Minnesota Timberwolves’ Summer Squad ANNOUNCED | Young Wolves, First-Round Picks, Undrafted Rookies

Minnesota Timberwolves’ Summer Squad ANNOUNCED | Young Wolves, First-Round Picks, Undrafted Rookies

Hello and welcome into another episode of Lockdown Wolves. Today on the show, the Timberwolves have released their Las Vegas summer league roster. I’ll give you a summer league primer. Who to watch for? Non-roster guys, undrafted rookies, the whole thing as we get ready for Vegas summer league next week. It’s all coming. Welcome in. You are locked on Wolves. You are Locked on Timberwolves, your daily Minnesota Timberwolves podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome to the Lockdown Wolves podcast. Part of the Lockdown podcast network. Your team every day. My name is Ben Beacon. I’m the host of Lockdown Wolves. Today’s episode is brought to us by our friends at Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code lockdown NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Happy Friday, everybody. Happy Independence Day to those of you in the United States of America. hopefully have a chance to get some rest this holiday weekend and uh you know get ready I guess get ready for Las Vegas summer league next week right that’s the time of year we’re in it’s just one after another playoffs which for the Wolves is the last couple years have lasted way longer than than we’re all used to right into the draft right into free agency right into kind of a mini trade season around free agency and now we’re into Las Vegas summer league that Timber’s first game in summer league is next Thursday uh and now we have the roster the Wolves have released their roster preliminary roster very likely will change slightly between now and next Thursday. I’ll explain that here in a minute. Um, so what I want to do today is go through talk about obviously the roster guys, the 2A guys, the rookies, the guys on the roster that we’re familiar with. And then the other guys, the the undrafted uh rookies that that that are signings by the Wolves. There’s actually only a couple of them. There’s also some guys for the Iowa Wolves last year, players that were on the summer league roster last season for Minnesota. So, we’ll go through the whole roster. I’ll give you a couple to look for in kind of each category as we get you ready for next week in Vegas. A big thank you off the top for making Lockdown Wolves your first listen every single day. Of course, Lockdown Wolves is free and available everywhere. That includes YouTube as well as all of your favorite audio platforms. Wherever you like to listen to podcasts, you can find Locked On Wolves. All right, let’s go ahead and get into it. Um, like I said, the summer league roster is a combination of guys that we’re familiar with and guys that we’re not. And even like there’s a there’s a couple guys on this roster that I couldn’t even really find like good Sky Report or video on YouTube of them playing in college because they’re um we call them deep cuts when it comes to you have to be a pretty pretty big college basketball fan to know much about some of these guys. So, I’ll give you kind of an overall primer and I don’t claim to be an expert on any of these. um these players that that uh are on the summer league roster that are not on the Wolves roster, but I will tell you who they are, what their profile is bas Yeah, I watched a little bit of tape on and have a sense for for what they can provide. So, we’ll start with the guys that we know who they are. um the young the young I guess call him the young trio of players that I’ve talked about quite a bit in the last week or so that is is ostensibly going to be backfilling the vacated Nik Alexander Walker minutes after he went to Atlanta in the signing trade earlier this week. The Timberwolves are going to fill the Alexander Walker role very likely in in the aggregate. And the two guys I think that will bear the most kind of responsibility for doing that would be Rob Dillingham and TJ Shannon. And both of those guys are on this summer league roster. Rob Dillingham, of course, last year the number eight overall pick. Timber acquired the the lottery pick to draft him. And then he doesn’t play very much as a rookie. Only has a handful of games in the rotation due to injuries, etc. and and performs okay, but spotty enough in some areas, decision-m and offense and and consistency on defense that he never really finds a rotation role. He’s going to have a big year ahead or he he it is a big year for him and hopefully he does have a big year. Then T.J. Shannon, the later first round pick, who was probably a lottery talent, but slid because of the offthe-court um challenges, uh issues, I think is a fair word to use, and and was ultimately um acquitted of any off-the-court legal issues, legal problems, charges, and was a, you know, a valuable depth piece for Minnesota last year. Finally got a chance, scored 20 plus in a start against the Lakers. And then in the playoffs, briefly saw some minutes and and