Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 things to watch for in preseason opener vs. Suns

2. What does the wing rotation look like?

At this early stage, it appears as though Teague will start at point guard and Shabazz Napier will be the primary backup at the 1.

Towns is obviously the starting center, and Bell will be his primary backup and probably also see some minutes alongside KAT at the 4. Gorgui Dieng figures to be the third-string center and not see the floor too often, although he’ll probably see some run in preseason as Bell recovers from his calf strain.

The wing rotation? Get back to us in a couple of weeks.

The prediction here is that Wiggins and Culver start on the wing with Covington at the 4. Okogie will probably be the first player off the bench, with Jake Layman the next man up and Vonleh getting some minutes at the 4.

If the Wolves choose to go smaller, Layman could see significant time at the 4. Otherwise, Vonleh is the lone traditional power forward on the roster, although he expanded his jump-shooting range out to the 3-point arc last year as well, giving him a better shot at seeing the court against bigger lineups.

Again, Tuesday could give us a peek at what Saunders will look to do moving forward.

3. How will Towns be utilized within the offense?

There has been plenty of talk lately about how Towns might be utilized in the Wolves’ new-look offense.

So far, it certainly looks like he’ll spend less time on the low block and more time on the perimeter and perhaps in the high post. Saunders and Gersson Rosas want to put Towns in a position to be a facilitator, and for as good of a low-post player as Towns is, the Wolves recognize that they need to diversify his role in the offense if they want to achieve maximum impact.

Per usual, don’t expect the Wolves to show all of their cards as of yet, although the Wolves will no doubt want to work out some kinks in their base sets against live competition. It will be interesting to see how often Towns ends up with the ball in his hands on the perimeter.

While it doesn’t appear that this game will be available on TV or radio, we’ll be back with a few thoughts in summary, based on what Twitter and the box score tell us.

Enjoy (following) the game (on Twitter)!