How many games would a Minnesota-native only team win?

One of us! One of us!

Everyone loves watching players from their home state make it to the big league.  Being from Minnesota, that didn’t seem to happen too often once the ’90s hit. But, times have changed.

Gone are the days of Quincy Lewis, Joel Przybilla, and Kevin Burleson. Gone are the days of Kris Humphries, who is more famous for marrying Kim Kardashian for 73 days than anything he ever did on the basketball court; and gone are the days of Royce White, who we can still support in the BIG3 on our weekends.

It’s a new era in the National Basketball Association, and players with Minnesota connections have increased from one every so often, to 16 new players in the past three seasons, and six rookies this coming year.  With a total of 18 players with Minnesota ties in the league (that I know of), let’s throw them all on one roster and see how many games this team could win. Here’s the player pool, some players will have to play out of position.

Point guards Tyus Jones, Tre Jones, Jalen Suggs, Tyrell Terry, Mckinley Wright IV, and Payton Willis. Shooting guards Amir Coffey, David Roddy, Ade Murkey, and Both Gach.

Small forward Kendall Brown. Power forwards Zeke Nnaji, Jericho Sims, Theo John, Freddie Gillepsie, Matthew Hurt. Centers Mike Muscala and Chet Holmgren.

In order to figure out how this team would fair, let’s take into account win shares, usage percentage, and minutes played.

Win shares measure the estimated number of wins contributed by the player. Usage percentage measures the number of possessions used by an individual player while on the court.