Minnesota Timberwolves Rotation Deep Dive | Fantasy Preview

Minnesota Timberwolves Rotation Deep Dive | Fantasy Preview

Let’s talk about the Minnesota Timberwolves. They’re so close or they’ve been so close the last couple of seasons and now I don’t know, have they made upgrades? Did they downgrade? Where are they at? Michael Bolton. He won’t have the answers, but he’s going to listen in. Thanks, Josh. It’s Michael Bolton here and it’s time for another episode of the Locked On Fantasy Basketball Podcast. Let’s get to it. Let’s get to it. Indeed. You are Locked on Fantasy, your daily NBA fantasy podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to the Locked On Fantasy Basketball Podcast, brought to you by Basketball Monster. My name is Josh Lloyd and karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos. I’m also the lead fantasy analyst at basketball.com and today’s episode is brought to you by Fanul. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Thank you also for making Lockdown Fantasy Basketball your first listen every day. We are free and we are available on all platform. So, I would like a thumb and a double bang and a comment and leave it all below. Minnesota Timberwolves, we’re going to talk about them. They’re an interesting team who’s somewhat stable, but there are a couple of real pressure points to talk about and we’re going to talk about them. So joining me to talk about the Minnesota Timberwolves is the host of the Lockdown Wolves podcast, Ben Beacon. Is back in the chair again to talk about this Timberwolves team, which has been awesome the last couple of seasons, like I just said in the intro, which you didn’t hear, Ben, but they they’re looking to be good again, but I don’t know how the team is in terms of did they get better or not. So like I think guess that’s one of the questions because there are still a lot of questions that we need to ask. They did lose Nquille Alexander Walker, but where I want to start is one of the free agents they did have is a guy they I think prioritized over Nquila Alexander Walker, and that is Nars Reed, who is of course an absolute local hero, a cult figure amongst the team and the team fan base, but he signed this big extension. It’s a huge amount of money. Is there actually any more for him to do this season, though? Yeah, it’s a great question. I mean, it is true that he needs to continue trending upwards if he’s going to justify the extension. Uh it it is pretty much a bargain this year, but he still has to keep getting better. It’s funny, he won six man of the year two years ago and or season before this last one that just finished and a lot of his numbers were actually up this year. Um he he, you know, was it was the volume was up, everything, you know, the scoring was up. Um it was more just, you know, Timber Wolves didn’t win 56 games, they won 49 and they were the six seed instead of the the three seed like they had been the year before. So um he was just nearly as good. And interestingly, I mean, the Wolves obviously had Julius Randle instead of Carlton Towns last season, so the rotation was a little different, but um you know, I think there’s a chance maybe for him to see some more minutes at small ball five. I think the Wolves are going to dabble with playing a little bit smaller. Rudy’s obviously getting older. Rudy Gobear is getting older and we’re starting to see maybe a little bit of um you know, a quarter step slower, whatever. And and so perhaps the Wolves will start to think about what life looks out looks like without him. um Jean Baron their their first round pick this year. If he’s the era apparent he’s a bit of a different center than Rudy Gober obviously that’s a couple years down the road but I think all that to say they are going to try some new things with Nas. I do think that there’s probably some growth still to be had there. He needs to be a little bit better rebounding if he’s going to play more at the five. That’s been kind of the area that he’s lagged behind a little bit. But overall still a really effective player and I think for this season at least the number they have him at is really nice. He’s a really intriguing player because obviously people love him. I I He’s one of those players that I I loved as an undrafted player. I love what he’s done, but he’s also one of those guys that I always and I I don’t like doing it, but from a my perspective of an analytical side and playing fantasy, I have to push back on the way that some people talk about him. It’s like, oh no, he’s he’s better than Rogo Bear defensively. He’s very clearly not, right? So, like we all need to settle down. Why isn’t he playing well? Well, because he doesn’t do a lot of things. He doesn’t rebound that well. As you said, his rim protection is not that good. He struggles. And then what we also had last season and this is again where I talk about can he do more because he started what 17 games and played 35 minutes a game off the bench he played 25. So realistically when when the people watching this show are talking and thinking about the fantasy value of Naz Reed you need him to start to be valuable because 25 isn’t quite enough. 