With Anthony Edwards out, the Minnesota Timberwolves will be forced to play Rob Dillingham every night. Fans have been asking for that all along — so while Ant's injury isn't good by any means, it does potentially set up Dillingham to earn a permanent spot in a rotation that lacks a real starting point guard... Or any point guard, for that matter.
But Dillingham, who played 12 minutes on Monday in the team's first game without Ant, still doesn't have a clear path to regular minutes on a team desperate for guard play. Bones Hyland (16 minutes) struggled mightily from the field, shooting 1-for-6 in the game, but still saw more court time than Dillingham did.
You would think that, in the multi-week period which the Wolves will be trying to stay afloat, the team would be willing to give meaningful minutes to its lottery pick from one year prior who plays the biggest position of need right now. But, as Dane Moore, the great Timberwolves reporter, put it, "I think no Ant is going to mean more bones hyland than people might expect".
Through one Ant-less game, that does seem to be the case. And that's potentially cause for concern.
Timberwolves suddenly have a guard battle on their hands
We're one week into the NBA season, and we have a Bones Hyland vs. Rob Dillingham position battle in Minnesota. It's not what anyone expected (and it's probably not what anyone wanted) but we're here nonetheless, and the results of said battle could shift the Wolves season.
If Bones Hyland outplays Rob Dillingham in the next few weeks while Ant is sidelined, we should probably be concerned. It's not that Hyland can't be a contributor on this team — he was a microwave scorer in his short stint with Denver — it's that Dillingham was expected to be much more than a role player. If he's outplayed by a guy who's approaching journeyman status at 25, then the panic alarm will be smashed.
An already-thin guard room just lost its best player for at least two weeks, and Rob Dillingham is still fighting for minutes. You can slice this any way you want, but it's at least cause for concern. The next two weeks are going to force Chris Finch to play Rob Dillingham, as fans have wanted all along. Whether or not he does enough to earn his stay in the rotation is the big question.
Actually, whether he can do enough to earn Chris Finch's trust might be the biggest question. Like, does it matter how Dillingham actually plays? Or is he fighting a battle that's already been lost?