The Minnesota Timberwolves have made some major roster changes over the past year. The team’s decision to shake things up at the trade deadline last February and move on from D’Angelo Russell proved to be a smart choice, as the Wolves’ starting unit seemed to gel even more with the conclusion of the regular season.
Mike Conley fit in seamlessly next to Anthony Edwards and allowed the young star to flourish as he played in a much lower-usage role than D’Lo. Then, in the offseason, Minnesota signed Shake Milton from the Philadelphia 76ers as well.
Seemingly overnight, the Timberwolves’ depth at point guard grew dramatically. Nickeil Alexander-Walker even started at PG in four of the team’s five playoff games. But outside of NAW who typically plays more at the two, Minnesota has three players that project as prototypical point guards for the upcoming season.
Here at Dunking With Wolves, we already looked at how Shake Milton could fit into the Wolves’ offense as a floor general. It will be up to Head Coach Chris Finch to tinker with lineups and see who fits best at certain spots on the floor, but he will have no shortage of options at point guard between Milton, Conley, and Jordan McLaughlin.
Start, bench, cut: Timberwolves point guards
Start: Mike Conley
It would seem that the obvious choice to start among these three would be the established veteran, Mike Conley. Playing the final third of the 2022-23 regular season with the Wolves, Minnesota Mike made a strong first impression on fans that has many excited to see what he can do next.
With Conley turning 36 years old next month, many questioned if supplanting the spry D’Angelo Russell with a player in the twilight of his career was a wise move. After all, D’Lo had some solid stretches last season where he took over on offense and gave Minnesota some needed fire power.
But as the home stretch of the season wound down, many began to see that Conley was an excellent fit with this team. His drive-and-kick ability combined with a knockdown jump shot made him a perfect pairing next to Anthony Edwards.
He is not as young and athletic as he once was, but his timely decision making and on-court leadership makes Mike Conley the easy choice as the Timberwolves’ starter.
Bench: Shake Milton
The addition of Shake Milton was something of a chess move for Minnesota. With the former 76ers guard having a similar skillset to that of the speedy Jaylen Nowell, he seemed to be an obvious replacement after Nowell’s subpar season in 2022-23.
But surprisingly enough, Milton is more natural playing at the point guard position than at shooting guard. He may have been listed as a two guard in Philadelphia, but he has always had point guard skills. In 76 games for the 76ers last year, he averaged a career-best 3.2 assists per game.
The expectation is that he will be able to give the Timberwolves solid minutes in spurts as a ball handler. Around 20 minutes per game should be the sweet spot for Milton to run with the second unit and bring a little more speed and athleticism than Mike Conley would provide.
All this makes him the easy choice to come off the bench. At this current juncture, Shake would not provide enough of a boost with his scoring or playmaking to justify starting him over Mike Conley. But his advantages in size and shooting efficiency should certainly give him the edge over his new teammate Jordan McLaughlin.
Cut: Jordan McLaughlin
As beloved as Jordan McLaughlin is by a large portion of the Timberwolves fanbase, he is simply part of a dying breed. Players under 6-foot in the NBA are becoming increasingly rare, and McLaughlin will likely find himself buried on the point guard depth chart this season.
After a 2022-23 season where he missed nearly half the year due to injury, J-Mac was unable to do himself many favors to move up in Finch’s rotation. When he did get on the floor, he was clearly hampered by his injuries and did not play with as much consistency as he was used to.
McLaughlin shot just 42% from the field and 30% from three, both below his career averages. In the playoffs, he barely got on the floor and played just seven minutes per game. This came after he played over 16 minutes per game in the first round against Memphis in 2022.
With the addition of Shake Milton, McLaughlin will undoubtedly have an even more difficult time finding significant minutes in 2024. But even so, J-Mac is a winning player. He knows he does not need to be heavily featured in the offense to make contributions to a playoff contending team.
9 Players the Minnesota Timberwolves held onto for way too long
In the history of the franchise, there have been several players that the Minnesota Timberwolves ultimately kept around for too long.