played really well um in the the Thunder series. It’s kind of a shot in the arm for Minnesota. So, those guys are on this roster and it’s a big summer league for them. They obviously have to stay healthy. They are going to get a chance to to showcase what they can do on both ends of the floor because the path to both of them for getting minutes is exactly the two things I mentioned that Dillingham did not do with consistency. And that’s decision-m and offense, which is always a bit dicey in Las Vegas summer league because, well, hey, everybody’s trying to show that they can do it, right? Everybody wants to be the guy. Everybody wants to show they can score. you’ve got guys working on stuff. Um, you know, TJ Shannon may be working on trying to score off the dribble and Dillingham’s trying to show that he can create, but he al also has to create for others. So, that’s tough. And then also the effort level on defense, which could be tough in summer league, too, because of the up and down style play. It’s a lot like watching the G-League in some ways. Um, although sloppier because you’ve got uh, you know, it’s it’s you’ve got a number of undrafted guys. You’ve got a number of guys who who maybe have been in summer league and played overseas and come back for summer league. The wolves a couple of those on the roster as well. So, those guys will get a chance to prove themselves. And then the third member of that trio is going to be Jaylen Clark. Of course, second round pick a couple years ago, missed his whole rookie season with the Achilles injury and is an absolute demon defensively. Like fantastic. Was the best point of attack defender in college basketball two years ago. Won the defensive player of the year award before he tore the Achilles and probably would have been a first round, not probably would have been a first round pick. Probably not a lottery pick, but a first round pick before the Achilles injury. Last year, he gets a chance for Minnesota. He is locked down in the back court as a defender. The offensive game, the the shooting was a a revelation, a pleasant surprise. 40, I think it like 42 plus percent from outside the arc on relatively low volume. And for a while had carved out a niche 12 14minute role in the in Chris Finch’s rotation, but then ultimately did not stick. And he’s got a shot, you know, to to do that this year. If the three-point shooting is actually for real and it’s provable, then I mean, this dude’s a rotation guy. No question about it. He’s got to be. And I don’t know if it’s ultimately my comp. I mean, he’s not a point guard, right? He’s a bit of a little bit of an undersized two guard that doesn’t score off the dribble with consistency and isn’t going to create for others. So, he’s got to be able to knock down open threes and he has to maintain that point of attack intensity and he’s got to be a top flight on ball defender, which I which he is currently. Uh, but he’s on this team and he’s going to have an opportunity. Remember last year he played, I think, in three summer league games. Had one where he had like six steals, also had a bunch of turnovers, but really looked apart in I think two of the three games he played in. and we now know he can stick at the NBA level. No question. But what’s he able to do here in Vegas as part of the Summer League Wolves? And then the other roster guy that we know is going to be on the uh or actually two more that’ll be on the team. One is Leonard Miller. Second round pick from a couple of years ago, been in the G- League after played for the G- League Ignite now for the Wolves last couple years. Has gotten zero rotation minutes at the NBA level. Only garbage time. That’s the only time he’s gotten to play in the NBA. And this is make or break for him. I mean, the Wolves could choose to not pick up his option in the fall or actually, sorry, as a second round pick. He doesn’t have an option. Um, I think he’s got he’s non-g guaranteed next year. Um, and he’s going to have to fight for a roster spot. I mean, the Wolves let Josh Min go. Minot was a year ahead of Miller in terms of how long he’s been on the roster. And I always thought Min was much closer to playing than Leonard Miller. Even if Leonard Miller has a higher ceiling, like legit star, I think Leonard Miller still has a star caliber ceiling. But he’s got to put all the stuff together, the consistency on defense, again, the decision-making in offense, um the the maturity stuff, like it’s all got to come together for Leonard Miller. This is an opportunity for him to prove that. And he’s done it in kind of fits and starts in the summer league the past couple of years, but he’s got to prove that, hey, I can I can stick at the NBA level and be a depth piece for you guys. You don’t need to bring in another big. I can play for you in a pinch. This is an opportunity for him to show that maturity level and show that growth. Then the last roster guy on a standard contract. So the Wolves have five of these on the summer league roster is Jawan uh uh Baron Baron. Man, I