35 is obviously way more than enough and all that comes down to is the health of Randall and Gobear. The other thing I want to check on you with because one of the advantages of Reed is two years ago he shot 41% from three. This season he shot 38% from three. Except as a starter he was down under 34 and over the last two months of the season under 33% from three. We shouldn’t worry about that I don’t think. But is there any reason that you could think of that as a starter he just wasn’t able to get those shots to go in which is the large portion of his value. Like why is there such a 40% versus 33% discrepancy in his three-point shooting as a starter? That’s a good question. I mean, I I I’d want to dig into the lineup data a little bit if it has anything to do with him playing alongside. There were stretches last year where both Julius Randle and Rudy Goar were out. Um, or it was one or the other. So, I think part of it could be the team just wasn’t as good when like Nas was on the floor, you know, starting alongside uh maybe Jade McDaniels at the four or there was a period of time where he was starting with Julius Randle and playing more small ball five and and the team wasn’t as competitive because they were missing some of their key players. And then I think the other thing is maybe digging into what those minutes look like with Anthony Edwards. And off the top of my head, I’m not sure exactly what those lineup minutes look like. And and I don’t think that’s it. My hunch is it’s probably more, but for anyone that wants to dig further, that’s where I would start and see if there’s any patterns with the guys who he’d be on the floor with when he was starting that maybe would would retract from that or cause him to not get as many catch and shoot opportunities. It wouldn’t shock me if he was shooting more off the dribble um during that stretch of the season. Again, trying to create more offense. if Julius Randle was out, he the Wolves are probably running a little more offense through him and so and Nas does like to shoot off the dribble and he’s pretty good at it, especially for a guy of his size. But, you know, I think it’s probably more fluky that that was the time of year when he happened to be going through a cold stretch shooting more than anything else. Um, so it could be any of those factors, but it is true. I mean, two years ago when he won six man of the year, like you said, he shot over 41% from three. The four seasons before that, he was hovering around league actually a little below league average around 35%. Yeah. So, the volume’s gone up and and obviously 38% is about league average last year. So, I don’t think he’s a I don’t think he’s like not a good three-point shooter anymore, but it is something to keep an eye on this year and I think you’re right. More opportunities are are better for him and he’s not going to start unless somebody gets injured. Um, so, you know, I think that’s all very fair. I I think he’s probably still in that 38 to 40%, you know, from from three-point range uh percentage. Yeah, that’s that’s the thing. And it’s always hard with these sort of players who have a track record in their early career of not being good coming out and doing it really well for the last two years, but like what’s what is the reality? Is he a 39 40% guy? Is he a 36% guy who had a season and a half of hot shooting and then cooled off at the end of last season? Like I don’t I don’t really know. And I guess these are all the things that we wait we we see to find out cuz that’s the value that he brings because defensively there are you significant holes in what he does and you his passing game is not as strong as say like a Julius Randles and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, when you look at the value of a player like that, if he’s not bombing from three and he’s not hitting him at that number, then things become a little tougher to fit around. He’s again incredibly valuable culturally. He’s incredibly valuable teammate wise, and these guys go and Randle like Randle’s had a lot of injuries. Goar is older. They’re going to miss time. So, we’re going to see Reed push up. So, like whether he’s he might start 30 games, he might start 10. And that’s going to be a big determinant for the people playing fantasy in terms of what his minutes are because a 10-minute per game discrepancy is huge. And you can look at his overall season numbers, which is great. Like he played 28 plus minutes, whatever it was. But it’s because of these two very distinct scenarios. And like I think you said, maybe he can get one extra minute off the bench this season because Gobear is that little bit older. But realistically, the bump in his numbers is only going to come, I’m going to guess, through an injury to one of those two guys. It’s really hard to see how that that happens. another way. We’re going to talk about someone that is getting old. In fact, he’s already old, but he’s just getting old. And we’re going to find out whether uncle still got has still got it in a sec when we talk about Mike Connley. Before we do that, today’s episode is brought to you by Open Phone. If you’re running a business, you know that every mis call is money left on the table. The last time that you had an urgent need, well, you wouldn’t have waited for that person to get back to you the next day, mis call, and see what happens cuz it’s something of an emergency. No, no, no. You need it done at the time, right there and then. You otherwise you just move on to the next one. That’s where Open Phone comes in. They got the AI agent handling after hours calls, answering common questions, and capturing leads so you never miss a customer. Plus, the shared inbox feature