Game two of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Summer League foray is in the books. Not the books basketball scholars will pore over and study for millennia to come, but it’s in the dusty and mothballed part of the shelf where most Summer League games go to rot.
In the end, the Summer Wolves rolled back into their Vegas hotel rooms with a loss against their names, although that scarcely matters in this setting. What matters is the minutiae, and there is always minutiae to Howl and Growl about.
Howl: Miller Time 2.0
Leonard Miller does some freaky shit. Like, some serious alien shit. We saw it in his first lick of the Summer League ice cream and we were privy to another taste in this one. He started the night with a one-legged Dirk-esque fadeaway from the low block, and that was the beginning of a procession of alienness.
There were self-created jumpers, torpedoing drives through contact, a trio of athletic steals, multiple slick passes from the top of the key, and, among his other feats of wonderment, two more split-legged treys. This pull-up pop while acting as a pick-and-roll ball-handler was particularly hair-raising.
Miller still had some rough-around-the-edges moments. He seemed to run out of gas in the final period and found his magical fairy dust melting away a touch, but this is a kid who seems incredibly well-rounded. Freaky, even.
And his freakiness seems to intertwine with winning. It’s not just freakiness for the sake of freakiness. Citing plus/minus in a glorified pick-up game feels remarkably stupid, but Miller Time was the only Wolves player who played more than 10 minutes and finished his minutes in the plus (+3). That’s impactful freak shit.
Every moment during this tournament needs to have the caveat of it just being Summer League slapped on it, but Miller is quickly becoming a mythically intriguing prospect.
Growl: Wendell Less
We need more Moore, not less Moore. More Moore means more reps and more chances to prove that the former first round pick is worthy of more minutes and more stock to potentially buy in the future. So, when Wendell Moore Jr. was ruled out of this outing with knee soreness, that stock continued to slowly plunge. If anything, it was more disappointment.
It’s not Moore’s fault. Injuries can’t be avoided and there is certainly no point in risking him during the chaotic nature of this tournament. And yet, it feels like the fan base, front office and coaching staff inched closer to writing off Moore’s chances of contribution next season.
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