have to get better at pronouncing his name. Um Baron is how I think it’s actually pronounced. Baron is how Adam Silver said it at the draft. So Jean Baron the the Baron the Timberwolves number 18 overall pick in the number 17 overall pick, first round pick in this year’s draft. He’s 18 years old, painfully young. I would imagine he gets significant run in the front court with this team. We’ll talk about the other bigs on the team, but Leonard Miller is the only other one that’s got NBA experience. There’s a a power forward we’ll talk about a little bit that’s played at the at the NBA level a little bit, but realistically the only roster guy is Baron and other than Leonard Miller and he’s going to get significant run as an 18-year-old and it’s probably going to be ugly, but hoping we see a couple big dunks, some big defensive plays, some of that raw talent that uh you know, the the switchability on defense. I’m looking forward to seeing that from Baron uh here in summer league and and of course that other than like next week we’re going to do like here are the like five things to look for. Baron is obviously one of them like everybody’s pumped to see what he can bring to the table in an NBA setting. Remember he played in Europe last year. He hasn’t played states side. So what’s that going to look like when you get on the floor with you know a lot of these guys are younger but there’s guys with NBA experience. Undoubtedly, Minnesota is going to play against teams that have players that have as much or more NBA experience as Clark Dillingham, TJ Shannon. I mean, those guys have each only played one year in the league. Leonard Miller’s played two, but zero rotation minutes. So, there’s going to be teams that have players with more experience. And Baron to be playing against actual men. I guess he did that in Europe in in playing pro basketball in Europe, but uh here in in the NBA summer league is going to be a lot of fun to watch. and you lower usage guy, like lower volume of of offensive opportunities, which ultimately that’s what he is anyway, right? He’s a roll big, like he’s not going to be creating off the dribble anyway. But I’m curious to see what sort of opportunities, the activity level on the glass, the physicality, how he handles all that here in summer league. So, that’s going to be a ton of fun to watch. We’ll rattle off the two-way guys that are playing in summer league, and there’s there’s two to three of them. I’ll explain what I mean here in a second. And then some of the players I’m intrigued to watch that we have not seen play in Wolves uniforms before. for the Iowa Wolves guys, the undrafted rookies, all that. We’ll uh talk about all those guys here next. Today’s episode of Lockdown Wolves is brought to us by our friends at Game Time, our title sponsors at Game Time. We’ve all been there, logging on early and waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale only to lose your spot for a show that you’ve been dying to see. Live music should be about making memories, not dealing with the stress of ticket shopping. 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That’s L O C K D O NA for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Okay, moving on down the roster. We talked about five roster guys on standard NBA contracts for Minnesota. Clark, Dillingham, Miller, TJ Shannon, and Baron. Um, yeah, I think I got it. Two-way guys from Minnesota. Jesse Edwards is back. The uh the five-year college guy who was on a two-way contract all year with the Wolves last year and only played a couple of garbage time games. Jesse Edwards is back. He’s gonna be 25. Um he’s already signed his two-way deal for next year. He’s going to be back in a Table uniform as of now. Of course, those guys can always get waved later, but um you know, he is what he is. Archetype similar to to Rudy Goar. He’s a shot blocking roll big who’s who’s not super nimble and kind of a straight line roll guy. Not a whole lot of uh touch around the rim. Pretty good instincts for blocking shots, but not Rudy level, of course. um you know he’s fine and and the Wolves didn’t trust him ever to play last year and I don’t think they do this year either. Like I know Luca Garza is gone and we talked about this earlier in the week. Minnesota’s very likely to sign a veteran big as the you know kind of break glass in case of emergency Luca Garza guy who doesn’t play un till he really needs to unless they believe in Jesse Edwards on some level to be able to do that in the regular season and they they end up signing a backup point guard a um or playmaking wing and they leave that last roster spot open. And remember, two-way guys cannot play in the playoffs. So maybe the brick last case of emergency is Jesse Edwards this year. I don’t think it will be, but you never know. And they keep that last roster spot open to either sign somebody in the bio market in spring or maybe it’s promote Jesse Edwards to a full-time deal like they did with Luca Garza a year and a half ago uh in the spring of 24. 