Timberwolves projected lineup and rotations heading into 2023-24 season
The Minnesota Timberwolves are looking to have a bounce-back season from the 2023 season. Let’s look at the roster Chris Finch has at his disposal.
The Minnesota Timberwolves went into the 2022-23 season with the expectations of playing really well. After being one of the surprise teams in the 2022 season, finishing with a record of 46-36, the Timberwolves made a huge trade for Rudy Gobert to help with their defense.
While yes this trade did end up improving the Timberwolves’ defense from the 13th-best defense to a top-10 defense in the league, the trade caused them to lose a lot of their depth as their offense to a major hit.
One of the reasons for the Timberwolves’ down year was that Karl-Anthony Towns was dealing with an injury that kept him sidelined for 52 games in the regular season. Another reason was D’Angelo Russell didn’t fit with the team and was part of a three-team trade that sent him to the Lakers, Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker to the Jazz, and Russell Westbrook to the Jazz.
Having a healthy and well-fit roster together to start the season and hopefully the whole year, the Timberwolves are looking to improve on their last season. Here is a breakdown of their roster for the start of the 2023-24 season.
Minnesota Timberwolves starting point guard: Mike Conley
Mike Conley arrived on the Timberwolves midway through last season and started the last 24 games for them. In those 24 games, he averaged 14 points, 3.1 rebounds, 5 assists and 1.2 steals on 46/42/86 shooting splits.
It was very clear that Conley was a much better fit for this team than D’Angelo Russell. Conley doesn’t need to have the ball in his hands as much which allowed Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns to dominate the ball. On top of that, he is just as good of a playmaker and sets his teammates up for easy shots.
Another aspect that Conley brings with his veteran experience is he is very consistent and efficient at scoring the basketball. With most of the attention being on Edwards and Towns, Conley is able to score so much easier and with him being a very efficient scorer, he will make the defense pay if he is left open.
Conley is going to bring tremendous value to this Timberwolves roster. His veteran experience will enable him to be a great mentor for Nickeil Alexander-Walker and be one of the leaders on this team to hopefully get them in the playoffs again.
Primary backup point guard; Jordan McLaughlin
The Timberwolves don’t have many true point guards on their roster, with Jordan McLaughlin as the primary option. He has been on the Timberwolves for the last four seasons and has been one of their backup guards. Last season he played in 43 games, due to a calf injury, and averaged 3.7 points, 3.4 assists on 42/31/83 splits.
McLaughlin’s shooting efficiency has been all over the place due to his low minutes per game but, in those few minutes, he racks up a ton of assists. This is perfect for the Timberwolves’ backup point guard because they have scorers from a lot of different positions and not that many playmakers.
If you want to have a successful team, you need a solid amount of players who can get their teammates involved and luckily the Timberwolves have two good ones in their point guards.
Standing at 5-foot-11, McLaughlin is a solid defender too, which the Timberwolves lack out on the perimeter.