@@Minnesota Timberwolves

Jaylen Nowell, Austin Rivers, Taurean Prince (who was good), Jordan McLaughlin, Bryn Forbes and Matt Ryan played 4878 minutes for the Timberwolves last season. That’s reason number one why they should be better — way better? — next season.

  • September 14, 2023


Source:https://x.com/HowlsAndGrowls_/status/1701795326418706729?s=20
Prince and Nowell accounted for less than 50% of those minutes btw.

Remember how automatic the opponent run would be when Ant and Rudy checked out and Nowell and Forbes checked in? We lost so many leads. Now imagine those minutes being replaced by KAT, NAW, Shake Milton and Troy Brown Jr. 👀

Comparisons between NAW, Shake, Nowell and McLaughlin. https://x.com/HowlsAndGrowls_/status/1702291107122466961?s=20
We had a lot of inconsistent and rotating bench minutes last year. NAW and Shake consistently having minutes from the start of the season will do wonders.

6 comments

  1. You’re gonna be complaining about those guys too.

    This is a reason on the margins for some improvement but to me not the “reason number one”

    Also Austin Rivers gave us some nice minutes when he was deployed correctly.

    Matt Ryan only played garbage time.

    Nowell was a disaster, I feel bad for him it was a huge year for him, hopefully he finds his way in this league.

  2. this is ridiculous. Our starters lost so many games allowing points. They have for years. The deep bench guys getting 6-15 minutes have not been allowing 20 point runs during their 3 minute stints, and they are almost always playing alongside the staggered starters.

    Austin Rivers did have 10 starts playing with the starters and it did amount to a 2-8 record those games. He along with Prince and Nowell are the only ones of your list with enough minutes to impact much.

    * Rivers: 1016 minutes, 10 starts, average mins: 19
    * Princec: 1192 minutes, 4 starts, average mins: 22
    * Nowell: 1252 minutes, 2 starts, average mins: 19
    * McLaughlin: 678 minutes, 0 startss, average mins: 15
    * Forbes: 268 minutes, 0 starts, average mins: 10
    * Matt Ryan: 181 minutes, 0 starts, average mins: 8

    # Here is something interesting for you.

    * Record with NAW playing is 11-12. 15 mins avg
    * Record with Conley playing and starting is 12-12. 24 starts, 31 mins
    * Record with Karl Towns 29 games. 15-14 29 starts, 33 mins

    When some of these new guys came and Towns came back, most of your blamed players pretty much stopped playing much at all. But the record didn’t get any better than that .500 ball we saw all season. I wonder why that is…

  4. Estimated Plus Minus (EPM) of last year’s bench:

    JMac: -1.6

    TP: -1.9

    Jaylen Nowell: -2.8

    Austin Rivers: -3.7

    Matt Ryan: -3.9

    Bryn Forbes: -6.3

    EPM of notable bench players this coming year:

    NAW: -0.4

    Shake Milton: -1.7

    Troy Brown Jr.: -2.7

    Even if the new bench players aren’t amazing, it will be huge if we never have to play destructively bad players next year. Assuming better health luck, having a 10th man like Troy Brown instead of Rivers/Forbes/Ryan, and an 8th/9th man like Shake instead of Nowell is a big upgrade

  5. I’m just looking forward to seeing the full-time structure of a healthy trio of Ant, KAT, and Gobert, and how the rest of the team will mesh and fall into place. We need role players to use their strengths and consistently deliver when called upon. Right now it’s kind of a free-for-all. Our team doesn’t have the clear hierarchy that other successful teams have. We need professional, dedicated, focused, selfless, winning basketball. I really want to see it.

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