24. Yes. Um we don’t know, but Jesse Edwards is back and he is on the summer league team. Undoubtedly will be the starting center on this team. Tristan Newton is playing as well. He was on a two-way deal last year. Remember Minnesota claimed him off waiverss from the Indiana Pacers like early December, late November, early Decemberish. Only played garbage 10 minutes in a couple of games for Minnesota. He has not, at least it has not been reported that he’s accepted his two-way contract. The Wolves did tender him a qualifying offer as a restricted free agent on a two-way deal and he has not signed yet, but he is on the summer league team. Um, so he’s on this team as well. Combo guard, some upside as a scorer, a nice defender. Um, so you know, we’ll see what that I I’m curious to see him play more. Obviously, the Wolves think highly of him, so I’m curious to see him get some run in summer league. And then Roco Zakarski is not on the roster, but I feel the need to point out that he did sign a two-way deal, a two-year two-way deal after he was drafted in the second round, the seven, what is he, 73 Australian big, who’s also only 18 years old like Baron. Um and he has not signed because that trade is not official even though the Wolves announced him last week because it’s part of that we talked about this on on Thursday’s show that reported 17 team deal that Kevin Durant going from Phoenix to Houston is the centerpiece but there’s all these other dominoes that are all part of it until that’s official Zakarski cannot play in summer league but odds are it happens in the next week uh and I would imagine the Wolves can then add him to the roster who’ve seen this thing change in the past. So that’s that’s kind of your top eight in terms of guys that we’ve heard of or have been in a Wolves uniform or will be in the case of Zakarsski and Baron. The other guys let’s let’s talk about uh let’s talk about the Iowa Wolves guys really quickly. So these are all players who were on the Iowa Wolves last year in some capacity in a couple cases the last couple of years. Um Noel Eastern was on last year’s summer league team. He also played for Iowa. Nothing really to write home about. And I don’t mean this like I don’t mean to like be uh be uh I don’t mean to be mean here to to Eastern, but he was a three-year guy at Purdue, played at uh at at Iowa the last couple years. Actually, was on the summer league team last year. Did not get a whole lot of run. He’s a 67 wing. He’s already or forward really. Um he’s already 26 years old. Like there’s not a whole lot of upside there. He’s just he’s obviously somebody the Wolves like having around and he’s been in the Iowa Wolves system. So I don’t know that he’ll get a ton of run this year, but he’s on the roster. It’s a name you you may recognize, especially if you watched my Wolves last year. Um, let’s see who else do we have. We have uh uh Babakar Seain. Seain is Senagalles and I’m actually intrigued by him. He had was eligible for the draft a couple of years ago. He’s only 21 right now and he’s already played pro basketball like three plus years, like basically since right when he turned 18. And um he’s 6’8 with a wingspan that’s over 72, which is nuts. Um, and I found that in a couple of places. So, I think it’s legit. He again was part of the draft process a couple years ago. Fantastic athlete, really good defender. There’s not a whole lot of offense. He’s kind of your typical um, good athlete who’s a good defender and has is good enough on that end of the floor to more than hold their own. And there’s enough athleticism that the potential offense is pretty tantalizing. Like, what could this guy do? Sain did play in the G- League for the Owl Wolves last year for 16 games in the regular season and averaged 12 points and five rebounds. uh 31% outside the arc, but 49% overall shooting. So 57% from two. Again, raw toolsy, if you will, to borrow a baseball term. Um not a whole lot like he should be a better rebounder for how big and athletic he is. And he’s obviously not a playmaker at all. He’s just a like a a finisher. um a lob threat, a transition terror, but good enough defensively and a good enough athlete that there’s some intrigue there because again he’s only 21 and most of these these even the like he’s younger than most of the undrafted rookie type guys on this roster. He’s obviously older than Zakarski and Baron, but Sain is only 21 and he’s been a pro for a few years, played in the G-League. Um and so I’m intrigued to see him. I hope he gets some run. He he’s going to be on my list of guys I’m most excited to see. Um, let’s see. Another guy who played for the Iowa Wolves last year that’s that’s a bit more of a I guess you could say a project. Um, but maybe not as much upside would be Martz Brown. Martz Brown was a JO guy that transferred to a D2 school, Lincoln Memorial University. So, Jo D2 guy and he’s already 24, I think about to be 25. Yeah, he turns 25 in the fall. Um, played briefly for the Iowa Wolves last year and like not a whole lot