enables your team to jump into any conversation instantly without missing a beat. Open Phone is offering all of you guys 20% off your first 6 months at openphone.com/lockdonba. That is oph.com/lockdonba. And if you’ve got existing numbers with another service, Open Phone will port them over at no extra charge. Open phone. No missed calls, no missed customers. Okay, so Mike Connley started most of last season and had some honestly like really really poor moments in terms of some of the shooting numbers. They were just in the toilet, right? And then he was replaced as the starting point guard by Dante Dementenzo later in the season. And then about three games after that, Dimenzo hurt his toe, was out for like two months and and Connley took the job back over. So is well we’ll start with this because I want to get into some some of the replacements in terms of Nquila Alexander Walker. Do you think Connley is going to lock in as the starter opening night or are we going to go to that lineup which they had you may had they had to make the decision and they went with Dante Danchenzo in that group. Is that how that’s going to look do you think? Yeah, my hunch is they still start the season with Mike Connley as the starter and and I mean Chris Finch hasn’t said anything that head coach in the offseason that’s that um implies that anything different is going to happen. He’s made a couple comments about needing I think both him and Tim Connelly who runs the Wolves front office have talked about trying to scale back Mike’s minutes during the regular season to keep him fresher for later in the season in the playoffs which um you know maybe they’re setting it up for in training camp. they’re like, “Ah, actually, he’s not going to start.” But it feels like he’s going to be kind of the nominal starter and we’ll see the overall minutes per game trend backward or trend down. Um, you know, to your point, he was a he was shooting horribly the first two months of the season, but then he was redot down the stretch and still finished at 41% on the season. Um, volume was down a little in terms of shots per game as well as his minutes. Um, so, you know, it was it was lower volume, but he was again just it was a tale of two seasons, you know, outside the arc for him. Overall, the scoring obviously a career low for him. You know, that’s that’s not what he’s doing anyway. It wouldn’t surprise me if he starts to begin the year and then whether it’s Steven Chenzo or Rob Dillingham, um you know, somebody like that ends up starting later in the year. But I think what from what we saw with Chris Finch not trusting Rob Dillingham, albeit a 19-year-old rookie last year on a team that that had designs on going to the finals, um he wasn’t super patient and and understandably so, but the alternative was Mike Connley. And now this offseason, they haven’t really given themselves any other alternatives. Um, so it’s basically 20-year-old Rob Dillingham or it’s Mike Connley or it’s, you know, Nquille’s gone. He was the backup point guard last year. So it’s, you know, is it just Ant playing alongside Dante Danchenzo and they’re kind of taking turns running the offense? Is it point Julius Randle more of the time? So, you know, I think kind of by default Mike Connley has the job to start the year, but I do think at some point we see a change into the guard. I, you know, ideally it’s Rob Dillingham. he’s got to do something with the minutes he gets. Um, but I think that’s that’s the best case scenario for the Timberwolves. That’s obviously what they had in mind when they traded up to draft dealingham last summer. So, uh, yeah, I think Connley starts to start the year, but I do think they probably end up moving away from him, at least scaling his minutes way back and maybe eventually taking him out of the starting lineup as the year wears on. He only played 25 minutes a game last season anyway. In the seven games he came off the bench, he was under 20 minutes a night. And while the three-point shooting was great, like he shot an abysmal 38% on two-pointers. like he just couldn’t get anything to fall unless he was hitting a three. So like in terms of where he’s at, we sort of know where he’s at in his career at this point. But you you preempted the second part of this question which is the replacement of Nquila Alexander Walker and you’ve got Rob Dillingham who honestly was was quite bad last season. They gave him opportunities. He had a couple of those little moments where wow look at he went crazy in the fourth quarter but of course that’s not sustainable. And the other rookie they drafted last season a much older player a different player not a point guard and that’s Terren Shannon Jr. who was really good in last year’s summer league, was really good in this year’s summer league again and had some moments in the playoffs. Now, yeah, we saw them experiment with that situation of Dante Danchenzo at point guard. He’s not a point guard, right? Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle were the point guards. Is there a scenario, right, where like, okay, you’ve mentioned about Rob Dillingham. Could they go with a situation and say, okay, well, maybe we just start Teran Shannon, his defense and his cutting and then Ant is running things as a point guard. Like, who is the guy that steps into that role? Either it’s replacing Connley or taking the Alexander Walker minutes. Do you think we’re going to get Shannon or Dillingham getting more of those minutes? I think ideally it’s Dillingham, but I think I think you’re right. I think it ends up being Shannon. I think that the Timberwolves already showed more trust in him. The Timberwolves are huge on size, which of course makes it a little ironic they traded up for Dillingham, but I mean they’ve pretty much always had big guards is what Tim Connelly has done since he’s been in Minnesota. And and they’ve moved on from smaller backup point guards like Jordan Mclofflin and Monte Morris. And I guess Monte Morris isn’t that much smaller than Mike Connley, but Mike Connley is a pretty big point guard, too. And and so, yeah, I think I think Terence Shannon Jr. is the one who based on his play last year, he had one really big game in the playoffs, the one game they beat the Thunder in the conference finals, and he had some really good games down the stretch in the regular season. He had a couple of starts mid-season, he scored 20 plus against the Lakers in LA. Um, and obviously has the college pedigree. I think he ultimately is the one that soaks up most of the vacated minutes from Alexander Walker. And they do probably do more of this. It’s Ant, it’s Julius Randall. Those are the guys that are driving the engine. And then maybe there’s some secondary. And I I think clearly the Wolves in summer league this year said to TJ Shannon, they were like, “Hey, look, we want to see what you can do with the ball in your hands.” And there I think he had one seven assist game in summer league. And it’s a bit more of that, you know, he’s not a point guard, but can he be a big secondary playmaker and at least make the right decisions in the half court? Can he push? He’s a tear in transition. He’s mostly doing it for himself. He’s not gonna likely to pass the ball off in transition, but in the half court, can he make the right cuts? Can he make the right secondary, you know, passes? Um, and he’s a good enough shooter. Like, he’s probably if he given volume, he’s probably a little north of league average on volume and and really crazy range, too. So, I think if he gets the minutes, he’s somebody to watch for sure. Um, again, not a point guard, but if if Rob Dillingham doesn’t show up to training camp and preseason and the first part of the regular season, like ready to go and and take the bull by the horns, then I think it’s it’s very likely that Mike Connley probably is still starting, but Terence Shannon’s getting a lot of the minutes off the bench. Be a little surprised if Chris Finch went completely non-traditional and didn’t start a point guard. Um, whether it’s Dillingham or Connley at some point, but then again, I mean, Chris Finch doesn’t always do the most traditional thing either. It’s just he’s been pretty rigid with that. He’s obviously a big Mike Conley fan. So, we’ll see if he’s able to pull that trigger, but I would be I’d be willing to bet if sitting here right now, TJ Shannon probably picks up the vast majority ultimately of what of the minutes that are vacated from Alexander Walker going to Atlanta. Yeah, I’d be that’s that’s sort of how I’m thinking about it as well. And realistically, this idea that I just threw out there of like, hey, could they start sh started thinking about the last couple of days. get it. Don’t think it’s very likely, but when you think about the fact that your power forward is a initiator, like he Julius Randle has the ball and he handles it and he dribbles and he’s a pretty good passer and Ant has improved his passing skills and he’s got that increased gravity from three now that like maybe you can get away with something like that in that spot, especially considering they they tried it with Denza who also is not a point guard. Like he he’s just not a point guard. Like so like they did try something this. I don’t know. I’m not I don’t I’ll defer to you. I don’t believe it’s going to happen either, but I don’t think that it can be just automatically like wiped out as an option because we also sort of like you said like we saw them starting to kill Alexander Walker who also honestly like came into the league as a point guard not a point guard like he’s a guy that was defending twos and threes and playing as a wing and that wasn’t the role they gave him as for Dillingham they traded up for like I always thought it was going to be very difficult for him to make an impact at his age on that team and at his size and so I’m not going to say that I’m going to sit here and was disappointed with his rookie season cuz it sort of went how I thought it would. I didn’t think he’d be able to make an impact. Rookie point guards are terrible, especially in a bad draft class and you’re young and undersized. What did you see from Dillingham? Like what was the what was the positive that you saw? If there was anything, what’ you go, oh, I saw him do that and there’s something that can build on or you like like I don’t know about this. Yeah, I I mean I I think your assessment of him a little bit ago is is spot on where there were some really there were a handful of great moments where like oh man this this guy’s got all-star upside and then most of it was very headscratching which you’d expect to see from a a 19-year-old point guard. Um he can score off the dribble. He just can he can get past anybody. Um and and those things are positive. What the the thing that concerned me the most is he uses that ability to get himself some tough long two two-point