Minnesota Timberwolves: Winners and losers of preseason win over Warriors
By Ben Beecken
What does the deep bench rotation tell us?
Notably, newcomer and Euroleague sharpshooter James Nunnally did not see the floor on Saturday night. Instead, Anthony Tolliver logged a team-high 31 minutes, and the final minutes of the game saw Luol Deng and journeyman and two-way-contract signee C.J. Williams get on the court.
Nunnally was added before the Deng move, obviously, and it seemed to make sense that he would see some minutes at the backup small forward spot behind Andrew Wiggins. (This was also before anyone knew that Jimmy Butler was on his way out the door.)
On this night, at least, Tolliver played many of those minutes behind Wiggins, and second-round pick Keita Bates-Diop saw 22 minutes in a reserve forward role as well. It would still be a mild surprise to see Tom Thibodeau cede regular rotation minutes to a rookie second-rounder over a 28-year-old Euroleague veteran in Nunnally — it’s still the first preseason game, after all.
And Bates-Diop played well overall. He made his first 3-pointer and clanked his next four attempts, although he grabbed six rebounds and used his length to his advantage on defense.
It’s also important to remember that the Tolliver/Bates-Diop/Nunnally role will shrink during the regular season; in no world will Wiggins play only 26 minutes and Taj Gibson only 17 when the games count. But the minutes distribution is still notable.
The late-game minutes that went to Deng and Williams were interesting; both played well as the Wolves closed out the game, but it was still intriguing to see Deng behind all of the aforementioned players, and Williams see the floor ahead of Nunnally.
In addition to Nunnally, camp invitees Darius Johnson-Odom and Jonathan Stark and two-way player Jared Terrell were the only other players that did not see the court.
Overall, this was a fun and encouraging victory for a Wolves team that definitely needed a boost of some kind after a rough couple weeks of rumors.
Next. 3-team trade idea with Kings and Heat for Jimmy Butler. dark
And now, back to the rumor mill we go…