What Have We Learned About the Timberwolves In the Preseason?

NBA preseason is popping right now. Back in my day (the 2000s and 2010s), nobody cared about NBA preseason. Once free agency wrapped up in July, you could take a siesta until your team returned at the end of October, fully formed and ready to play meaningful basketball. Today, the NBA is a 365-day league where fans can lock in on what their favorite team or player is up to at any time of year.

For the third time in five years, the Minnesota Timberwolves enter the preseason after a huge roster shakeup. They traded half the roster for Rudy Gobert after making the playoffs in 2022. Tim Connelly sent Karl-Anthony Towns to New York days before training camp opened in 2024.

This year, LaMelo Ball gets his turn to put his stamp on the new-look Timberwolves, with Naz Reid in Charlotte and Julius Randle in Brooklyn. We spent the ensuing three months arguing what the Wolves could look like once Ball hit the floor with Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Rudy Gobert, and fellow newcomer Jonathan Kuminga. Now we’ve actually seen it.

Minnesota is two games into the preseason. They’ve beaten the Milwaukee Bucks and lost to the Indiana Pacers in Tyrese Haliburton’s return to the court. We’ve learned a few things in the first 96 minutes of Timberwolves basketball this season.

The Anthony Edwards-LaMelo Ball backcourt will be as entertaining as we thought. The Timberwolves lead 68-62 in the 25 minutes Ball and Ant have played together. It’s a small sample size, but Chris Finch has to be happy with the early results. Ant hit four of his five threes in Game 2 against the Pacers while scoring 19 points in 19 minutes. Ball hit four of his six threes against the Pacers and finished with seven assists in 20 minutes. They’re sharing the ball, getting each other open looks, and flying up and down the court.

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Edwards and Ball are already engaging their bigs, whether it’s Gobert, Beringer, or even Kuminga, with lobs and pocket passes in the pick-and-roll. LaMelo Ball could look worse on defense, or way better, but the early results are exactly what Wolves fans hoped to see.

It’s interesting to see Finch lean into staggering Ball and Edwards and occasionally subbing one in for the other. Their rotation will be something to monitor as the preseason turns into the regular season. How will Finch play this long term? Will he lean into playing them together as much as possible and hope they run up the score when they’re on the court together? Or will he stagger them to keep some semblance of lead scoring and playmaking on the court at all times?

The rebounding is going to be an issue. We knew this would be an issue when the Wolves got rid of both of their power forwards, Naz Reid and Julius Randle, in one offseason. The Wolves outrebounded the Bucks 51-47 but allowed Milwaukee to grab 14 offensive rebounds. They were outrebounded by the Pacers 43-40 and once again allowed Indiana 13 offensive rebounds.

Kuminga, tasked with replacing the bigger, more physical Reid and Randle at power forward, has grabbed three rebounds in two games. His career average is 4.2 rebounds per game, with a career high of 5.6 last season. Kuminga will need to push that closer to six for Minnesota’s frontcourt to hold up against bigger opponents.

He will also need some help from McDaniels, who has six total rebounds in the preseason. Terrence Shannon Jr. has two total boards. Anthony Edwards has five. And 6’7” LaMelo Ball has eight. The Wolves will need to lean into group rebounding, not put the entire burden of cleaning the glass on Rudy Gobert and Joan Beringer.

The last thing we’ve learned this preseason is that the bench is still very much a work in progress. Minnesota has drastically changed its depth going into the 2026-27 season. Former Sixth Man of the Year, Naz Reid, is gone. So too are veteran Wolves stalwarts Mike Conley, Kyle Anderson, and SLOB Wizard Joe Ingles. Donte DiVincenzo is rehabbing a torn Achilles and will miss most of the regular season. That leaves Minnesota’s bench with several unproven players and one trusty veteran.

Ayo Dosunmu will likely be a leading candidate for Sixth Man of the Year this season. He averaged 14.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game in 24 regular-season games in Minnesota last season, mostly coming off the bench.

But the rest of the unit is mostly unproven. 19-year-old Joan Beringer is Minnesota’s backup center. He played sparingly as a rookie last season, with only 40 appearances and an average of 7.9 minutes per game. Connelly and Finch speak highly of him, but how will he hold up in his second season with 15 to 20 minutes per game?

Terrence Shannon Jr. broke out in the playoffs last year but hasn’t played more than 12.5 minutes per game in either of his two NBA seasons. Jaylen Clark is still searching for a jumper. Bones Hyland is the streakiest shooter alive. Trey Lyles was playing in Spain last year. Isaiah Evans, Cody Williams, Enrique Freeman, and Rocco Zikarsky have all seen zero to extremely limited minutes in the NBA. If Beringer, TSJ, and Clark hit and grow into their roles, the Wolves will be fine. But the group is thin, and Finch may have to lean on his starters for heavy minutes to start the season.

The Wolves play four more preseason games before things count for real on Oct. 21 against the Miami Heat.