shots. He gets into the paint and then shoots tough kind of two-footed fadeaways. Doesn’t get to the rim really. Um, he’s a really good shooter. He was only like 34% last year on on really limited shot attempts. I mean, his volume was like uh was 74 three-point attempts last year. So, 34%, but he was great at at Kentucky from from outside the arc. He was like around 50% in catch and shoot threes in his season there. Um, so I do think he’s a really good shooter. And what they do like about him while he’s undersized is he can score off the ball. So if you play him with Ant and Ant’s still the primary creator, you know, him and Dillingham could essentially take turns, you know, creating and then playing off of each other, catch and shoot, etc. And that did look good. The shooting off the dribble is good. He showed that in Vegas this year, too, where he can pull up and shoot threes from anywhere. Um, and score on guys. It’s just, you know, picking his spots, right? Which is, you know, classic 19, 20-y old point guard, right? deciding when the right moment is to do these things, to dance with the ball, pull it, you know, pull it back, snatch it back, and shoot a tough fadeaway. Um, he can do it, but it’s usually not the right play to make. And that’s probably the biggest concern. Defensively, I was actually um he wasn’t good, but I was impressed with the effort, and that was kind of the the book on him, Konado, Kentucky, was he’s athletic enough that if he tries hard, if he gets through screens, he can be passable defensively. he’s never going to be a great defender because of how small he is, but if he can at least compete and try on that end of the floor, and I think the Timberwolves were impressed with that, too, which which bodess well, the Wolves just said, look, offense is still, you know, it it was still a bigger challenge than defense for most of the year last year and and he wasn’t consistent enough on offense. He wasn’t getting his teammates involved enough and and and so he wasn’t able to stay on the floor for very long stretches. Um, and Chris Finch clearly didn’t trust him. But defensively, I think he did what he needed to do to show that he’s going to lock in and try on that end of the floor. So, I think he’s obviously earned another shot this year to to show what he’s learned. And I thought he was mostly good in Vegas. So, uh, we’ll see. But the scoring upside is obviously tremendous. I’ve always kind of thought of him as like a Lou Williams, Jamal Crawford type, probably a six-man down the down the road scorer off the bench where it’s more of a volume scoring than anything else. But, he’s a legit good shooter from deep. And I think that’s that’s probably where the, you know, starter level upside comes from is if he really is a 40% three-point shooter and could do all these other things, too. Then then there’s there’s a real possibility he could stick as a starter eventually. It’s going to be intriguing to see how they handle that with those two secondyear players and that obvious gap in the lineup and maybe an extra gap if they have to downsize. Conley’s Rob, we’re going to come back and talk about a lockedin starter in a second that is Jaden McDaniels. Before we do that, today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. And summer sports are in full swing. And you might be all about going to see the baseball under the lights, golf out on the green, high stakes soccer, NASCAR, whatever it is. Fanul is the best way to make all the games even more exciting. You’re already watching and following along with all of these games. And with Fanul, you can help get in on the game with your mates and get around it instead of while they’re out there getting sunburned at the beach. You’re in there locking in and like you’re putting your knowledge to the test. It’s easy to use. It’s fast to pay out. It even makes these games a little bit more like interesting as you put your your knowledge, your thoughts to the test. And with Fanil, there are new daily promotions and fun ways to bet. So, if you’re new to Fanil, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. What you do, you go head to Fanul, open up the app, or go to fangel.com right now and get started. And don’t forget to gamble responsibly. All right. So, we are talking um about Jaden McDaniels because I know at least from a fantasy point of view, and I’m not sure if this is the way the fan base has thought of Jaden McDaniels, he’s been an incredibly frustrating player in terms of he’s out there producing this really high level defense. He is out there like he’s that’s happening all the time. But is he playmaking defensively? Not really. But then then there were opportunities and say, “Hey, can you do a little bit with the ball in his hands?” And in previous seasons they’d be like, “No, like I’m just not doing anything. I’m not ramping up my usage. I’m not developing passing skills. I’m not developing off the dribble stuff. I’m just doing the thing that I do outside of, hey, I’m always getting into foul trouble. The fouls sort of settle themselves down. Last season, you referenced it already, Julius Randall was out. We had injuries with Denzo and Go was missing. And there was a period in the middle of the season where that idea of McDaniels where he wasn’t a player who was ever really in the past able to um ramp up his usage and change his game, that changed. He did do that during the middle of the season. He