statwise. played in 30 actually not briefly he played in 33 games last year 23 minutes a game averaged seven and a half points uh seven rebounds per game and not much you know he’s more of a a polished like an undersized four not much of an outside game he’s more of a post type guy but he’s only 6’8 uh decent enough as a defender and you know there’s still some development there but I think he’s just going to be a little undersized and not skilled enough which is a tough combination to stick as an NBA prospect but again an Iwolves guy who’s kind of um you know been around and Minnesota wants him on this team. There’s one other Iowa Wolves guy who I’m going to lump in with other players with NBA experience that we’re going to talk about here in a minute and that’s Amari Bailey. I think I’m going to close there. Let’s actually talk about Well, no, let’s do that first. Let’s do let’s do the NBA guys first and then we’ll go with the undrafted rookies here at the end of the show. There’s only like four more guys to talk through. So Amari Bailey played for the Charlotte Hornets um two years ago as a rookie. He was actually a second round pick. 41st overall. So he was the 11th pick of the second round. Played in 10 games for Charlotte two years ago and obviously not much in the way of playing time. Six and a half minutes per game. I’m assuming it’s it was all garbage time. And then he was in the G-League last year. And Amari Bailey played with Jaylen Clark at UCLA. There’s some hope for him as a as a true two-way player. Um not a two-way contract guy, but like a two-way player. He’s really good defensively and has pretty high upside offensively. The problem for him, I should say, he’s 6’4 with a 67 wingspan. So, he’s a guard. Um, modest size for a two, obviously, like smaller than Jaylen Clark. Uh, he’s got to be a better passer and playmaker if he’s going to only be 6’4 with a 67 wingspan. And same with the shooting. Like, one of those skills has to be better. The shooting is fine. Um, like in the GLeague last year, he was 28% from three. The year before though, across 23 games in the G-League with um, what team was this? I don’t know what team GBO is. Uh the Greensboro. Oh, that makes sense. The Swarm, the Hornets G-League team. He shot 42% from three on four per game. So, the shooting seems to be, and you look at his college stats, like it’s not consistent enough. And the playmaking isn’t really there. And one of those skills kind of has to be there if he’s going to stick at the NBA level at 6’4 with a 67 wingspan. He’s really tough. He’s got a good first step. Physicality is is really good. Finishes, really good footwork. Um trying to play off the dribble. solid touch around the around the rim. Like it really he’s just got to have one of those other skills develop as a bit of an undersized combo guard. He’s got to either be a more consistent shooter or be able to playmake for others, which the shooting thing feels like it’s the more likely thing to develop given the toucher on the rim. And he’s mostly been a good free throw shooter. So, um there’s hope there for Amari Bailey and I’m sure the Wolves would love to have him in Iowa again this year. but he’s a guy who was a second round pick just a couple years ago, 10 NBA games two years ago for Charlotte and a lot of G-League experience the last couple years. So, he’s going to be an intriguing player to watch. And then the other guy with NBA experience is Jamal Kane. There’s less upside there. He’s already 26 years old, but he’s actually been on two-way deals the last three years. He spent two years with the Miami Heat on two-way deals. Played in 40 uh 44 games across two seasons. Even had a start with the Heat a couple of years ago, and then last year was in a two-way deal with with New Orleans. got into 37 games. Of course, they were ravaged with injuries. 14 minutes a game, five points, couple of rebounds. Um, and his profile is he’s a little bit of an undersized four. I think he’s better cast as an undersized four than he is as a three because the outside game is a little bit limited. He’s a 33% three-point shooter. Um, and you know, you look at his draft profile and good good size and athleticism, decent enough shooting is what is what the goal is or or what the kind of best case is right now for him. a little bit of a jack-of- alltrades, master of none situation with Jamal Kane. Um, and this is the two-way deal thing is about right. Like we’ve seen these guys come and go through Minnesota as well that where they do a little bit of everything, but they’re not really great at any one thing. Um, other than, you know, rebounding, he’s a good rebounder for his size, but the jumper is just okay. The, uh, ball handling is just okay, the playmaking is just okay. Uh, like he maybe turns it over a little bit more for being just an okay playmaker. So, he’s not really any one thing. He’s just a guy who’s a kind of an average 67 size for an NBA guy. Uh, and you know, does everything kind of okay, but nothing great. And so, what do you do with