Timberwolves projected lineup and rotations heading into 2023-24 season
Minnesota Timberwolves starting power forward: Karl-Anthony Towns
Karl-Anthony Towns has been the longest-tenured player for the Timberwolves and one of the best big men in the NBA. Last season he played in 29 games because he was dealing with an injury but in the time that he did play, he averaged 20.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and 4.8 assists, on 50/37/87 splits.
KAT is simply able to do everything on the offensive side of the ball. He is able to score from all three levels and is one of the most versatile players in the league. He is a good playmaker for his size and a very good thing too since he draws a lot of attention to himself. His ability to shoot the basketball at his size is nearly unmatched throughout NBA history.
He slid over to the four spot because there was one glaring weakness in his game and that he was sometimes a liability on the defensive end of the ball. Even though he is 6-foot-11, KAT has the tendency to become small and isn’t really an enforcer on the defense end. The Timberwolves did decide to fix that problem but we don’t have a large enough sample size yet to see how it worked.
KAT is one of the most important pieces to this team so his missing 57 games last year was a reason they didn’t play as well as the season prior. With KAT being fully healthy going into the season and hopefully throughout the season, the Timberwolves can become a quiet threat in the West.
Primary backup power forward: Kyle Anderson
Kyle Anderson last year had a pretty big role with the Timberwolves due to him starting in the absence of Karl-Anthony Towns. He played in 69 games and started 46 of them and he averaged 9.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.1 steals on 51/41/74 shooting splits.
Anderson has been recognized as one of the league’s best role players. Even though it seems like he is moving in slow motion, he is able to have a great impact on teams. His best attribute is defense. Last season he was the Timberwolves’ third-best defender and will have to be one of their best defenders again this season.
Aside from his defensive ability Anderson is a great rebounder and underrated playmaker. When it comes to scoring the basketball, he mainly shot from 3 to 10 feet out and made 51 percent of those shots last season.
Anderson is one of the best role players in the NBA and is going to impact the Timberwolves in a great way by doing all of the little things.
Others who could receive minutes: Leonard Miller, Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid
Leonard Miller was an early second pick in the 2023 draft and is a 6-foot-10 forward from Canada. He spent last year playing in the G-League and played quite well averaging 18 points and 11 rebounds per game. It is unlikely how much court time he will see this season but, if someone gets hurt he will have the opportunity to prove his worth to this team.