did show, okay, put me into a larger role and I will do more and I will jump forward and I I will ramp my usage and I’ll do more. The part of the not the problem is that at the end of the season when all those guys came back, he just sort of went back and was a nothing. Not a nothing sounds harsh, but he just he just was invisible for big portion of the season. We thought that maybe hey, is this a step forward? And while it is a step forward that he did it when three guys are out otherwise he’s sort of just like not adding that extra layer. Is that how you guys saw that from a a local perspective that like it seemed like you know two steps forward and then like maybe one and a half back. Yeah, I think that’s the story of of Jade McDaniels at least offensively over his five seasons and and you said it. He’s fantastic as a lockdown defender. not super helpful in fantasy when he’s he’s guarding the highest usage guy on the other team and so he’s not racking up, you know, weak side blocks and he’s not getting that many jumping passing lanes and getting a ton of steals. Um, offensively it it’s been a roller coaster and he he’s like improved on a skill every year, but we’ve seen him take a half step back in some other areas. Like three years ago, he was a 40% three-point shooter. In the last two years, he’s been under 34%. Um, and you know, uh, that that’s probably the biggest frustration, but like for a while it was like, okay, he’s going to get into the paint and score a little bit and then he wouldn’t. And toward the end of last year, you referenced it, it it kind of went away. I think the area that’s most intriguing and where he found that he could score, I think this actually started late in the previous season when the Timberwolves swept the Phoenix Suns in the first round and and Phoenix was especially vulnerable to um offensive rebounds, especially from the corners, playing Kevin Durant at center, etc. And the Wolves said, “All right, Jaden, go out there and get some offensive rebounds.” And he averaged like two plus a game in that series. And then last year it continued and I think he realized I can get some cheap baskets by corner crashing. And the offensive rebound rate went up dramatically. It was like, I think over two offensive rebounds a game last season. And that kind of lifted his overall total rebounding numbers. It was more on the offensive end. He improved defensive rebounding too, but the offensive rebounding was big and it also converted to more efficient scoring for him. And he has been putting the ball on the floor overall a little bit more, getting into the paint. He shoots this weird kind of fall away where he’s like almost perpendicular to the floor. Um, it’s almost like a Kevin Garnett fadeaway, but it’s from like 12 feet and he’s like perpendicular and he shoots it, nobody can block it and he makes it a huge chunk of the time. It’s one of those shots that for the longest time it was why is he shooting the shot and then it would go in enough that it’s like, all right, that works for him. U, but he doesn’t really get all the way to the rim and he doesn’t really do anything in the mid-range and and you know, the three-point shooting was only 3 33% last year. So, if he could just, you know, this is at this point that 30 or that 40% year is clearly the outlier. But, um, but what if what if it wasn’t for a year? What if he started making corner threes? What if he spent all summer making corner threes, which he was only 34% on last year, but for his career before that, he was like 38% in corner threes. So, if that becomes 38 40% from the corners, are we talking about another couple points a game? If he’s also getting the offensive rebounds, then you’re talking about a 14 15 point a game guy with with decent efficiency. if he’s scoring on offensive rebounds and the two-point percentage is good. So, I do think there’s obviously still upside there. The Timberwolves love him and he’s continuing to grow offensively. It’s But can he avoid that, you know, two steps forward, one step back? Can he just take the two steps forward and and not, you know, regress in some area? Can he stack, you know, stack improvement on improvement on top of the offensive rebounding improvement from last year, shoot threes a little bit better, and, you know, I’m not sure that the playmaking is ever really going to come around, but we saw flashes last season when he had the ball in his hands more often at the four. Um, but I yeah, I I think there is I’m I’m feel much better about it now than I did a year ago. Um, because a year ago we were coming off of the season where he shot 40% and then went, you know, was much worse offensively. This last year he showed real growth in a lot of areas and I think that’s definitely a positive thing. He’s only going to be 25 this year. So I I I wouldn’t be surprised if he took another clear step forward offensively. You can look at his numbers, which I’ I’ve done from the start of January through to about the middle of March, right? So that’s around that time when guys like Randall and Dincenzo and all those guys were back. But in that period up until that middle of March, McDaniels was putting up like playing a lot, 35 minutes a night obviously, but he averaged 157 and two and a half assists and he was getting steals and one and a half steals and a block a game and he was shooting 37% from three. These are all like really strong numbers that we haven’t