The Minnesota Timberwolves’ starting lineup of the future
By Zach Lung
The Minnesota Timberwolves have struggled through the first third of the 2020-21 NBA season thanks to a combination of misfortune and young talent.
Injuries to key players, including both Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell, have allowed every player on the roster to receive meaningful on-court minutes with less-than-stellar results. The NBA’s youngest team, with an average age of 24 years old, has experimented with a number of different player combinations and schemes in the hopes of yielding positive dividends.
Finding an effective starting lineup to build upon may now be the single most important agenda for head coach Ryan Saunders during an otherwise lost season.
Minnesota Timberwolves: The starting lineup of the future
The Timberwolves have already trotted out 14 different starting lineup combinations this season with their most-used starting lineup playing just four games together.
Their most used starting lineup of Russell, Malik Beasley, Jarrett Culver, Juancho Hernangomez, and Ed Davis may come as a shock as three of the five players have been in and out of the overall rotation for a significant portion of the season.
Equally shocking is the fact that only seven of the 14 starting combinations have ever played consecutive games together before changing yet again. This amount of turnover is unprecedented for a professional franchise and particularly damaging to one desperately searching for an identity.
President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas has been tasked with the challenge of constructing a roster that plays with pace, space the floor, and defends at a high level, all while complementing the unique skillset of Karl-Anthony Towns.
The Timberwolves have already assessed six separate starting combinations next to Towns, each with its own varying degrees of problems. A trade could be made to acquire a more complementary piece with the NBA trade deadline on March 25 quickly approaching, or the solution to the team’s dilemma may already be sitting on a Minnesota bench full of young promising players.
Either way, the Minnesota Timberwolves must quickly identify the correct combination of starting guards, forwards, and center to build upon for the future. Let’s take a look at what is currently the starting lineup of the future.