Joan Beringer, T.J. Shannon IMPRESS as Summer Timberwolves Stay Hot | Andrew Dukowitz Joins

Joan Beringer, T.J. Shannon IMPRESS as Summer Timberwolves Stay Hot | Andrew Dukowitz Joins

Hello and welcome in to another episode of Lockdown Wolves. Today on the show, Andrew Dukowitz from zone coverage joining me from Las Vegas. We’ll talk the first two games of Vegas summer league, biggest takeaways, and who might have the inside track on the final rotation spots for the Wolves. It’s all upcoming. Welcome in. You are locked on Wolves. [Music] You are Locked on Timberwolves, your daily Minnesota Timberwolves podcast, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome to the Lockdown Wolves podcast, part of the Lock On podcast network. Your team every day. My name is Ben Beacon. I’m the host of Locked On Wolves. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Happy Monday, everybody. Hopefully you had a great weekend. Today we’ve got Andrew Dookowitz from Zone Coverage on the show today. He is going to uh join me from Las Vegas. He’s there covering the summer league for zone coverage and he’s going to give me his takeaways from being there live on the ground talking to Kevin Hansen, the Wolves head coach uh for summer league and and some of the players on what they’ve seen so far in Vegas. We’ll talk about who we think might have the inside track on the final rotation spots in the regular season. What we’re looking for with the final week and he’s got a surprising player, somebody I’ve barely talked about on the show, who he says to look out for in games three and four coming up here in Vegas. First though, a big thank you off the top for making Lockdown Wolves your first listen every day. Of course, this show is free and available everywhere. You can watch on YouTube. You can also watch on the Lockdown Sports Minnesota app on both Roku and Amazon Fire TV. All right, without further ado, let’s get into my conversation with Andrew Dukez of Zone Coverage. All right, as promised, Andrew Dukowitz from Zone Coverage and uh Daily Wolves is here with us today. We’re going to talk a little summer league. Andrew’s in Las Vegas. Uh you’re just telling me it’s it’s warm there. What’s what’s the uh what’s the high temperature you’ve gotten so far? Uh, it’s been in the 110s and as someone who lives in a climate controlled house that is set to 67 at all times, the 110s has not been friendly. But thankfully, all of my lift drivers have had their AC working. Yeah, it’s almost twice twice as hot as you keep your uh as you keep your dwelling. It sounds like that’s uh that’s a lot. Um yeah, the the the it’s it’s crazy that it happens in Vegas in the middle of the summer. That that’s that’s where the entire NBA world um you know, gathers that that’s that’s what we’ve landed on. But anyway, um so yeah, so let’s let’s talk Timber Wolves in Vegas. We’re recording this after the Wolves have played two games in Las Vegas. This is uh this is Monday’s show here at Lockdown Wolves, so the Wolves don’t play again until tomorrow on Tuesday. Uh but we had a game on on uh Thursday and we had a game Saturday night and the Wolves are two and0. Um, but of course what everybody’s watching is the Timberwolves first round draft pick, uh, Jawan Baron and all the rotation guys the Wolves have in Vegas. And they’re they’re should be one of the best teams in Vegas because they actually have like four guys starting for them. Three guys who saw real NBA minutes last year on a on a good team. Um, and most of these teams that’s simply not the case. So it’s maybe not surprising the Wolves are two and0. What I want to start with is just kind of overall takeaways to this point through two games. like what stood out to you the most and then we’ll get into some of the individual players. Um and this can be from game one, game two overall between the two games, but like if I was to say what’s the biggest takeaway or biggest two takeaways so far through two games in Vegas, what would you say? Um I’d say the biggest takeaway is just how I I mean Johan I I think the biggest takeaway for me. He is a basketball novice. I mean, he’s only played basketball for three and a half years, and he is running off of pure instincts. I I talked to Kevin Hansen about it at practice two days ago, and Kevin was just like, “Yeah, he’s he doesn’t know the schemes. He doesn’t know where he’s supposed to be. He’s still figuring out like the language. Like, he didn’t know what gap zones were and things like that.” like he he really is just playing off of sheer like just basketball intelligence and knowhow and he looks dominant without really understanding how to play the game which you know regular season is he going to look like this if he gets minutes probably not because the competition is going to be so much higher and you know he jumps at everything and he doesn’t really understand a lot but I