The Minnesota Timberwolves’ season opener against the Miami Heat Wednesday night will feature two teams that look quite different than they did last year. The Wolves’ trade for LaMelo Ball and the Heat’s trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo were the highlights of major offseason makeovers for two teams stuck in the middle of their respective conferences. Here are three things to watch for in the Timberwolves’ season opener.
3 Big Questions For Minnesota Against Miami On Opening Night
Who Guards Giannis?
Antetokounmpo is one of the NBA’s most unstoppable players, even for teams with deep frontcourts who can throw a lot of different defenders at him. The Timberwolves, after team president Tim Connelly took a gamble by trading away Julius Randle and Naz Reid, are not one of those teams.
Jaden McDaniels is one of the best wing defenders in the league, and the Timberwolves often put him on the opposing team’s top scorer. However, Antetokounmpo has about 50 pounds on him, and facing the kind of physical punishment he can dish out for an entire game is probably too much to ask of McDaniels.
It’s likely the Wolves will use some combination of McDaniels, Rudy Gobert, new acquisition Jonathan Kuminga, and several bench players to try to slow Antetokounmpo. Kuminga, who signed to a $12.4 million deal, has potential defensively but has often failed to live up to it. While no one is going to stop Antetokounmpo, the Timberwolves’ season opener will be the first opportunity to see what kind of competitive fire Kuminga can bring against one of the league’s best.
Will The Timberwolves’ Bench Dominate?
Although the frontcourt is a bit thin, overall this is one of the deepest rosters the Timberwolves have had in years. On paper, this is a matchup where they should have a significant advantage in bench points. The Heat had to trade a significant chunk of their roster to get Antetokounmpo and don’t have much on their bench. Bobby Portis, who came over with Antetokounmpo in the trade, is a good all-around player, and Tim Hardaway Jr. offers outside shooting, but that’s about it.
Meanwhile, the Timberwolves have three dangerous bench scorers in Bones Hyland, Ayo Dosunmu, and Terrence Shannon Jr., as well as defensive stoppers Jaylen Clark and Joan Beringer. Plus, they have glue guy Trey Lyles to set screens and space the floor. They’re likely to go at least 10 players deep.
Can the Timberwolves Score Enough In The Paint?
Ball, McDaniels, and Anthony Edwards are all high-volume three-point shooters, but without Randle and Reid, Minnesota doesn’t really have any interior scoring to make defenses collapse and get them easy perimeter looks. With their talented guards and wings, they don’t need a ton of post scoring, but they do need to establish some sort of inside game.
The problem is that Gobert doesn’t have any post moves aside from a little right-handed baby hook, Beringer is raw offensively, and Lyles is more of a stretch-four than a post scorer. The Wolves were outscored by a total of 60 points in the paint over six preseason games, including 46-54 against a Heat team that didn’t play Antetokounmpo, Portis or Bam Adebayo — their top three post scorers.
The Timberwolves’ season may depend on how well they can defend and find ways to score easy buckets inside. Otherwise, the Wolves may end up like Don Nelson’s “Run TMC” Warriors of the late 1980s and early 1990s — fast-paced squads that were fun to watch but never serious title contenders.
The Last Word
The Timberwolves’ season opens at 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN, giving a national audience the chance to see Ball and Edwards in action together for the first time. While there are sure to be flashy passes, thunderous dunks, and a whole lot of three-pointers, the more consequential questions for the Timberwolves season will be how well the team defends (especially on Antetokounmpo), whether the bench dominates as it should, and whether Ball can help manufacture easy buckets around the rim.
Featured Image: Michael Laughlin-Imagn Images
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