The Minnesota Timberwolves are clearly going all-in as they try to break through in the Western Conference, which has led to them giving up Julius Randle for relative peanuts and eviscerating their depth to acquire a star point guard in LaMelo Ball. The Naz Reid exodus also paves more of a defined path for second-year French big man Joan Beringer to ascend.
Beringer, who was drafted 17th overall last season, was picked with the intention that he would spend most of his rookie season gradually developing on the back end of the bench. 2026 and 2027 were always supposed to be Beringer's coming-out parties, and many around the NBA are starting to buy into the hype.
ESPN listed Beringer as the No. 4 sophomore they are excited to see take the stage in 2026, managing to rank ahead of top-five picks like Philadelphia's VJ Edgecombe and Utah's Ace Bailey. Beringer is still very much an unknown after marinating on the bench, and now he's ready to go on the attack in an expanded role.
Timberwolves' Joan Beringer ranked high on must-watch NBA sophomore list
Beringer averaged 3.9 points and 2.3 rebounds last season, but much of that year was spent as a reserve developing his skills. In eight games with the Iowa Wolves in the G League, Beringer proved to be too good for that level of competition. The 6-foot-11 Selestat product averaged 15.3 points, 11.3 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks per game while shooting 64% from the field.
Minnesota is not going to tolerate another year of sanding the rough edges in his game, however. Even though Beringer will, in all likelihood, come off the bench behind Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert, he will be given a good chunk of rotation minutes and expected to take an offensive leap.
With his 7-foot-4 wingspan and great mobility for his size, defense and rim protection was never the concern with him as a prospect. Beringer came to the NBA with major concerns about his offensive ceiling, and if he is proving to be a net negative on that end in his second season, minutes might be increasingly harder to come by.
Physically, Beringer has everything that Chris Finch and the front office could want from a rim-protecting big. It's on him to start taking some of that potential and figuring out a way to turn that into something the Wolves can build their future around.
Add us as a preferred source on Google