The rookie campaign for 17th pick Joan Beringer has resembled previous draft picks in the Chris Finch era. While Beringer has been able to display flashes of brilliance, as well as teaching moments, it has been difficult to fully evaluate what he can be, considering that most of his play comes in garbage time minutes.
Beringer is averaging a mere 6.8 minutes per game, averaging 3.1 points and 2.0 rebounds. Beringer has been able to find playing time in the G League with the Iowa Wolves, where he has dominated. Beringer averaged 15.3 points and 11.3 rebounds in eight appearances in the G League regular season.
While Beringer has shown that he can dominate the G League and in small spurts at the NBA level, he has also shown that he has a long way to go before he can be the future franchise center for the Timberwolves.
With the regular season winding down and the Timberwolves locked into the sixth seed, Minnesota has opted to rest some of its starters before the playoffs. With Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle missing Wednesday's game against Orlando and Friday's game against Houston, Beringer has the chance to build up his confidence and momentum for his sophomore campaign.
Joan Beringer has shown flashes of his immense upside
In Beringer's short NBA stints, Beringer projects to be a monster rebounder. Beringer has displayed motor and a desire to crash both the offensive and defensive glass aggressively. In Wednesday's loss against Orlando, Beringer grabbed eight rebounds in 23 minutes of play, with half of them being on the offensive glass. Beringer's youthful energy on the court is apparent in his crashing of the offensive glass, fearlessly chasing every rebound.
As a young French big man, Beringer has had the opportunity to learn behind one of the best bigs of all time, Rudy Gobert. His fellow Frenchman has consistently been in his ear and helping him develop in his rookie year. Despite only being a rookie, Beringer seems to already project to have better offensive output than his fellow Frenchman.
Beringer has displayed strong hands when receiving difficult passes, one of the major flaws in Gobert's game. In addition, Beringer's offensive fluidity and touch around the rim have been promising for the long-term development of his offensive game.
Prior to entering the NBA, Beringer showed comfortability handling the ball in short stints, as well as taking mid-range jumpshots. If Beringer can develop these aspects of his game in the NBA, the sky is the limit for the 19-year-old.
Beringer still has room to grow
The good news about Beringer's flaws is that Beringer came to basketball only five years ago. However, Beringer has a long way to go, with his most recent performance being evidence for this.
Despite scoring nine points and eight rebounds in his most recent performance against Orlando, Beringer struggled mildly in this game. Beringer tallied five fouls, showing a severe lack of discipline in protecting the rim.
Beringer tried to contest every shot, which unfortunately was his demise as he was unable to without fouling. Fortunately, Beringer can work on this for the foreseeable future under the wing of Gobert. A younger Gobert also struggled with this issue, so Beringer can learn directly from someone who once faced the same problem.
Beringer has also struggled with the physicality of NBA bigs. When being posted up by more physical bigs, Beringer struggled mildly. Since summer league, Beringer has faced this issue, resorting to unnecessary fouls.
This is fortunately another issue that can be attributed to his youth. The 19-year-old will have plenty of time to develop his body in order to match up better with the more physical bigs.
While the Timberwolves look towards a playoff run, Beringer will have the opportunity to closely observe playoff intensity and what it takes to win. As he faces his first full offseason, Beringer will have the opportunity to become an impactful player for the future of the Timberwolves, and these final two games could help him build some good habits.