Minnesota Timberwolves Roundup: Beasley and Okogie videos and more

Today’s Minnesota Timberwolves Roundup includes Jr. NBA videos from a pair of Wolves players, plus Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo on how attractive the Wolves’ GM job is compared to the rest of the league.

The Minnesota Timberwolves may not be on the court, but Josh Okogie and Malik Beasley are dribbling their way into your hearts and minds.

The Wolves’ two starting wings each participated in a recent Jr. NBA initiative, posting videos to help kids with their ball-handling skills.

For as energetic and athletic and as good of a defender as Okogie is, I wouldn’t say that ball-handling would have been in my top three (or four, or maybe five) things I’d expect him to record an instructional video on, but here we are.

That’s a nice short clip of Okogie doing some classic moves and drills. But Beasley took it to a different level with a lengthy video shot with Jr. NBA coach Jeremiah Boswell, who played collegiately at the University of Georgia and overseas for a number of years.

Yep, that’s nearly 18 minutes of Beasley and ball-handling drills, warm-up included. Good stuff if you have a kid who’s into ball, plenty of time on your hands, and somewhere to dribble either indoors or outdoors.

There’s a whole series of videos being put out by Jr. NBA, so be sure to check out the entire list. There’s videos from a variety of people, including legends Muggsy Bogues and Allan Houston, Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle, and current stars Malcolm Brogdon and Gordon Hayward.

Elsewhere, on the Bill Simmons Podcast on The Ringer Podcast Network, Simmons and Ryen Russillo listed the posts that they determined to be the five worst general manager jobs in the NBA. And you guessed it: the Timberwolves job made the list.

Objectively, it makes sense that the Wolves would be somewhere in the range of the fifth to tenth-worst job, but I’m not sure it makes sense to have them squarely bottom-five.

Just off the top of my head, there’s outposts of mediocrity in markets that aren’t much more promising (Charlotte, Cleveland, Detroit, Sacramento), and there are big markets that aren’t exactly attractive, starting with the New York Knicks.

That said, go ahead and give it a listen and decide for yourself. It’s an interesting debate, nonetheless.