Biggest winners and losers from Timberwolves preseason

With their defeat of the Bulls on Thursday night, the Minnesota Timberwolves officially wrapped up preseason. In doing so, they concluded exhibition play with a perfect 5-0 mark for the first time in franchise history. While it is just preseason, this has certainly been an encouraging few weeks for those hoping to see the Wolves reach their full potential this year.

The biggest win may have been that Minnesota is emerging from preseason play without any major injuries to any of its rotation players. That alone bodes well for this group after such an injury-riddled campaign last season.

But outside of finishing the five-game slate mostly healthy, there were other big winners and losers. Some players cemented themselves as surefire rotation pieces, while others are still falling behind.

The biggest winners and losers of the Timberwolves’ preseason:

Winner: Shake Milton

After coming over from the 76ers this summer, Shake Milton has been everything the Timberwolves had been hoping him to be. In four preseason games, he scored efficiently while providing the speed and accurate shot-making Minnesota so desperately needed off its bench.

While some viewed him as something of an afterthought when he was added in the offseason, Milton is showing that he is ready to be part of Head Coach Chris Finch’s rotation from day one. He did an excellent job of providing spacing on the floor in preseason and gave players with larger offensive responsibility more room to thrive.

We already knew Milton would be a significant piece to this team. But after the preseason he put together, he has cemented himself as a potential top six scoring option.