Minutes should be distributed more evenly (hopefully)
The pipe dream must be repeated one more time.
Dear Tom Thibodeau: you have an extremely deep bench, running at least 11-deep when it comes to NBA-caliber rotation players if everyone is healthy. Please, please consider mixing and matching to ensure that nobody is playing north of 40 minutes, and that the Wolves don’t end up with two of the top-seven minutes-getters from last year and three of the top 14.
Saric only played 20 minutes on Wednesday while Gibson saw 28. On certain nights, perhaps Dieng is a DNP-CD and Gibson sees a few of his minutes at the five, allowing Saric to get something like 28 to 30 minutes and Gibson more like 20 to 24.
Even with Jones’ struggles, he needs to be playing more than 11 minutes. Jeff Teague was coming off of an injury, and probably should be held to something closer to 30 minutes a night anyways instead of the 37 he played.
The wing is suddenly crowded, with Wiggins, Okogie, Rose, and Covington all deserving of playing time with the likes of Tolliver and Saric available to play short minutes at small forward, too.
It’s a legitimate stable of NBA talent, and Thibodeau would be well-served to spread out those minutes and ensure that his best players stay fresh for longer — both this season and into the future.
And now, let’s all look forward to Purple Reign on Friday night…