mean for a 19-year-old kid that’s only been playing basketball for three years and has no clue what the heck is going on schematically. To have this type of impact is really it should be really encouraging to Wolves fans because I if we’re planning on this guy being the air apparent to Rudy Gobear theoretically he has about two years to figure out more of those schematic things and just his raw intangibles understanding. I mean, I I talked with him yesterday for a little bit at practice just off to the side and I was trying to get to know him a little bit more and I said, “I mean, what do you do for fun?” And he’s like, “Basketball.” Like, “You don’t play FIFA? You don’t play 2K?” “No, basketball.” It’s like, “Okay, well, they got a good one.” Yeah. I mean, like, it is incredible. Like, that’s my number one takeaway, too, is is uh what we’ve seen from him so far. And and I would say um I mean, I think describing him as a novice is great. I I he’s he’s so instinctual despite not knowing all this stuff. And and it it’s funny because you can see both things. You can see the the raw instincts and obviously the raw athleticism and talent, but then you can also see like to your point he jumps at everything. He had was credited with six blocks in the opener. Um by my count he had more like seven or eight credit with six blocks in the opener. Only had one in the second game and early in the game he was literally jumping at everything. like he was just like a half second late or a fraction of a second late on several block attempts, you know, shots that he probably had no business trying to block and he would have been better, you know. Well, I say that and of course the guy had six blocks the other day, so maybe he can block some of those shots. But yeah, the like learning to stay down and and and all that to say like he’s only committed, I think, three fouls across the two games, which is also crazy. But it does feel like one of those where if he gets into practice, you know, with watches film with coaches and and gets on the floor with Rudy Goar a little bit more often or at all, um he’s going to learn some of that stuff, some of the schematic things like you’re talking about. But the fact that the instincts are that strong are really really impressive. And I have on our our graphic to talk about him later, but we may as well just keep talking about him now because he’s also my number one takeaway. The the the biggest thing that I’ve been impressed with is his poise on the poise and activity level on the glass. He gets to seemingly everything to so many rebounds that he should have no business getting to. and like especially on the offensive glass and then also what to do with the ball afterward. Like the outlet passes on the defensive glass. Then on the offensive glass, if he’s around the rim, he’s going to try and score it. If he’s a little bit away from the rim, he’s quickly kicking it out to the perimeter. Uh basically, if he’s not the restricted area, he’s getting rid of the basketball. And there was one he shoveled a pass to I think it was Amari Bailey for a layup off an offensive rebound. It was just a such an instinctual. I have this, I’m looking to my left, I see a guy cutting, I’m just going to dump it off to him. But it’s not something we see guys who have been in the league for years always do correctly. And it seems like like that’s just natural to him. 100%. And and that’s that’s what it is. It’s natural to him. Again, I you know, he’s new to speaking English. He obviously took some English courses growing up in France. like I think they just have to through grade school and stuff, but most of his English he’s learned was from a bunch of Croatian guys last s last winter. So like the language barrier is definitely there. Like have to talk really slow to him, give him time to kind of think of responses. And on a basketball court, you can’t do that. You can’t talk really slowly to him and give him times to think of responses. So he’s doing these things without communicating. He’s doing them without fully understanding what the Wolves are expecting out of him or where he should be in their in their scheme. And I mean, he had another play, I think it was last night, where he had like a at least a twothird quarter like out outlet pass out to I think it was Rob. Yeah. And like those are those are the things that are just to have that level of awareness without playing it since he was like five or six years old is just special. His athleticism too is to your credit or to your point about the rebounds. I mean some of those rebounds he’s he jumps like a guard or a forward like he’s just reaching over guys and yeah like plucking the ball from the air. He also has the like instincts to just go straight up like he doesn’t try and jump over people’s backs. Even when he’s blocking he always has like his off hand raised a little bit so