For the Minnesota Timberwolves, preseason play is now complete. As such, fans can shift their attention from roster moves and new uniform designs to what we’ve all truly been waiting for: regular season basketball.
However, in order to be best prepared for what we will see from the Timberwolves in the regular season, it’s still important to reflect on what we saw in preseason. Minnesota finished 4-1 in the exhibition slate, falling Friday night to the Brooklyn Nets in their only loss of the preseason.
Through five games, we saw Minnesota utilize a multitude of lineups and experiment with many different players on the floor together. The result was a very successful stretch of games that should have fans feeling optimistic headed into the year.
Over the course of five preseason games, there were several Timberwolves players who completely exceeded expectations. Let’s take a look at three of them.
the man of the hour. @LukaG_55 pic.twitter.com/RVrRF6ohqE
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) October 13, 2022
1. Luka Garza
Let’s get the most obvious one out of the way first. Joining the team in August on an Exhibit-10 deal, Luka Garza didn’t have the greatest odds of actually ending up on the Timberwolves’ roster for the start of the season.
But that’s exactly what he ended up doing. After wowing everyone with a 15-point fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Lakers last Wednesday night, the Timberwolves wasted no time in signing Garza to a two-way deal for 2022-23.
His versatile game proved to be too much for Minnesota to ignore. Drilling three shots from beyond the arc against the Lakers, he showed that he has real potential as a rebounding big that can stretch the floor with his sharp shooting.
Garza may have taken his first step in what becomes a long NBA career.
2. Jaylen Nowell
While it may not have been an unexpected turn of events to see Jaylen Nowell come out of the gate playing well in preseason, he certainly still shattered expectations.
Many expected Jaylen to be one of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ prime candidates for a sixth man this season, but not everyone expected to see him produce at such a high level right away.
Nowell was inserted into the starting lineup for the Wolves’ first preseason contest, where he scored a seemingly effortless 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Over the next three games he scored in double figures on 66, 50, and 46% shooting, respectively.
His last outing against Brooklyn was something of an outlier where he went scoreless in 21 minutes. Outside of that performance, he was nearly spotless in the preseason.
Nowell’s seamless transition to the starting lineup against the Miami Heat had to have been encouraging for Timberwolves fans. It was a sure sign that when D’Angelo Russell is off the floor this season, Jaylen will have no trouble filling in.
Minnesota will be looking for Nowell to be a spark plug and an efficient scorer that can provide quality minutes off the bench like he’s done in the past. So far, he’s shown he’s still more than up to the task.
3. Naz Reid
The big man has proven to be quite a force down low. Naz Reid will be playing in a backup role this season behind the starting frontcourt of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert, but he showed his worth as one of the more high-end bigs in the NBA this preseason.
Starting in four of the Timberwolves’ five preseason contests, Reid routinely had his way in the paint against opposing players. Against the Clippers, he put up a double-double of 20 points and 11 rebounds while shooting 9-of-13 from the field.
If that wasn’t good enough, he one-upped himself just a few nights later in Los Angeles. Reid poured in a team-high 22 points and 13 rebounds, bullying the Lakers’ post players en route to a 118-113 win.
Over the five-game preseason, he made seven three-pointers on 33% efficiency (which rises to 42% in games he made at least one three). Reid’s outside shooting was a major factor in manipulating what defenses did against the Timberwolves.
His impact on this Minnesota roster is hard to understate. As an intimidating post presence, he can give the starting frontcourt a true breather when they need a few quick minutes on the bench. Reid proved once again in preseason that he’s going to be bringing solid minutes nearly every time he steps on the floor.