The Minnesota Timberwolves won their NBA Summer League season opener with solid shooting from the floor, coupled with a good handle on the basketball. In their second game, the Timberwolves could do neither. And that’s the basic and fundamental rule of NBA-style basketball.
Summer league is a more elaborate and organized version of pickup basketball at the local gym. The rosters are assembled with little notice, the players are flown in, shuttled into a basketball court, given some introductions and some basic work, and then pulled together to compete in games.
Sometimes they look sharp. Sometimes they don’t. The Timberwolves did not look sharp whatsoever in Game 2 of their four-game season.
By a strange coincidence, in two games so far, the Minnesota Timberwolves have scored 148 points, and have surrendered 148 points. That is an odd spot to be in after two games, right?
The NBA Summer League is quite similar to the NFL Preseason, except that this competition is among players before they work with their respective teams. That’s the rub, as the best players in the competition (I’m looking at you, Grizzlies PF Santi Aldama) all too frequently had a chance to compete in the NBA regular season the previous season, and have so much of a head start on the rest of the competition that it’s tough to gauge relative skillsets of inexperienced players.
So you don’t place a lot of stock in the outcome.
But the Timberwolves did show several alarming trends. 21 turnovers were excessive, even for a summer league contest. Shot selection was atrocious, and was amplified by shooters trying to get unprepared shots off before long-armed Grizzlies Aldama got within range to block the shot. But the biggest concern was the way the Timberwolves simply stopped moving the ball around.
After an impressive 16 assists in game one, the Timberwolves really hard-halted on that front, only getting seven assists against the Grizzlies. That has got to improve. The Timberwolves will have a chance to get back to the win column this week.
Minnesota Timberwolves Summer League
Friday, July 8: Denver Nuggets at Minnesota Timberwolves
High scorer: Josh Minott (22 pts)
Best 3-pt shooter: Josh Minott / Wendell Moore Jr. (66.7 percent)
High rebounder: Josh Minott (10 rebounds)
High assists: Josh Minott / Marial Shayok (3 assists)
High steals: Marial Shayok / Kevon Harris / Deonte Burton (2 steals)
Sunday, July 10: Minnesota Timberwolves (1-0) at Memphis Grizzlies (0-1)
High scorer: Kevon Harris (17 pts)
Best 3-pt shooter: Matt Lewis (33.3 percent)
High rebounder: David McCormack (9 rebounds)
High assists: Wendell Moore Jr. / Matteo Spagnolo (2 assists)
High steals: Wendell Moore Jr. (3 steals)
Wednesday, July 13: Minnesota Timberwolves at Milwaukee Bucks
Time: 3:00 pm CT
Location: T-Mobile Arena
Channel: NBA TV, NBA TV Canada
Thursday, July 14: Denver Nuggets at Minnesota Timberwolves
Time: 9:00 pm CT
Location: Cox Pavillion
Channel: ESPN, NBA TV Canada
Saturday, July 16: Bracket play begins (teams and times TBD)
The Timberwolves (1-1) will face the Milwaukee Bucks (1-0) this Wednesday. See you there!