that he can get that hand up quick and not like encroach on somebody. like he’s I think Wolves fan should actually be pretty excited for what he can be a couple years from now. Now, I the the thing I I’m kind of tempering at least in my DMs on on X and Tik Tok is this guy’s probably not going to play a lot this year. Just the nature of this Wolves team. When you have J, when you have Nas, when you have Rudy, there’s not going to be a lot of minutes out there for a 7 foot one guy that doesn’t really understand structure. But I mean, he’s going to be working with Rudy Gobear, who’s one of the best guys at understanding structure. I mean, he’s thrives in a drop scheme. He also can play on ball, as we’ve seen the last couple years. And I mean, the coaching staff and development staff of the Wolves are starting to put up a really impressive resume of guys that they have developed and that have come on well, just keeping them on the bench. So, I I completely agree with you. His just raw talent is incredible. And then his athleticism, I mean, if he wasn’t 7 feet tall, I would not know that he was a center just watching him play. He’s he looks like a natural runner. He can jump out of the building. His hands are like really good. He’s he he could be special. He’s going to have a chance. Yeah. And to your point about playing time, he’s certainly like he I mean I’ I’d put the overunder at games that he appears in this year probably at at 10. And I’d probably I’d maybe take the under on that. Like um he’s he’s not he’s not playing the Lucagartha role, which is like you’re the break glass in case of emergency big. He’s not even there. He’s probably like where Leonard Miller’s been the last couple years, which is blowouts only. And surely they’re going to try and and mix in him in the G-League versus, you know, him in practicing. And of course, that’s the benefit of having the G-League team four hours down the interstate is is you can have him there at practice and send him down there for a game and whatever. So, it’s going to be some mix of that where you want him around go Bear, you want him around, but you want him getting game action, you know, professionally here in the US. And so, he’s learning the system and all that stuff that they play in Iowa. Um, but yeah, I mean, there there he’s he’s there’s no chance he’s playing rotation minutes this year. I don’t even think he’s he’s on the outside of the rotation with a chance to get in the rotation. It’s garbage time minutes only. He’s 18 and and there should be no expectation he’s going to play. Um clearly there’s uh there’s a ton of talent there and um obviously the offensive game is going to be the last thing that he’s going to have to develop. Right now he’s scoring on lobs, he’s scoring on putbacks and that’s all they’re asking him to do. But also like he looks very like he got to the free throw line in in uh I think it was Saturday’s game and he looked very comfortable shooting free throws. Like the the shooting motion looks pretty good for a guy that is that big and has played this little. Um there’s some touch there and and there I think that’s definitely encouraging. Um, I want to get into some additional takeaways here. Um, including I want to talk a bit about the other rotation guys, TJ, Shannon, etc. We’ll do all that here next. Today’s episode of Lockdale Wolves is brought to us by our friends at Hungry Route. Let’s be honest, meal planning and grocery shopping can be overwhelming between busy schedules, picky eaters, and trying to eat healthy. It is a lot. And that’s why I love Hungry Root. They take the stress out of planning by filling your cart for you with personalized groceries and meal options based on what you like and what you need. Hugroot uses their smart cart technology to recommend groceries, recipes, and even supplements tailored to your preferences. 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And I want to start with TJ Shannon because kind of my my number two takeaway overall is how he’s played and specifically how he’s played in the half court. Um you know, we could just look at at the at the straight scoring uh numbers. He scored 20 plus. He had 20 uh in game one. He had 24 in game two. Um and we know that TJ Shannon can shoot threes. We know he’s got great range. We know he’s a terror in transition. Um but what I was looking for coming into summer league was can he create in the half court for himself? And secondarily, is there any chance he could playmake for others if he’s going to play the Nikil Alexander Walker role this year? And I want to talk a bit about whether or not he’s he’s made progress already toward earning that job. Um you know, he’s not a natural playmaker for others. He he didn’t really create for others at Illinois. He just kind of scored. Um but then in game one of summer league, we saw him have nine assists. In game two, he had