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Where will Minnesota Timberwolves minutes come from?

By Bret Stuter

Mandatory Credit: Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports
Mandatory Credit: Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports /
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Here we are, less than two weeks away from the start of the Minnesota Timberwolves training camp, and we are left wondering who will fill the final slots on the Timberwolves roster.  While w await the answer to that question, perhaps we would be wise to ask a more obvious question.  Such as: Where will the Minnesota Timberwolves find the minutes to distribute to all of the new additions to the Timberwolves roster?

Sure, the Timberwolves have parted ways with starting point guard D’Angelo Russell. But we can safely assume that his minutes fall to new veteran point guard Mike Conley Jr.  To find where the minutes will come from this season, we have to look at the handful or so of bench players who are no longer on the Timberwolves roster going forward.

They are (in no particular order):  SG Jaylen Nowell, SG Austin Rivers, F Taurean Prince, PF Matt Ryan, and SG Bryn Forbes.  In their place, we have SG Nickeil Alexander-Walker, PG/SG Shake Milton, F Troy Brown Jr., F Leonard Miller, and eventually, SG Jaylen Clark.

Where will Wolves find playing time?

So now that we have the names, how will the Timberwolves scrape together playing time for the new arrivals?  Well, we have the folks from Howls and Growls to thank for the overview:


The Timberwolves coaches will simply redistribute the minutes from last year’s players over this year’s additions. Will that work?  In theory, it could work.  But many of the minutes distributed to last year’s players came as a result of injuries to starting players, or their primary backups. (note: Jordan McLaughlin is back with the Timberwolves)

  1. Name                      Minutes        Points    Rebounds      Assists
  2. Jaylen Nowell         1,252               704          170                  132
  3. Austin Rivers          1,016               255            83                     75
  4. Bryn Forbes                268                 89            15                     17
  5. Matt Ryan                   181                 75            12                     12
  6. Taurean Prince        1,192               493         132                     84
  7. TOTAL                        3,909            1,255         412                  320
  8. Per Game (82 g)          47.7              15.3         5.0                     3.9

While we haven’t begun the most difficult task of assigning those minutes to players just yet, this establishes a solid foundation to do so. We will likely refer back to this data table from time to time as we try to assess how new faces will fit into the Timberwolves’ new rotations.

Stay tuned.

Here are a few of the latest Timberwolves to read after this:

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