really seen his ability to elevate those things. The final month of the season when those guys came back and Denenzo was there and uh yeah, Gober was there and Randall was there. Not only did most of his like rate statistics drop, but he also only played like 29 minutes a night because they were trying to get more Danchenzo into that mix. They were playing Male Alexander Walker as well. So the part of the elevation of his role was playing all these extra minutes, but he couldn’t maintain that extra um playing time. And then in that last month of the season, he averaged 10 under five rebounds, 1.7 assists. So everything fell off as well as how much they relied upon him playing time-wise. So, while we can’t necessarily control for you, is he going is someone going to get hurt or anything like that, what do you make of the fact that when those guys came back and it is a little bit different this season cuz Alexander Walker is not there and we’ll see how those other guys step up, but like the fact that Finch basically said, “Yeah, we love the 35 minutes, but like we actually don’t want you playing that many minutes when these guys are available because everyone else is playing their regular minutes.” And they pulled him way back. Yeah, I think I guess I’d have to go back and look at the very beginning of last year before guys started getting hurt and see exactly how that rotation pattern looked. Um, but I do think that it it was to your point trying to get guys back and get them acclimated before the playoffs uh more than anything. Um, another thing to look at would maybe be foul. I know overall last year the fouling wasn’t nearly as bad. The overall following the fouls per game he wasn’t in foul trouble nearly as much, but that’s something that’s been volatile for him in the past. And so, um, that could have had an impact on the number of minutes he was playing if it was a stretch where he just really struggled. I don’t recall, but I can tell you the numbers. In those final final 15 games, he averaged 2.3 fouls per game, which is incred like that’s fewer than Go, fewer than Randall, fewer than Denzo, which for him that’s an incredibly low number. Yeah. So, yeah, I’m not I guess I’m not really sure. I don’t I don’t recall exactly what it was at the end of the year, but other than those guys getting back and trying to get them acclimated and reaclimated and um and and also McDaniels, I mean, I think there could have been a little bit of, hey, he’s struggling. We’re going to play him less while we’re trying to make sure we get out of the playin, you know. Uh but then obviously he played a big role in the playoffs and in that first round series against the Lakers he was really good um in that five five they won in five games. He averaged 17 a game in that series. He shot 38% from three. Um he was less good in the second round against the Warriors. But um and the numbers were okay against OKC, but that that was you know skewed because of how weird that series was. But um you know it’s it’s always been a little bit volatile with him and and I think um he’s a bit of a as as expressionless as he is on the court, he’s an emotional player. And I think if it starts to go one way, it can really go that way. And we’ve seen that with with um you know, frustration fouls in the past and stuff. So that could certainly have something to do with it. But I think, you know, you think about the starting lineup and he is now the you know, outside of uh Ants and and Randall. I mean, he’s basically the third option in that starting lineup like ahead of both Connley and Goar. So I do think there’s still there’s still opportunity there. Um you know, your point about the minutes per game going way up when guys were out. I mean that’s it’s similar to what we were talking about with Nas because you you look at it and otherwise his minutes per game were I mean they were 32 a game but the year before they were 29 so they were up but it was it was mostly because of that stretch where guys were out and he did play in every single game last season too. So um you know he was durable and and uh you know saw those minutes peak when other guys were out and and then kind of go down a little bit at the end of the year. So it’ll be interesting to see. But I do think there’s opportunity there still for him. It is going to be something to watch because again before that little period he was at 29.7 minutes and then when they came back he was down to 29 again. So we just we just need to keep an eye on it but we also need to keep an eye just this team and how good they could be because Ben that’s the end of the show and you’re going to have everything covered on the Minnesota Timber Wolves for us over on the Locked on Wolves podcast. So thanks again for jumping on and answering a few of these incredibly hard-hitting questions that I threw at you about this team and uh everything Wolves you’re going to have a cover for us during the season. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. And that will do it for the Minnesota Timberwolves. They are an intriguing team and there are opportunities that are there and we will see how it all plays out. I can’t wait to dig into some of the values of these guys when we talk fantasy later on in the preeason. In the meantime, hit the thumb on the video, subscribe, leave your comments down below. Guys, we are done here. Thank you so much for listening everyone. See you. [Music]