three assists and no turnovers. He’s still mostly scoring for himself, but he’s I think he’s made some uh- which is also impressive. Like scoring in the half court, he’s been better than I expected him to be. And then also creating for others has been a little bit better than I expected him to be. And I would also use the word instinctual or maybe reactive for TJ Shannon when it comes to his passing in the half court. I think he’s mostly made the right decisions calling his own number versus creating for somebody else and I’ve been encouraged with his performance in the half court uh to this point through two games in Vegas. Oh yeah, completely agree. His you know is he going to be uh trust with a lot of playmaking roles on the main roster? Probably not, just to be realistic. But he does seem to when he gets into traffic and he draws that extra defender, he does seem pretty capable of recognizing where that defender is coming from and getting the ball out, which I mean when we drafted him out of Illinois, I turnovers was one of the big things with him is when he would get double teamed, he would really kind of panic and just throw the ball to wherever the point guard was. It seems like he’s grown in that. And what’s interesting is like those are the subtle Mike Connley effects where you know TJ will credit Mike Connley for helping him with his playmaking. I was talking to Amari Bailey who you brought up earlier about you know where he’s improved on and he was like well I watched a lot of Mike Connley last year. I think it’s it’s having someone like that on the team just naturally raises your court IQ. The other thing with TJ in the in the half court is he has been experimenting a little bit more with the just off the dribble threes, you know, sneaking behind a screen and just launching it, which is something that Nquille and Mike are both that’s kind of one of their signature things of hiding behind a Rudy Gobear screen, sidest stepping, and then launching the three. So, I do think they’re trying to get him more accustomed to that so that they don’t have to like change their whole offense when he’s coming in to reflect like a downhill runner or just a spot up three-point shooter. The other thing that, you know, he’s admitted to a lot is that the coaches are really looking for him to be a Nquille Alexander Walker defender. They want him to be just a harassing defender on the other side in the half court coming around screens, sticking his hand in the paint and trying to rip balls out. And I’ve been really impressed with him so far defensively. Um, obviously when Jaylen Clark’s out there, they’re giving Jaylen Clark kind of the more difficult assignment, but TJ’s held his own in every game. He’s really done a good job of just positionally being in the right spots, moving laterally, and you know, summer league is, as we kind of mentioned with Johan, it’s it’s not an end all beall, but there are things like this that you can take from it of like, oh, TJ’s moving better on his feet. Like, he’ll probably move better on his feet during the season. He’s recognizing where to go off a double team. Like, that’ll probably translate into the regular season. So, there’s encouraging signs for sure. Yeah. Um I I think the idea of him potentially filling the Nquille role and I’ve said on on the show over the last couple weeks, I think it’s some combination of him and Rob Dillingham tried to tried to fill what Nquille did by himself. I think the upside for both of those guys scoring wise is greater than that of Nquille and they’re both good shooters um and should be good, you know, catch and shoot guys or whatever. But it’s it’s the piece of creating for others and we’ll talk about Dillingham here in a second because that’s obviously a huge part of what he needs to be able to do. But if but to your point, if TJ can defend, you know, at 80% of what Nikquille did or 75% of what Nquille did over the past couple years, that’s the biggest thing because I think the offensive punch is going to be even more significant than what Nikquil did regularly. Like obviously Alexander Walker had the ability to score 20 plus, but it wasn’t something he was doing frequently. I think TJ Shannon can score a lot, score more quickly, score in more diverse ways than kill Alexander Walker. And they’re not necessarily going to ask him, he doesn’t need to do that. Obviously, the Wolves were a really good offense last year with Alexander Walker playing the role he did. But if he can be, you know, like I said, 80% of the defender Nquil is on one end of the floor and provide even more scoring on the other end, then it’s really that playmaking piece that they kind of got to figure out. And maybe that is Shannon, maybe it’s just more of Ant with the ball in his hands. Um, or maybe it’s more, you know, Mike Connley playing with the second unit or Rob Dillingham. How whatever it