For their last game of 2025, the Minnesota Timberwolves had their most disappointing performance of the season in their 126-102 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. They will enter 2026 with a 21-13 record, good for sixth-best in the Western Conference.
There were a lot of issues from the Timberwolves that could be brought up after the loss to the Hawks. One that has reared its ugly head far too often, though, is the lack of bench production, and that continued on New Year’s Eve.
Pathetic performance all around on Wednesday
The Timberwolves roster one of the best reserves in the league in Naz Reid. The problem this season, though, is that if he is not on his A-game, it’s hard to have any expectations for the bench to make a huge impact.
With Minnesota trailing by 25 entering the fourth quarter, the bench played the majority of the final stanza. Let’s not read too much into any production they had in garbage time.
Up until 7:52 left in the fourth quarter, Timberwolves’ reserves combined for 11 points (on a miserable 3-23 from the field), one assist, and five turnovers over a combined 58 minutes. Four guys saw action off the bench. Reid was a minus-23 in 22 minutes, Jaylen Clark was a minus-13 in 16 minutes, Mike Conley was a minus-19 in 14 minutes, and Bones Hyland was a minus-14 in eight minutes.
Coming off the bench after missing the Hawks’ previous 10 outings, Kristaps Porzingis outscored the Wolves’ reserves by himself up into that 7:52 mark in the fourth.
The bench has been subpar all season
As we enter 2026, Minnesota ends its 2025 portion of the schedule as having a bench that isn’t reliable (outside of Reid). If Reid has an off-night, the Wolves have no source of offense -- that puts him in a difficult spot. Out of 30 teams, the Timberwolves' reserves rank 26th, averaging 32.5 points per contest and 29th, shooting 42.2 percent from the field.
Much of the talk surrounding the Timberwolves involves them needing to find an upgrade at point guard. Minnesota also needs to bolster the bench because the better teams in the West, when healthy (Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets), have more depth.
The Timberwolves need to do something, and right now, I don’t see the harm in giving Johnny Juzang a shot. They need to find some type of spark off the bench. Hyland was that spark for a brief while, but there’s a reason not much was expected of him entering the season. Terrence Shannon Jr. is injured, but he has seemingly regressed from a rookie year where he saw uneven minutes. Rob Dillingham might benefit from an address change at this point.