Timberwolves Bryn Forbes must show up or be traded

The Minnesota Timberwolves knew that after setting up center Rudy Gobert to play alongside Karl-Anthony Towns, this roster would need to address the perimeter.  After all, the team has surrendered prolific scorer, shooting guard Malik Beasley, and the team needed to backfill that role behind young shooting guard Anthony Edwards.

Minnesota Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly tapped a player who was quite familiar to him. Veteran SG Bryn Forbes was a free agent to the Denver Nuggets roster last season, and he performed better than expected in a similarly designed role for the Nuggets for the 2021-22 NBA season.

So the Timberwolves added him to the roster and hoped that he might give the Timberwolves some 3-and-D-like play. If nothing else, the hope was to take advantage of his 40.9 percent three-point shooting for his career, and with that in the lineup, give the Timberwolves more alternative scoring options than driving to the hoop or lob passes to Gobert.

A no-show on the Timberwolves’ roster

But that aspect of Bryn Forbes games never developed. Forbes has simply not panned out whatsoever for the Minnesota Timberwolves so far, and there are no indications that improvements are coming anytime soon.

As a result, Forbes’ average minutes per game has been reduced to the lowest amount of playing time since he was a rookie playing for the San Antonio Spurs in the 2016-17 NBA season. Whatever the difficulty so far, the matter is becoming quite noticeable.

While playing a different position, rookie Luka Garza is averaging 2.1 PPG to Forbes 3.2 PPG, despite playing time averaging 3.7 MPG to Forbes 10.2 MPG. Even rookie Wendell Moore Jr. is showing more impact, as he has been impressive with his ability to play defense so far for the Timberwolves.

With the Timberwolves falling further under .500, the team will be aggressively pursuing avenues to help buoy this sinking ship. Although Forbes is clearly not working out for the Timberwolves, he could have enough residual value for a playoff-hopeful team eager to get another perimeter shooter on their roster. If that proves to be the case, the Timberwolves would be rather easily persuaded to part ways from Forbes for any reasonable offer.