Minnesota Timberwolves: Predicting the 2018-19 depth chart

Nos. 6 and 7: The New Co-Sixth Men

Anthony Tolliver and Derrick Rose

The way that Tom Thibodeau operates means that he doesn’t really have a prototypical “sixth man”. For as much as Jamal Crawford wanted to be that last year, well … he wasn’t. Turns out, when you play the same position as Jimmy Butler, you don’t see the court all that much.

The Crawford role is probably where Rose finds himself heading into 2018-19, except for that he could also play some point guard. (Notable: for the hand-wringing over the potential for Rose to cannibalize minutes from Tyus Jones, Rose played zero point guard in his nine regular season games in Minnesota and only 25 percent of his playoff minutes there, and those came when Jones missed a game due to injury.)

If we’ve said it before we’ve said it a hundred times: Playoff Derrick Rose would be an asset and an upgrade over the trigger-happy Crawford. Regular Season Derrick Rose would be a disaster at anything approaching the 20 minutes per game that Crawford got last year.

Tolliver, on the other hand, should find himself in the Nemanja Bjelica role from a year ago: first off the bench to replace Taj Gibson midway through the first quarter, and slide down to small forward occasionally to fill in behind Butler or Wiggins depending on matchups.

Tolliver’s floor-spacing and solid defensive presence will function similarly to Bjelica’s role on both ends of the floor, so this is almost a straight swap, although Tolliver has been a more consistent long-range shooter for more years in the NBA. Go ahead and call it an upgrade.

Here’s hoping that Tolliver outpaces Rose’s minutes, and that Tom Thibodeau is creative in how he gets Tolly on the floor during the season. A 3-point percentage of 43.6 is nothing to sneeze at.