The Minnesota Timberwolves lost to a star-studded Brooklyn Nets team early Monday night.
The Minnesota Timberwolves performed better than expected against the current-title favorites, holding their own for the majority of the game, and making a comeback in the fourth quarter. Outside of Kyrie Irving and James Harden, no one on the Nets really got going – including Blake Griffin, who recorded four fouls in the first quarter.
The Timberwolves, 11-36, hold onto the best-overall lottery odds to retain their top-3 pick.
Takeaway #1 – Minnesota could have used a D’Angelo Russell revenge game tonight.
While D’Angelo Russell has been out for the majority of the season due to a knee injury, the Timberwolves really missed his presence as a ball-handler and primary playmaker. Ricky Rubio and Jordan McLaughlin only combined for seven total assists through the first three quarters, and that simply won’t cut it against a defense as poor as Brooklyn’s.
Additionally, Minnesota shot sub-40 percent from the field against the Nets, and again, that’s poor against ANY team.
Takeaway #2 – Malik Beasley is still rusty.
Other than the occasional open three, Malik Beasley has had a really rough start to his NBA return following his suspension. With the slow emergence of Anthony Edwards as a consistent 30+ minute player, it seems as though Beasley’s skill set is becoming more replaceable.
It will be interesting to see whether Malik Beasley’s early-season success was more empty stats or legitimate production – but early returns don’t look great.
Long-term, the Wolves should probably seek to trade Beasley in order to diversify their positional breakdown, especially with Jaylen Nowell becoming a solid rotational player.
Takeaway #3 – Jarrett Culver simply is not good enough.
Jarrett Culver, the sixth overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, has had more than a disappointing start to his NBA career. Tonight, he looked unconfident in every level offensively, and was unable to contribute enough defensively to take away from that.
Minnesota needs more two-way complementary players, and unfortunately for them, Culver probably isn’t going to be a big contributor in the long run. Again, patience is key, and Culver is still recovering from various injuries this season, but things are not looking good.
Minnesota’s next game is against the New York Knicks at home on Wednesday.