a guy like that? It makes sense to have him on summer league. Makes sense to maybe get him, maybe he gets that last two-way spot if the Wolves look for somebody for, you know, some depth. That hasn’t been the Wolves MO with the two-way spots since they’ve been a contending team the last two or three years. They tend to go with guys with, you know, either more upside or more veteran type guys. I guess you could say Tristan Newton is a little bit of a depth piece, but I think he’s more of a development project as well, whereas Kane kind of is what he is uh as a 25-year-old. So, given the Wolves kind of roster situation, maybe they try and stash him in Iowa, try and offer him to exhibit 10, but I’d be surprised if he ended up on a two-way, but it’ll be interesting to watch him. Let’s close by talking about two undrafted rookies who were in college basketball just last year that are on this roster here for Minnesota in Las Vegas. We’ll do all that here next to close the show. All right, Minnesota’s summer league roster only has two undrafted rookies on it. Talk about Desmond Watson first. Desmond Watson is a a guard um 6’5 and he’s the he’s actually got a little bit of a similar problem to Ace Bailey that we talked about who was the second round pick of the Hornets a couple years ago. Watson’s slightly bigger. Um he’s more of a slasher than he is a a point guard though. Like a like more of a he plays more like a two-3 like a wing than he does a combo guard like a one two right. Um now he was a four-year college guy. Played two seasons at Davidson and then transferred to Loyola Chicago. Played two years there. So four-year college guy. The assist rate went up pretty dramatically at Loyola Chicago and it looks like he had the opportunity to to create a little bit more. It’s interesting because the turnover rate went down. Well, the assist rate went up, which is good. I mean, as he got older in college and and got more experience. Like, that’s should that that is what should happen, but he also had more responsibility on his shoulders. He had a a higher usage rate as well at Loyola Chicago. So, he was kind of the centerpiece of everything they were doing. The three-point rate also went up. Almost half his shots last year from three-point range, and he was under 34%. His junior year though, he was he was about 39% from three. So, overall in college, he was about 33%. But that went up as he went through college. So the the positive thing is he continued to get better. As he was given more responsibility, he got better as a passer and as a scorer and overall more efficient as a scorer. The free throw rate was pretty solid overall. I think he’s pretty physical based on what I’ve seen. Good touch around the rim. I don’t think he’s big enough to be dynamic as a wing and he’s not a true guard. Like I said, he plays more like he’s a slasher forward type guy than than he is a um and maybe attack a little bit off the dribble, but I just don’t know that that’s that’s going to be I don’t know that he’s quick enough to do that at the NBA level against some of the guards that will be guarding him. And I don’t think he’d be big enough to do it against some threes. So, a bit of a tweener in in some ways. And I can see why the Wolves are intrigued. He feels like a definite G-League possibility. Maybe if they let go of like a Tristan Newton, maybe a two-way type possibility, there’s a little bit of upside there. I just think, as is often the case with the guys in summer league rosters, you could point to three, four, five things that are NBA skills, but then one or two things that really aren’t. And one of those things has to turn into something that is. Um, or they’ve got to have some other thing like athleticism or youth or, you know, some combination of those things that teams can look at and say, “All right, this guy can get better and and there’s a spot for him moving forward.” And so I’m intrigued to see if Desmond Watson gets any run. I I you know I I could see them trying it out a little bit. Like the way the Wolves have often done summer league the last couple years is they play their main guys a bunch and then the other rotation guys are and by that I mean the standard roster guys and then the other guys kind of alternate. So like do we get two games of Desmond Watson playing heavy minutes and and two games of Ace Bailey playing heavy minutes? Um, it’s also possible that Clark, Dillingham, Shannon, those guys only play three of the five games or whatever they end up playing in Vegas. They they, you know, they may each sit a couple of games to kind of minimize the wear and tear. Still have them around the team. They’re part of the summer league training camp, etc. That’s always a possibility, too. So, in that case, we’ll see more of Desmond Watson. The other undrafted rookie is CJ Fulton. CJ Fulton also played two years at a school and transferred to another school. instead of A10 schools, he played two years at Lafayette in the Patriot League and then transferred to College of Charleston