Impact of health and safety absences on Minnesota Timberwolves’ lineup

The Minnesota Timberwolves enter Friday night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies sans one of their regular starters and their top reserves. What will the rotation look like?

The Minnesota Timberwolves finally got their full complement of players back on Wednesday and led by double-digits in the fourth quarter before losing to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Now, ahead of Friday’s re-match, the Wolves found out that they’ll be without two key members of their rotation due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols.

Without Juan Hernangomez in the starting lineup and no Ricky Rubio available off the bench, what will the Timberwolves’ starting lineup, and in turn, the bench rotation, look like?

Who will start at power forward for the Minnesota Timberwolves?

The Timberwolves started the season with Jake Layman as the starting power forward. Eventually, that role shifted to Juancho Hernangomez.

Neither player has been effective, to put it lightly, and the Wolves ended up giving key minutes to Jarred Vanderbilt over the weekend with Layman earning just five minutes on Saturday and a DNP-CD on Sunday. Now, Layman is absent for personal reasons (his wife had a baby this week.)

Vanderbilt will likely start, but it’s not out of the question that head coach Ryan Saunders may want to leave him with the second unit.

In that scenario, the Wolves could start Anthony Edwards at the 4 in an extreme small-ball move, or perhaps slide Josh Okogie there and insert Jarrett Culver into the starting lineup.

If the Wolves were ever going to play more of a traditionally large frontcourt, the Grizzlies would be the opponent to do it against. Might Saunders try either Naz Reid or Ed Davis alongside Karl-Anthony Towns? It’s unlikely, but not outside the realm of possibilities.

The guess here is that Vanderbilt gets the nod and Okogie gets a shot at most of the backup minutes at the 4. If the Wolves are getting beat badly on the glass, look for them to try Reid and Davis together with the second unit when Towns is getting a breather.

Who will fill Ricky Rubio’s minutes for the Minnesota Timberwolves?

The easy answer to back-filling Rubio’s vacated bench minutes is two-way guard Jordan McLaughlin, who will be active for the first time in a week. He will get the backup point guard minutes and have the opportunity to share the backcourt with D’Angelo Russell for stretches.

But that still only accounts for nine players in the rotation. Will Saunders stick with those nine, or will he give an opportunity to anyone else?

The obvious fill-in for Vanderbilt, if he indeed slides into the starting lineup, is rookie Jaden McDaniels, but it seems unlikely that he gets serious run in a game against a physical team like the Grizzlies. Remember, he’s an inexperienced, rail-thin, barely-20-year-old who struggled at times with the physicality of the PAC-12 last year.

Might Jaylen Nowell see some clock? Especially if Okogie sees significant time at the 4 and if Culver continues to struggle, it seems like a good time to get Nowell’s scoring touch on the court.

And remember: Hernangomez is reportedly out for at least 10 days, so some of the rotation tweaks that take hold on Friday may be in place for the next handful of games.