Timberwolves get creative as Garza, Knight, Minott absorb minutes

The Minnesota Timberwolves roster has been the equivalent of the NBA’s Rubik’s Cube so far this season. It’s not as though the team did not build a well-rounded and complementary roster. But the team quickly suffered injuries to two key players, starting power forward/backup center Karl-Anthony Towns and backup point guard Jordan McLaughlin. Neither player has any date in sight of returning to the basketball court.

Even as the Minnesota Timberwolves needed bigs to take over a depleted front court from the Timberwolves roster, Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch became quite creative in setting his rotations.  That configuration was a bit amusing, perhaps because the Timberwolves had a number of young bigs on the bench who were in desperate need of any NBA experience.

But another reason for the chuckles is that the team failed to get big Naz Reid or Nathan Knight onto the floor. And so, the Minnesota Timberwolves sent out their version of a small ball lineup onto the basketball court.

The Minnesota Timberwolves head coach, Chris Finch, had almost immediate regrets over not taking advantage of the chance to get his younger big men some playing time and desperately needed NBA experience.

Chris Finch: NBA head coach or mad scientist?

But he continues to experiment with various lineups. After all, this was never in the script. He was supposed to find ways to make a Twin Towers 2.0 work in the NBA this season. But one has not stood up for more than 21 games, and the other is showing signs of wear and tear now.

And that leaves Coach Finch in a jam. Not only does he continue to experiment, but his moves have left room for doubt and regret:

Yes, the Minnesota Timberwolves have scratched and clawed back to .500 basketball with a record of 24-24. But did anyone expect the team to be relying so heavily upon young bigs like Luka Garza, Nathan Knight, and Josh Minott this soon?

Perhaps more concerning. With the injury situation for the Minnesota Timberwolves this season, it doesn’t appear as though the team will get any relief in the foreseeable future.