The Minnesota Timberwolves have not been very successful so far this season. I’ll let that up to the expert’s and fans’ opinions as to the cause for the sudden plunge in fortunes, one item that I will bring up here is the fact that this would seem to be as good of a time as any to get rookie Wendell Moore Jr. a boost in playing time.
I do understand that if the Timberwolves were over .500 and fighting to sustain or improve any potential season-ending playoff berth, any decision to divert minutes from productive veterans to uncertain rookies would be an unwise choice.
But the Minnesota Timberwolves are neither over .500 nor is this team in any position to think that they are going to earn even the last berth in the upcoming NBA Playoffs. In fact, the team’s roster is stretched fairly thin right now as it is, with prevailing multi-game injuries to a number of key rotational players.
Time for the Minnesota Timberwolves rookie?
Rookie wingman Wendell Moore Jr. may not bring a ton of offense with him when he steps onto the basketball court. But he does bring a stifling defensive presence and that is also an area that the Timberwolves need to improve as the season progresses. The problem right now is that the Timberwolves have plenty of offensive weapons on the roster. But at times it feels as though the Timberwolves’ resolve to play strong defense is limited to center Rudy Gobert, shooting guard Anthony Edwards, and small forward Jaden McDaniels.
Occasionally, point guard D’Angelo Russell will turn some heads defensively, but the team needs to be a bit more consistent in getting rebounds and creating turnovers, and I think Moore could be part of the solution.
Of course, more minutes for Moore means more pressure on his teammates to score, so there must be a happy medium. The Timberwolves cannot just turn the spigot of playing Moore on and walk away, as the team will be unable to keep up the pace of scoring points necessary to win games.
But playing Moore now should be considered an investment for later in the season and in his career. The faster he gets the range on his own arsenal of shots, and gets more effective at stopping opposing players from scoring, the sooner he can become a key cog in the Timberwolves’ lineup.