ends up being. Um, but but yeah, the defense is is something he can definitely control and they expect him to be a good defender. He is similar size to Nikquille. You know, he’s obviously a little bit a little bit bigger or a little bit um I guess stronger um more physical. So, there’s there’s some opportunity there for him to, you know, to to to show up on the defensive end of the floor. When it comes to Rob Dillingham, um I think that’s been really what I’ve seen through two games is a lot of what we saw last year from him, which is, you know, good and bad. Like, obviously, you want to see him grow in certain areas. And I I think there have been a couple of I’ll use the word instinctual again because I think that’s really what you’re looking for is these guys making these you quick reaction quick decisive plays is maybe a better way to say it. And I do think he’s been a little more decisive through two games in the summer league. Small sample than what we saw last year in the NBA um on an NBA floor for Dillingham. But the shot selection still at times has been a little bit dicey. The the shooting’s been a little bit inefficient. But we’ve also seen him got on get on like a little bit of a heater in each game where it’s like he hits a couple shots and it’s like, “All right, here we go.” And there’s been these moments that are so dynamic and so impressive and then moments where it’s like, “Okay, this is a lot of what we saw last year.” Um, what’s been your overall impression of Dillingham so far through two games? Yeah, I I was hoping I was kind of going into this I I had just put out what I was hoping to see and for me it was defense is okay. I I don’t think he’s ever going to be a good defender, but if he can be okay, I think that would be the number one thing to help him get on the floor. And then the other one is turnovers. And that first game was kind of a nightmare turnover-wise. Um, defensively, he’s held up okay. I I mean, again, summer league often there’s smaller guards, guys that are going to be playing overseas, they’re not quite as strong. And Rob’s been fine. Uh Kevin Hansen even came out after last game. I was talking to him and said that, you know, he’s been really impressed with Rob’s just kind of peskiness and tenacity. Offensively, I’m starting to I’m starting to just reset my expectations that he’s probably never going to be an efficient scorer. just his he seems to be a rhythm shooter, which those type of players need 10 to 12 shots and they’re probably only going to get 13 or 14 points on those 10 to 12 shots with their free throws. But I don’t think he’s going to be like a five for N9 for 18 points type of guy. He really doesn’t go to the rim very much. Even in summer league when there’s not these, you know, towering defenders, he hasn’t been attacking the rim as much. And when he does it, it it frankly has looked bad, which is tough. I mean, he had a couple floaters in the first game that didn’t even hit rim. He had another like scoop shot that hit the top of the backboard and didn’t hit rim. The finishing’s going to be a problem because of his size. But I think his playmaking is the biggest asset he can bring. I mean, some of the reads he’s able to make off of the dribble and some of the passes that he’s able to make are like an NBA caliber point guard level passes. Yeah. I mean, he’s able to hit those routes. He’s able to hit bounce passes. I know the first game, looking back on it, he had a couple turnovers where Lenny just kind of like bounced the ball off of his his knees, but you know, if if there’s a hope for Rob to make it into the rotation this year, I think he’s going to have to continue the okay defense and he’s really going to have to continue that highlevel playmaking because the the other aspects of the offense are still just kind of tough to be honest. Yeah, I still feel one of my comps for him coming out last year was was uh Jamal Crawford and I he’s obviously smaller than Jamal Crawford was, but the the type of um high volume scorer with the ability to pass and dribble the way he does. I mean, it took Jamal Crawford a few years to be an efficient scorer, I mean, and ultimately he became one of the best six men ever in the league. And and then at the end of his career, it was kind of more of what it was early in his career where he wasn’t quite as efficient and he never was actually all that efficient if you go through and look at his shooting numbers. That’s the type of player he reminds me of. And I I do think like with the obvious caveat like he’s what 20. Uh we’re still very very early. He’s barely had he’s going to get an opportunity this year to at some point and maybe it is right away to kind of you know show what he can do. But I tend to agree with you that that on some level he’s always going to be that guy who’s who’s hunting his shot and when he gets hot he’s pretty unstoppable