Well, that was about as Summer League as Summer League gets. Squeezed into the spaces between the 48 combined turnovers and 54 combined fouls, the Timberwolves ran away from the New Orleans Pelicans late in their first exhibition outing.
As usual, it was a frenetic pace and an afternoon littered with head-scratching plays, but Summer League demands a fine-tooth comb in order to weed out the roses, and there were plenty of things for Timberwolves fans to be excited about throughout the game. Nothing is truly catastrophic in this setting, but there were things to tickle the concerns, too.
Let’s Howl and Growl, summer style.
Howl: Miller Time
Miller Time works as a slogan for Leonard Miller, because watching him is like shotgunning six beers in a row. We were all hoping to see last season’s G-League tools translate onto a different stage, and even then it felt like the lofty expectations were smashed into a billion tiny pieces.
The shooting form remains a little bit of a choose your own adventure novel, but he cashed in on two confident-looking treys from the top of the arc. The defense is suspect and overzealous at times, but he managed to make a number of smart rotations and astute stops at the rim. Between the shooting and the defense lived the chaotic brilliance that makes him such an intriguing prospect.
He rebounded like a bat out of hell. He sliced behind and through New Orleans’ defense like a machete through a stick of butter. And he found himself in the vicinity of every loose ball. He also did this, which feels more like a fucking simulation than a basketball play.
Miller finished with an efficient 16 points (7-11 FG, 2-4 3PT) to go along with 11 rebounds, and left us fiending for another hit. Long may Miller Time live.
Growl: Needed A Little Moore
To be fair to Wendell Moore Jr., he is playing in a setting that is scarcely conducive to his tertiary skillset and being asked to do more than he is probably capable of as an on-ball creator. He also found a rhythm as a floor general in the final period as the Wolves shrugged off the pesky Pelicans and put the game to bed.
Still, this was an outing that didn’t answer any of the questions surrounding him. If anything, it only emboldened and underlined them. While Moore Jr. clearly has a dogged defensive mindset, he wasn’t solid enough on that end to make up for the swirling stink lines that emanated from most of his game offensively.
Being guarded by a legitimate NBA-level defender in Dyson Daniels, the former first-rounder looked like he was dribbling in a bowl of fucking porridge. He found no joy in self-creation, often was a fraction late on his passing reads, and missed a torrent of open 3-point looks.
This is a big summer for last year’s 26th overall pick. A game like this — 15 points and 6 assists on 5-18 from the field and 3-12 from deep — isn’t going to improve his already sliding stock.
Howl: Minott’s Movement
Like his compatriot from the 2022 draft, Josh Minott had his issues creating for himself off-the-bounce and knocking down deep shots, but Minott’s game is one that doesn’t require self-creation to pop off the screen and jab you in the fucking eye socket. He has an uncanny ability to drift into spaces and sniff out pockets to score from, and that makes him a danger against defenses at this level and the one he is aspiring to reach.
So, whenever he can’t slither to the rim or knock down a catch-and-shoot jumper, he can still run riot with his movement; on both ends of the floor. Throughout the afternoon, he was constantly finding lanes behind the defense, hovering around the rim for dump-offs like a hungry lion, and incessantly crashing the glass to munch up putbacks.
And, at 6-foot-8, he does shit like this regularly enough that it’s hard not to drool a little when imagining what he could eventually be.
Throw in the fact that he exhibited some really nice passing reads in pick-and-roll and shadowed Dyson Daniels for the majority of his minutes and you have a really nice Minott game — without ever flashing any genuine improvements to his overall skillset.
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