Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 things the Wolves actually do well

What the Minnesota Timberwolves do well: Bench scoring

The Timberwolves were supposed to have a good offense this season, that was supposed to be the easy part. Well that hasn’t been the case this season. Minnesota is No. 25 in the league in scoring with just 106.8 points per game.

A lot of that is once again due to Towns missing most of the season to this point. Minnesota averages 114.7 points per 100 possessions with Towns on the court and just 100.9 when he sits.

On the flip side, Minnesota has gotten a big scoring punch from their bench across the first 13 games of the season. The Wolves are third in the league in bench scoring with 39.9 points off the bench per game.

The bench mob has been led by first-overall pick Anthony Edwards. The 19-year-old is averaging 12.2 points per game, coming off the bench in all 13 games while playing 25 minutes per contest.

Despite the impressive scoring numbers, Edwards has had an up-and-down rookie season so far. He came out of the gates hot, averaging 15.1 points over the first nine games of his career. Things have cooled down since, however: in his last four, Edwards is averaging just 5.5 points per game on only 20.5 percent shooting.

Edwards isn’t alone in finding scoring success at some level off the bench. Reid, Culver, Juan Hernangomez, Vanderbilt, and McDaniels have all contributed in the scoring column at one time or another.

There’s always a flip-side, however. Here, it’s that the Wolves have played in so many blowout games that their bench players have seen a lot of garbage time minutes early on in the season.

Edwards had his career high of 26 in an 18-point loss to Portland, Culver scored a season-high 20 points in a 15-point loss to Denver, and even Jordan McLaughlin and Jake Layman had their best games in a 21-point loss to Washington.

The Timberwolves’ bench sees more court time than any other unit in the league at 21.1 minutes per game and are one of the worst shooting squads around. The Wolves bench is hitting on just 41.9 percent from the field and 28.2 percent from 3-point range, which rank No. 25 and dead-last in the league, respectively.

Frankly, the Timberwolves have been a dumpster fire this season and while they have done a few things well, most of their strengths are born from their most debilitating weaknesses.

Hopefully, the Wolves can find a way to make small steady improvements the rest of the way.