in uh Conference America uh for his final two years. He’s a weird one. Um the scouted report I one of the scout reports I found on him was actually at our friend Tyler Metaf’s site uh no ceilings and I’m going to see if I could pull up the blurb really quick, but it basically said, “Hey, this guy is is a is an interesting spreadsheet case was the uh here I’ve got it right here. uh which I think is is such a fascinating way to look at this. Um he’s an interesting spreadsheet bet. This is again at no ceilings.com. Uh the 62 guard. He’s only 6’2 from Charleston. Produced in a lot of ways this past season. He shot 37.7% from three, which is fine. Good. Averaged six and a half assists to only 1.3 turnovers. Rebounded well for a guard and registered a steel rate of 2.6%. There’s a real quote quote firepower question to be asked as he only averaged 7.8 eight points per game as a senior at the mid mid- major level, which isn’t common among players in NBA rosters. I’d be fascinated, and maybe this wouldn’t be that hard to study. Um, but how many guys are rostered at the NBA level that average single digits in college, if they played at college, as a senior, like like a four-year guy that played as a senior in college did not average double figures. Is there anybody? Like, there there can’t be very many. And then you layer on top of that that this guy played at a mid- major and only averaged 7.8 8 points per game. Clearly Minnesota’s looking at this and saying, “All right, he’s an average three-point shooter, maybe a little bit better, 37%.” And the steal rate’s great. The assist rate is really good. Doesn’t turn it over a ton considering how much the ball was in his hands. He had a a actually not a very high usage rate. He was basically the straw that stirs the drink. And 70% of his shots were threes the last couple years. Like, this guy’s going to be a good shooter. He’s going to distribute. He’s going to play hard. He’s going to rebound. He’s going to get steals. Um, I don’t know that given the size, the athletic limitations, and the fact that he’s not a if he was a 44% three-point shooter, this is maybe a different conversation, but he’s a 37% three-point shooter. So, I think this is an interesting test case to see how he handles the speed and the athleticism of the summer league. But, I’d be pretty surprised if uh if CJ Fulton I could see him having a decent summer league just given the nose for the ball with the rebounding and the steel rate. like those types of guys who play hard and have a nose for the ball, you know, that may overcome some of the athleticism, the limitations when it comes to his athleticism. But, uh, I don’t know. We’ll it’ be interesting to see. I’d be I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t get a lot of run if they brought him in to kind of see what he looks like in practice, have a kind of a a true point guard type guy out there um, in practice as well. But, it’s a pretty interesting case and and something we’ll keep an eye on. So, next week on the show, we’re going to talk about like the five things to watch for. I’ll give some predictions for summer league. Um, and then, you know, kind of get you ready for the first game on Thursday. So, we’ll have a couple days next week to do that. Of course, if there’s any other movement in free agency, Minnesota’s got two roster spots available to fill. They must fill one. Uh, we’ll talk about that next week if it happens as well. So, uh, get ready for that. There are some summer league games that begin here in the next couple days, too. So, we still have basketball, believe it or not. All right. Big thank you for making Lockdown Wolves your first listen every single day. Of course, this show is free and available everywhere. That includes YouTube as well as all of your favorite audio platforms. Wherever you like to listen to podcasts, you can find Lockdown Wolves. You can also watch on the Lockdown Sports Minnesota app on both Roku and Amazon Fire TV. A big thank you once again for making Lockdown Wolves your first listen. Of course, for your second listen, you can go check out the Lockdown NBA podcast where there is no offseason. Doug, Matt, and Hayes keep you up to date on contract negotiations, rumors, and everything you need to be the most informed NBA fan. Find Lockdown NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day. Of course, Lockdown Wolves is also part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. And the Lockdown Network is your local experts on all the biggest stories. Once again, I’m Ben Beacon. This is the Lockdown Wolves podcast. We’ll catch you next time. Have a fantastic Fourth of July weekend.

The Minnesota Timberwolves Summer League roster has been released. It’s a combination of first-round picks from last year and this year, plus Iowa Wolves, intriguing undrafted free agents, and a couple of players with NBA experience. Ben Beecken (@bbeecken) breaks down the roster as they get ready to head to Las Vegas.

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