The Minnesota Timberwolves had a quiet offseason, but there are still key fantasy basketball questions to answer. What happens with Jaden McDaniels? And does Rob Dillingham have a path to minutes behind Mike Conley?

Is Rudy Gobert still a reliable big? Should you take a late flier on Naz Reid? And what’s the realistic upside for Terrence Shannon Jr.?

This is your complete Minnesota Timberwolves fantasy basketball season preview for 2024–25.

Follow and subscribe on all major podcast platforms: Be a double banger, watch the video, then listen to the audio
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOFantasyBasketball?sid=YouTube

Check out Locked On NBA League-Wide for comprehensive NBA coverage, including team insights, fantasy tips, draft updates, WNBA news and more:
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNBA

Get personalized shout-outs, messages and more on Cameo:
https://www.cameo.com/josh_doezl9tzyg25?qid=163210364

Improve your fantasy basketball team with the latest on waiver wire moves, trades, adds, drops, and other essential strategies. Take advantage of these resources:

Projections: https://basketballmonster.com/projections.aspx
NBA Lineups: https://basketballmonster.com/nbalineups.aspx
NBA News: https://basketballmonster.com/playernews.aspx
NBA Schedule Analyzer: https://basketballmonster.com/weeklyteamschedules.aspx
NBA Fantasy Basketball Team Analysis: https://basketballmonster.com/teamanalysis.aspx

Intro music by:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAPWJaPqxcWTAn-l8JjHCVg

Connect with us on other platforms:

Website: https://basketballmonster.com
Apple Podcasts: https://buff.ly/2xQx1tw
Spotify: https://buff.ly/2RVJ1RW
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/joshlloyd.bsky.social
Instagram: https://instagram.com/lockedonfantasybasketball

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
5-Hour ENERGY
Time to fuel up and turn it up with 5-hour ENERGY®️ Transfusion! Go to https://5hourenergy.com today and use my promo code LOCKEDONGOLF to receive 20% off your order.This offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. The code is not good on subscription orders.

OpenPhone
Streamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/lockedonnba

Monarch Money
Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first year

Gametime
Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.

FanDuel
Right now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

0:00 Introduction and Minnesota Timberwolves overview
2:05 Naz Reid’s role and performance
6:41 Mike Conley’s status as starter
11:54 Replacing Nickeil Alexander-Walker
22:08 Jaden McDaniels’ development
29:55 Conclusion and outro