and he can make these dynamic passes. I mean, to your point about the shooting, so far in summer league, he scored 30 points on 29 shots. So, yeah, like that’s, you know, and and in game one, he had seven turnovers to six assists. Game two, he had nine assists and only four turnovers. And I I did feel like he played a little better in the second game. So, you’re going to take the the bad with the good, and we’ll see. Obviously, last year, Chris Finch didn’t have a ton of patience for it. And for a team that’s gone to consecutive conference finals like um that’s understandable but at the same time especially not Alexander Walker who was kind of their safety blanket last year when we need another point guard um there isn’t you know there isn’t really anybody else at least now obviously they could still sign somebody and and maybe we could cover that you know uh if we talk here after summer league like who’s still out there who could they look at at bringing in um but yeah I mean like Dillingham at this point is a little bit of an inefficient scorer who’s extremely dynamic with his handle and and I agree with you on defense. I think he’s actually been decent there and and last year I thought he was too uh for the most part. Like I thought he competed. I thought he fought through screens, which is really all you can ask of a guy who’s of of that size. Um and I think that there was definitely some some I thought he was a little better than I expected both last year and so far in summer league. Um, I want to close by talking a little bit about Jaylen Clark and then also just kind of like what else we’re looking for here over the final few games in summer league and if there’s anybody else that’s really stood out to you. So, we’ll do that here next to close the show. Today’s episode of Lockdown Wolves is brought to us by our title sponsors at FanDuel. Summer sports are in full swing. Whether you’re all about baseball under the lights, of course, MLB All-Star break this week, golf on the green, or high stakes soccer action, FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You’re already following the action. Why not make it a little more thrilling? With FanDuel, you can get in on the game while your friends are getting sunburned at the beach. 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And I think I don’t know there’s as much to say, at least I don’t have much to say about what he’s done so far in in summer league through two games. He’s been pretty much exactly who we expected him to be. Just an absolute menace defensively. um you know, harassing these poor guys that are never probably going to play in the NBA and just like stealing their lunch money. And then on offense, it’s been a little bit more up and down. One of the things I was looking for was what’s the shot look like for him so far or or throughout his time in Vegas? Because he shot 43% from three last year under 100 attempts overall, but it was it was good enough that it’s like, wait a minute, is he actually a better shooter than we all thought coming out of UCLA where he was always kind of sub 33% from deep? So far through two games, he’s two of 11 on threes. But I think the shot has mostly looked comfortable at times maybe a little bit rushed. You know, it’s going to be a small sample no matter what through these five or six or whatever games in Vegas. But um I don’t know. I I think I’ve just seen more of what we expect out of Jaylen Clark and I don’t know that we’re looking for a whole lot else from him. Do you have any any reaction uh to him or I guess we could talk Leonard Miller? You know, anybody else that that uh stands out to you that you want to cover? Jaylen Clark plays defense probably harder than I’ve ever worked in my life and it’s summer league. Like you’re right. It’s it’s these poor guys that are probably going to be playing overseas somewhere. And Jaylen is 80 feet fullcourt pressed just Well, that first possession in game two, he he was just it was just unbelievable. Like I asked Kevin about it after the game last night, Kevin Hansen. Kevin just kind of like laughed and went like, “Yeah, that’s Jaylen Clark. That’s what he does.” So, like, I think there’s a spot for him still on this team this year. I I I mean, there’s not many people that are that willing to play that type of defense. And there’s going to be some games in like January and February where Clark gets 15, 20 minutes and looks awesome. Leonard Miller I I think has you know it it’s it’s tough because if you look at box scores he’s he’s appeared to have played pretty well. I mean he’s scoring the basketball pretty efficiently but he just kind of like you’ve said with everybody. He’s a 20 21 year old kid. He’s still really raw. He’s out of position a lot. He maybe I mean there was one out one play in the first game where he got the rebound and outleted it behind him to Johan and Johan