Chris Finch didn’t leave much room for mystery when he talked about the Timberwolves’ offseason and Joan Beringer. Minnesota’s roster shake-up may have been driven by the LaMelo Ball trade, but Finch made it clear the second-year big man was part of the thinking, too.
“When we drafted him, we had great hope; we saw the talent right away, and we knew at some point it would spring. When we played him last year, he helped us a lot, and it was just now that we had to create that pathway for him to play more consistently, and we were able to do that for him this offseason,” Finch said.
That lines up with how the Wolves handled their frontcourt. They moved on from both Julius Randle and Naz Reid to land Ball, and right now Trey Lyles is the only real obstacle in front of Beringer for minutes. Even then, Lyles is a power forward, not a center, which makes Minnesota’s intent pretty obvious.
Beringer’s rookie season was short on court time - 314 minutes, to be exact - but long on hints that the Wolves had something worth developing. He wasn’t flawless, and nobody should expect that leap overnight, but he showed enough to convince Minnesota to clear a path for him in year two.
The Ball trade was still about the guard upgrade first and foremost. Adding a gifted playmaker and perimeter scorer next to Anthony Edwards was the headline move.
But the fact that Minnesota was willing to drift this far from its old frontcourt setup says plenty about how much belief it has in Beringer. The team also passed on bringing in another player who could challenge him for those minutes.
There’s risk here, of course. Beringer only started playing basketball in 2021, and he’s being asked to carry real responsibility as a second-year center.
But the upside is hard to ignore. At 6-foot-11, he’s a freak athlete with real rim-protection juice and the kind of switchability teams spend years searching for.
Databallr had him in the 92nd percentile for blocks per 100 possessions.
Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly described just how unusual Beringer’s physical package is during an appearance on the Jon Krawczynski Show.
"He's got these unique physical tools that you see once every 10, 15 years. A lot of guys can run, or they can run and jump, or they can jump and move laterally. He can do all three," Connelly said.
That kind of mobility gives Minnesota a real answer for the non-Rudy Gobert minutes, which have been a problem for years. It also gives the Wolves a possible successor down the road when Gobert ages out.
And Beringer’s value isn’t limited to defense. He already looks like a dangerous rim runner and lob target because of his hands and explosiveness, and there are flashes of more off-the-dribble ability if his game keeps expanding.
He’s already shown he can tilt a game offensively in small doses. In his first real rotational chance, he scored 13 points against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. In his limited minutes overall, Minnesota’s offense was 12 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor.
The message from Minnesota’s offseason is pretty clear: the Wolves think Beringer is worth building around, and Finch’s comments confirm that the team’s moves were made with him in mind.
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