Minnesota spent the summer reshaping its roster around Anthony Edwards, and the new group still has plenty left to prove.
The Minnesota Timberwolves spent this offseason tearing apart the group that won 49 games and then lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the second round back in May, and what they built instead is one of the more interesting rosters in the league heading into next season.
Naz Reid and Julius Randle are both gone, shipped out in separate trades that brought back LaMelo Ball, Josh Green and a haul of guards and role players.
Anthony Edwards has a second real star next to him for the first time in his career, and the front office spent the rest of its money keeping the young pieces it liked, like Ayo Dosunmu, Jaylen Clark and Bones Hyland.
On paper it looks like a deeper, more talented team, but on the floor a lot of that is still just a guess.
The Starting Lineup Still Has to Mesh
Edwards is coming off a season where he put up 28.8 points a game and shot 48.9 percent from the field, numbers that put him in the same breath as anyone at his position, and the front office is counting on Ball to take some of that shot creation burden off him now that both are locked into long term money.
Ball missed extended time in three of the past four seasons before finally staying healthy for 72 games last year, and putting him next to Edwards and Dosunmu still means three guards who are all used to having the ball in their hands.
Jaden McDaniels is also sliding over to power forward for the first time in his career, which pulls him away from the point of attack defense that made him one of the more feared perimeter defenders in the league.
None of that means the fit will fail, but it is a lot of chemistry to figure out before opening night.
The Bench
The frontcourt is where things get even shakier, since losing Reid and Randle in the same stretch left Rudy Gobert as the only big man left with a real track record, and he is putting up 10.9 points and 11.5 rebounds a game at 34 years old.
Behind him, Joan Beringer barely played as a rookie and Trey Lyles profiles more as a stretch four than a rim protector after a season in Spain, which leaves the frontcourt short on players who have actually proven they can hold up.
Tim Connelly still talks up Beringer, saying he has "the complete faith and buy-in" of the coaching staff and the players around him, but that belief has not shown up in real minutes yet.
The perimeter shooting takes a hit too, since Donte DiVincenzo is expected to miss most of next season recovering from a torn Achilles, and now a rookie in Isaiah Evans and a streaky Bones Hyland have to make up for shooting that will not be easy to replace.