like gave him a weird look and then passed it up to I think it was Amari Bailey. Um he’s I I for the Leonard Miller stands out there. I don’t think he’s probably going to play a lot of minutes this year if if things go right. Um other guys that I’ve just been looking at, I mean Amari Bailey, we’ve mentioned him a couple times. He was a top 10 recruit. Mr. California basketball. That was three years ago. He was a really efficient shooter in high school and then his shot just fell off at UCLA. Ended up getting drafted in the second round. Couldn’t hit a shot with Charlotte. Couldn’t hit a shot with Charlotte’s G-League team. Played for the Iowa Wolves last last season for the end of the year and it started to come around. I mean, he is a guy that is exceptionally talented. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Wolves if one of these summer league guys gets that last, you know, we used to call it the Gupta special where it’s like two plus one 900,000 just end of a bench rotation. He’s a He seems like he’s a really good kid and there’s a lot of upside with him. The other person that hasn’t played yet that I just continue to hear things about is the Irish kid CJ Fulton. Um he played for the College of Charleston uh last season, brought them to the NCAA tournament. He has a ridiculous six to1 assist to turnover ratio his senior year of college. His grandpa is in the Irish Basketball Hall of Fame. Played on the national team. His dad is also going to be in the Irish Basketball Hall of Fame, played on the national team. He is a coaches coaches coaches kid. Like Amari Bailey, I asked him who impressed him most at camp. He’s like CJ. He doesn’t make mistakes. I love his game. Ask Kevin Hansen. Kevin Hansen’s like CJ. He’s TJ McConnell but makes less mistakes. Um I I think he’s going to have some moments in the third and fourth games where it’s going to be impressive because he just from everything I’ve heard and the tape that I’ve seen on him, he just doesn’t make mistakes. which if we’re looking at Chris Finch and his history of backup point guards, Taius Jones doesn’t make mistakes. Monte Morris didn’t make mistakes. Mclofflin doesn’t make mistakes. Pat Bev Rivers really kind of competent backup point guards. I I just kind of have a feeling that he might have a crack at one of those Gupta specials as well as as he gets minutes the next two games. That’s interesting. Um yeah, I mean I think um I agree 100% on on Amari Bailey. Um I think that he there so there’s there’s that last actually technically two roster spots and then there’s also as of right now apparently one two-way spot available. I know that Tristan Newton I believe they extended the qualified offer. So there’s there’s a good chance he’s back but those are also spots that and we haven’t talked about him. I thought he played pretty well in game two. He didn’t do much well in game one. Um, I think Newton’s looking for a guaranteed and and my guess is he might get one just with his pedigree at Yukon. I wouldn’t be surprised if Newton gets an actual from somebody else or from the Wolves from somebody else. I think if if the Wolves really want to, they could. But I don’t know. He’s one of those interesting guys where I think if if the wheels came off, he’d be able to play 10 minutes at point guard and be competent. I think there are teams that would probably give him a better role or bigger chance than the Wolves that he might be looking for. Yeah, I I could see that for sure. And so, I mean, like all these guys are kind of auditioning. I talked about this the other day on on Lockdown Wolves that, you know, between Omari Bailey and the other guy I mentioned was Jamal Kane. He wasn’t as good in the second game, but he just he’s a pro. Like, he looks like he knows what he’s doing. He’s obviously bounced around the NBA a little bit. um if they want somebody who is a break glass in case of emergency, calm stuff down type of a guy just in case they need him. Um you know, he would be another option. And Mari Bailey obviously has a bit more upside given his youth. Uh and you mentioned, we talked a little Jaylen Clark. The other thing I was going to say about him is um if like we talked about that last rotation spot, the the Nquille spot being some combination TJ Shane and Rob Dillingham. I mean Chris Fitch has talked about going to 10. openly said, I think he said it live on the air the other night during the game like, “Hey, we’re probably going to run 10.” I know he said it to the media at one point. Um, so if that’s the case, Jaylen Clark may very well be in that 10. It also is possible that we see a game where, you know, TJ Shannon’s not it defensively and he’s not making a shot or Rob Dillingham isn’t it defensively and they’re like, “All right, Jaylen’s going to play. You guys aren’t playing.” And so it could be sort of this like those three guys are kind of in and