Minnesota Timberwolves Player Review: Jared Terrell

The first player in our Minnesota Timberwolves player review series is two-way player Jared Terrell, who finished the season as the Wolves’ backup point guard.

The Minnesota Timberwolves signed undrafted rookie Jared Terrell to a two-way contract over the summer, and after spending the majority of the season with the Iowa Wolves of the G League, Terrell finished the season backing up Tyus Jones at point guard.

Terrell was a four-year player at the University of Rhode Island and was a high-volume scorer throughout his collegiate career. He entered the NBA as more of an undersized 2-guard than a point guard, and his lack of a consistent jump shot combined with his modest size ensured that he wouldn’t be selected in the June draft.

The Wolves took a chance on him as a two-way player, and Terrell took his high-volume scoring ways to the G League.

In 32 games with the Iowa Wolves, including 22 starts, Terrell averaged 15.3 points, four rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.4 steals per game but shot just 39 percent from the field and 29.5 percent from 3-point range. He had the second-highest usage rate on the team among players who spent the majority of the season with the Wolves, clocking in at 22.8 percent behind Darius Johnson-Odom’s 26 percent.

Terrell played in a single game for the Wolves early in the season, joining the team in Portland when Jeff Teague and Derrick Rose were both out. He struggled mightily, shooting just 1-for-8 from the field and committing two turnovers to just one assist in 21 minutes.

He was called up for a couple of brief stints over the next couple of months but didn’t appear in a game with the big club until garbage time of a pair of blowouts in the first week of January.

Terrell played sparingly until the final few games of the season, after Teague and Rose had both been ruled out for the season and Jerryd Bayless went down with an injury of his own. The undrafted rookie backed up Jones and shot 4-of-12 from the field and scored 10 points over the last three games. He also dished out five assist and committed two turnovers.

There wasn’t much about Terrell’s season, either at the G League or the NBA level, that inspires much confidence in his ability to be a rotational player in the future. Terrell is already 24 years old and remains an undersized shooting guard with an unreliable jump shot.

The best-case scenario for Terrell is that he continues to develop his jumper and is able to be effective scoring through contact in the lane and getting to the free throw line. He did this to some extent in Iowa, but his 29.5 percent mark from beyond the arc and overall inconsistencies simply weren’t enough.

As mentioned in my preview of Terrell following his signing last summer, he’s a bulldog-like scorer who may have a tough time succeeding with that approach at the pro level. So far, that appears to be the case, and it would seem to be unlikely that he’s back in a Timberwolves uniform next fall.

Next up, fellow two-way player C.J. Williams…