The Timberwolves are about to try something familiar in a very different setting.
When Minnesota opens summer league play Thursday against the New Orleans Pelicans, the club appears ready to roll out a double-big look with Joan Beringer and Rocco Zikarsky. It’s not the same stakes as the regular season or playoffs, but it does give the Wolves a chance to see whether a twin-towers setup can function with two of their 2025 draft picks.
Beringer, who was taken 17th overall, said he’s comfortable with the idea of sliding to the four.
“Yes it’s a big change, but I feel good about playing the four.” Beringer said. “I’ll play with Rocco so I’m very, very excited.”
That pairing is the one to watch. Zikarsky, selected 45th overall in the second round, is listed at 7-foot-3 and tied a franchise record for the tallest player in team history when he made his regular season debut on February 22. Beringer is listed at 6-foot-11, giving Minnesota a summer league front line that is hard to miss before the ball is even tipped.
The idea isn’t foreign to the Timberwolves. For two seasons in 2022-23 and 2023-24, Minnesota opened games with Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns together whenever both were available. That look helped fuel a 2023-24 campaign in which the Wolves finished first in the NBA in defensive rating and reached the conference finals.
Summer league, though, is its own laboratory. Teams use it to get young players real minutes, and sometimes to test out lineup concepts that might be worth revisiting later in preseason or even beyond. Minnesota’s version of that experiment seems centered on whether Beringer and Zikarsky can coexist.
There is at least one obvious reason the fit could work in spots: Zikarsky can stretch his game beyond the 3-point line. That gives the pairing a little of the same shape Minnesota had with Towns and Gobert, where one big could operate away from the paint while the other stayed anchored inside.
Even so, this is probably not a preview of a regular-season staple. Zikarsky is expected to be on a two-way deal again, and Minnesota did not lean heavily on its two-way players in NBA games last season. A Gobert-Beringer combination would likely crowd the lane, and it’s not the kind of offensive fit Chris Finch is likely to use often.
Still, the Wolves have a reason to see what Beringer can do at the four. He won’t turn 20 until November 11, while Zikarsky turns 20 in a few days, on July 11. If the two can develop enough to share the floor down the line, Thursday’s summer league opener could be an early look at something Minnesota may want in its back pocket later on.
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