out of two spots. And I think that’s probably the way that the Wolves are going to go into the season. And so there might be some nights where one of those three doesn’t play. There’s some nights where all three of them play and it’ll just be kind of this um you know malleable final two spots of the rotation would be my guess. Um let’s close with this. Anything or what specifically? You mentioned CJ Fton as somebody to watch potentially over the next couple of games, but what’s one thing that you’re looking for over the next week in summer league? Um you know, either an individual player, a specific thing the coaches try and do or a skill from a player or something that that you’re looking forward to or keeping an eye out for this week. Yeah, in terms of the last two games, CJ Falton’s kind of the one that I’m looking at because it’s just there’s just certain players that just seem like a Chris Finch guy and he just kind of seems like a Chris Finch guy. The other thing I’ve been really interested with is they’ve been playing Yan a lot with Jesse Edwards and even Rocco a little bit as the four and I’ve been kind of impressed at his ability to guard out on the perimeter and just stay in front of people. Um, the other thing I will say is like the rumors are are true. Like he does have a jump shot. Watching him in shoot around like it’s it’s clean, it’s tight, he his followthrough is good. I I’m kind of hoping one game maybe they let him fire away a couple shots. So, uh, it’s summer league, why not? Yeah. Um, I guess the last thing is just Roco Zakarsski. uh at some point we’re going to get him for an interview and I can just say like we need more Australians in the NBA whether it’s Joe Engles, Alana Smith from the Lynx or Rockco. I just all of them I love. That’s funny. Yeah, he he seems to be a good interview. There’s a couple good clips out there of him uh of him uh what was the joke he was making about um oh what what sport he would play? Something about how he’d be better than Michael Phelps at swimming, which I think his his mom was an Olympic swimmer, right? Or was it his dad? one of his when he was 16. He was the U16 Australian Olympic qualifier swimmer. So that guy can swim. I will say he has not been to a good lake in Minnesota yet. So if anyone’s seeing like a 7 foot3 Australian guy walking around, maybe direct him to some good swimming lakes. All right. Uh anything uh you want to you want to plug or promote Andrew here? Yeah, I’ll just plug quick. I have articles that come out on zone coverage every Wednesday and Saturday. Usually more in-depth kind of insidery articles since I have access to players and I’m not a journalist. So I ask them like what they play on 2K and stuff like that. Um and then I am still doing the postgame show for the links. That’s going to start out uh immediately as soon as I get back from Vegas and they’re back from the uh the All-Star game. So after every game on my ex and on the missing links YouTube channel, you can find those postgame lives, ask questions. I try and make it really fan and friendly. Awesome. Appreciate you doing it, Andrew. Enjoy Vegas. Uh and uh try and stay in the AC as much as you can. That’s the plan. And Ben, it’s always a pleasure, man. All right. There you have it. Andrew Dowitz of Zone Coverage joining me to discuss uh summer league. And of course, we’ll talk to him probably about a week from now when the Wolves wrap up in Vegas and talk about, you know, overall what we saw through the week, what we’re looking for coming out of um of Las Vegas summer league as we head into kind of the quietest part of the offseason. So, we’ll have him back on the show again soon. I always appreciate him joining. Make sure to go check out his work. I’ll be back tomorrow. We’ll get you ready for game three of Wolves Summer League tomorrow, I think. So, we’ll talk about all that on Tuesday’s show. 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 reminder that for your second listen, you can check out the Lockdown NBA podcast where there is no offseason. Doug, Matt, and Hayes will 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, the Lockdown Wolves podcast is part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Remember, our network is the local experts on all the biggest stories. And once again, I’m Ben Beacon. This is the Locked Out Wolves podcast. We’ll catch you next time.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are off to a strong start in Las Vegas Summer League. Ben Beecken (@bbeecken) is joined by Andrew Dukowitz (@adukeMN) from Vegas to discuss their biggest takeaways through the first two games, including Joan Beringer’s first impression, TJ Shannon’s push for a rotation spot, Rob Dillingham’s progress, Jaylen Clark’s tenacity, a potentially surprising player to watch in the coming games, and more.

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