The Minnesota Timberwolves trade for LaMelo Ball should help unlock new levels to their offense. He’s that electric playmaker that Minnesota has been looking to add for quite some time to play alongside Anthony Edwards.
They quickly became one of the top backcourts in the league and are part of an excellent projected starting lineup along with Ayo Dosunmu, Jaden McDaniels, and Rudy Gobert. The Timberwolves are hoping that the addition of Ball can help them become a championship-level team.
A potential issue is that the Wolves seem a bit top-heavy. While many teams can’t hang with their starting lineup, there are question marks regarding the bench. Minnesota will have to partly rely on young players taking a step forward in order to have an adequate group of reserves.
Who will be the nightly reliable players off the bench?
Trading Naz Reid to the Charlotte Hornets in order to acquire Ball was painful, but necessary if the Timberwolves finally wanted to add that star point guard. For the past few years, though, Reid has been amongst the game’s best bench players. Even with him last year, the club didn’t exactly have one of the more productive benches.
Keep in mind their depth is also compromised for at least the majority of next season with Donte DiVincenzo sidelined with a torn Achilles. That puts Dosunmu into the starting lineup, or even if Chris Finch planned on starting Ayo, takes away DiVincenzo and his sharpshooting off the bench.
Last season, the Timberwolves were anticipating second-year growth from Rob Dillingham and Terrence Shannon Jr. that just didn’t happen. Minnesota eventually traded Dillingham to the Chicago Bulls, while Shannon Jr. missed nearly two months with a foot injury.
You can throw Jaylen Clark’s name in here too, another second-year player last season, as another who didn’t improve much from the previous year, as he couldn’t replicate his outside shooting spike from 2024-25. This left the Timberwolves with a top-heavy team until they traded for Dosunmu.
Looking at the bench now, there are just two guys that you know can score. Bones Hyland has had his postseason struggles for sure, but at least in the regular season, he has proven he can get buckets. Shannon Jr. is almost the opposite, as he’s had some solid scoring outings in the playoffs, but he hasn’t done it often enough in the regular season.
Joan Beringer and Clark are two players who are more defensive-minded, although I could see Beringer thriving in minutes played with Ball. Trey Lyles is back in the NBA after a year overseas, but he isn’t going to provide huge scoring nights.
Isaiah Evans could have a long-term future in the league if he proves to be an above-average outside shooter during his career, but it might be too much to ask a second-round pick to make a huge impact as a rookie.
Personally, as good as Dosunmu can be, I like him a lot as someone coming off the bench to provide that spark. Right now, he has to run with the starters (barring LeBron James surprisingly picking the Timberwolves as his next team).
There’s still time to add to the team’s depth, and it’s something that can be revisited by next year’s trade deadline, but there may be nights when the bench isn’t providing much. In the end, this could hurt them as they try to establish themselves as true contenders.
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