The Minnesota Timberwolves running a lineup with Joan Beringer and Rocco Zikarsky in summer league is seen as a fun experiment. Or maybe not? While Zikarsky earning NBA minutes is highly unlikely, on the Amazon Prime broadcast, Chris Finch brought up the possibility of Joan Beringer playing the four next season.Â
“We feel, at times this year, there are going to be opportunities for Joan to play the four. Confident that he can guard in switch situations," Finch said.Â
As currently constructed, the Timberwolves have two forwards: Jaden McDaniels and Trey Lyles. They'll surely add another, but depending on who they add, it's possible they have to get creative at the four spot.
Playing Beringer at the four would be a disaster, though. This has nothing to do with Beringer being a bad player -- he has plenty of upside, and I'm eager to see what he can do with a bigger role. The problem is that the only way to play Beringer at the four is to play him alongside Rudy Gobert, and having two non-floor-spacing big men is a death sentence.Â
A frontcourt of Joan Beringer and Rudy Gobert is an illogical pairing
The Timberwolves should have a heightened level of sensitivity to the issues that two non-floor-spacing big men bring to a team. Remember Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert? There were plenty of reasons why Randle needed to be traded, but the lack of floor spacing in a frontcourt with him and Gobert was chief among them.Â
By playing Beringer and Gobert together on a regular basis, the Timberwolves would be proving they learned nothing from the past two seasons. In fact, the Beringer-Gobert frontcourt would be even worse than the Randle-Gobert frontcourt.Â
While opposing teams didn't respect Randle as a shooter, at least he'd shoot 3s, averaging 4.4 per game. Beringer has shown no signs of an outside game -- ditto for Gobert. As such, the two players would clog the paint. Have fun, Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball.Â
Even if the Wolves don't make a meaningful upgrade to their frontcourt, they would be better served running smaller lineups than playing Beringer at the four.Â
Defensively, Beringer is mobile enough to guard fours, and having him play alongside Gobert could make for an intriguing duo. Nevertheless, at his core, Beringer is a center and rim protector. He is a mobile and switchable five, but that doesn't mean he should guard fours on a regular basis.
The defensive fit could end up being fine, but it wouldn't be enough to make up for the floor spacing concerns with a Beringer-Gobert pairing.
To be clear, Beringer should be viewed as a key piece of the Timberwolves' rotation, but he should soak up all of the non-Rudy minutes instead of playing alongside him.
Under no circumstances should a Beringer-Gobert pairing be used as a vital fixture of Minnesota's rotation. If the Timberwolves do view this pairing in this light, they'll get a harsh reality check shortly.
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