4 things to love about Minnesota Timberwolves new lineups

Reason IV: It’s a versatile group of players

The Minnesota Timberwolves, like every professional sports team, is a group of professional athletes who must be willing to adapt a bit to promote the success of the team. Adapting is one of the strategies that separate successful teams from unsuccessful teams. So far this season, the Timberwolves have found it necessary to rely on players to adapt in multiple ways.

The most obvious is the fact that the Minnesota Timberwolves have played 38 games without All-Star PF/C Karl-Anthony Towns. But he was not the only key player injured for the Timberwolves. The team has had to play 10+ games without center Rudy Gobert, power forward Taurean Prince, forward Kyle Anderson, backup point guard Jordan McLaughlin, and even guard Austin Rivers.

Course correction

But perhaps more importantly, this was a team that was created on a whiteboard, an assembly of players onto the Minnesota Timberwolves roster who never had the chance to generate any chemistry before the season started, and as a result of injuries, failed to identify several trouble hotspots for the team.

D’Angelo Russell was simply not the point guard for this team. And after discovering that revelation, the Timberwolves were already behind the eight ball thanks to the injury to backup point guard Jordan McLaughlin. So the team redirected the floor general responsibilities to both Kyle Anderson and Anthony Edwards. While both players stepped up, it was not an optimal use for either.  Now, with Mike Conley on the court, the Timberwolves have multiple options to handle the basketball.

The team can also sit Kyle Anderson and start Taurean Prince, a vital option to have as Anderson continues to struggle with back spasms.