Starting DiVincenzo improves one key aspect of Timberwolves' offense

All season long, the Minnesota Timberwolves have dealt with spacing issues that have hindered their offense. Beyond that, Chris Finch has spoken about how a lot of times the problem comes down to ball-holding specifically. When the ball sticks and guys like Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle are stuck trying to make something out of nothing, the results have not been great.

Finch said his decision to start Donte DiVincenzo in place of Mike Conley on Monday was to help get Conley going offensively. To a degree, he definitely achieved that - with Mike scoring in double figures on solid efficiency. But what his choice also did was open the offense up from an overall standpoint.

We saw the Timberwolves' starting unit achieve much more movement with DiVincenzo out there, which made for less standing around and more plays where the defense had to adjust quickly. This is a great blueprint for how Minnesota can continue to have a productive offense going forward - with more lineups employing the right blend of off-ball cutters and players who can keep the offense flowing.

DiVincenzo improves the offensive pace of the starters

Donte spoke about this after the win on Monday. "You look at the bench the first whatever games, I think we just pushed the pace," said DiVincenzo. "I think that's what we were trying to do, me, Nickeil and Naz. And just doing that in the first unit, eliminating all the X's and O's and trying to overthink things and 'where does Ant want it?' Just eliminate that. Once we get to the second, third action, now you have the ball in Julius' hands, Ant's hands, and just pushing the pace allows for more spacing on the floor."

This is a great breakdown from Donte of how he and some of the bench guys can simplify things with their play. As he says, worry less about where the ball needs to end up and just let things flow naturally as much as you can. Doing so seems to be the best formula for the Wolves' success on offense right now.