ranking Wolves starter in terms of minutes per game is Taj Gibson with 33.2, yet even he manages to rank 41st in the league.

While a lack of talent certainly doesn’t seem to be Thibodeau’s problem with using the bench, perhaps a fresh young set of legs could change his mind. Enter Wolves rookie Justin Patton.

Patton joined the Timberwolves’ in this year’s draft, although he is yet to make a regular season appearance due to a foot injury.

However, his recovery has progressed enough to allow his debut for the Iowa Wolves on Friday. In 16 minutes off the bench, Patton contributed 15 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocks in an impressive performance.

While he will likely be spending at least the rest of this calendar year in Iowa, there’s a chance Patton could join the Timberwolves at some point this season. When he does, he will be adding some versatility to the center position, and possibly aide in giving Towns some more time to rest.

Dieng has so far virtually been Towns’ sole replacement, averaging 17.1 minutes per game, whilst the Wolves’ other center Cole Aldrich has only appeared in five games, averaging two minutes in each.

In all honesty, Patton probably won’t be getting too many minutes at any point this year. Aldrich is a superior center, yet he hasn’t seen much game time at all this year, and the only minutes Patton would be getting are to develop him before next season. The Timberwolves are also less likely to play Patton the closer they are to falling out of a playoff spot.

Come March next year, if the Timberwolves’ are sitting soundly in a third or fourth seed position, Patton may see some minutes as a reliever, so long as he can contribute as a member of the bench, yet his minutes likely won’t be significant enough to decrease Towns’.

The longer the season has gone on, the shorter Thibs’ rotation has seemed to become, which makes me believe that Patton may wind up spending the whole year in Iowa and rejoin the Timberwolves for preseason next year.

This gives Patton a chance to develop and fully recover before he becomes a stable member of the Timberwolves’ bench next season. Alongside Tyus Jones next season, Patton could take some big relief minutes off the bench to give the starters plenty of rest, hopefully preserving their health and energy for the season.

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It looks at the moment like The Wolves’ starters are going to continue their big minutes, however, with the young players developing behind the scenes, the Wolves bench should continue to improve into the future, gifting the Wolves’ starters some much-needed rest next season.