Every game feels like a referendum on whether moves need to be made for a team with worryingly few pieces available to them. Every moment feels like an invitation for national media to question the long-term fit of the franchise star alongside an aging roster. Every basket feels like it’s made on borrowed time.
I am, of course, talking about the Milwaukee Bucks and their constant pursuit of retaining Giannis Antetokounmpo. That lingering question remains of how bad it needs to get — how badly Cream City needs to get creamed — for the Bucks to make Giannis available.
On the Wolves’ side, a roster without ostensibly its best two players just completely demolished a team that rosters a top-five player in the entire association.
There’s a ton to point to as the most impressive bits of tonight. Whether you want to get excited about young talent or rotational changes, or even the fact that shots finally started falling, tonight was for you.
With that shorter-than-usual intro, let’s get to the true meat and potatoes of tonight’s blowout win.
Joan Inside the Arc
It was obvious coming into tonight that prized rookie Joan Beringer was going to get a considerable amount of run. With Rudy Gobert out and no other usable center on the roster, head coach Chris Finch announced what we all expected.
The young big showed up in a big way. Even just two years removed from picking up a basketball for the first time, Beringer’s blend of movement abilities, instinct, and touch is absolutely absurd. While 13 points and five rebounds certainly do not jump off the screen, the impact was undeniable. In an ode to his mentor and countryman, Joan had an insane +33 plus minus in this game without filling up the stat sheet.
Most impressively and exciting for the current state of the league, Beringer had four offensive rebounds. Possessions come at a premium in the NBA, and he is certainly generating extra ones.
Truly, I cannot speak to how impressive Beringer was tonight. If this is the future of the center position after Rudy Gobert, then it is a future to get excited about.
Even ignoring the future, Beringer’s impressive showing lightens the need to bring in a suitable backup center at the deadline. With fewer assets going out for a stopgap and more touches available for what may be the fourth member of the young core, there is a lot more opportunity to fill other, more pressing needs.
Speaking of which…
Skill-and-Cross Bones
For those of you out there who maintain hope in Rob Dillingham, it may be time to set the flowers on the proverbial headstone and say goodbye to that developmental dream. However, all is not lost. Please, allow tonight to be your introduction to the church of Bones Hyland.
Let all those be reformed by his seemingly frail limbs. Let his kickout threes foster the joy of a point guard long since forgotten. Let his shooting splits confuse you on how this is his third team.
Coming into this season, I covered a preseason game at Madison Square Garden with Knicks reporter Kris Pursiainen. During this game, I looked down on Bones and Rob sharing the floor and chose the former as the backup point guard this season.
Even I, an early adopter, have been shocked by this development.
Bones looked every bit the franchise point guard tonight (okay, maybe that is a little too far). He produced 23 points on 9/16 shooting with a team-leading +41 plus minus.
In a game that the Wolves were dominating, it was Bones that took this from a runaway win to a game that was over within the first 20 minutes of game time.
Additionally, if his blend of creation and shooting can hold steady, he would offer both a supplementary skillset next to Anthony Edwards when he returns, as well as push Donte DiVincenzo back to his more regular off-ball role.
Either way, this is how good teams go from capped out to overachieving: they find bargain bin free agents that can come in and play a huge role.
Take a Bow, Tim Connely
This section will be shorter because there’s so little to say. GMs aren’t defined by game-to-game performances, but instead require a longer track record. However, tonight feels a little special. Bones is a Connely drafty that he continued to believe in and brought in off waivers last year. Beringer is a Connely draft pick that arrived as part of the second-largest trade the man has made as the leader of the Wolves.
So much of this era of Wolves’ success has been placed at the feet of Guersson Rosas. Anthony Edwards, Naz Reid, and Jaden McDaniels were all brought in by the disgraced former POBO, as was Chris Finch. However, this roster is now truly that of Tim Connely, and it continues to produce at over its expected talent level.
So many problems are placed at the feet of management, both coach and GM, for valid reasons. But tonight, just a few weeks before the trade deadline arrives and brings hundreds of demands from Wolves fans from possibility to failed dream, it’s worth noting that the Wolves have someone in place who knows what he’s doing.
Hell, it’s worth noting that just over ten years ago, the guy in charge was selling draft picks to fire his own coworker.
Goodnight Wolves fans. Enjoy this one.
After a crazy stretch of seven games in eleven days, the Wolves finally get an extra day off as their next game isn’t until Friday against the Houston Rockets. The game begins in Houston at 8:30 PM CT, airing nationally on ESPN.
Highlights