The Minnesota Timberwolves’ new-look roster brings one obvious selling point: firepower from deep. LaMelo Ball is the engine of that idea.
Last season, he finished third in the league in both 3-point attempts and 3-pointers made, and Minnesota already sat 13th in made 3s and 15th in attempts. Put that together, and the vision is clear - a Wolves offense that lives from the arc and can stretch defenses in a hurry.
Ball’s value goes beyond volume, too. His playmaking should create cleaner looks for teammates, turning the floor into a much harder place to guard.
If Minnesota is going to seriously chase the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs, this kind of shooting surge is the most direct route. The upside here is enormous.
But that’s only half the story. A team built this heavily around 3-point shooting comes with built-in swinginess. The old rule still applies: you live by the 3, you die by the 3.
History backs that up. The Boston Celtics won the championship with this style in 2024, and the Golden State Warriors turned it into a dynasty.
Even so, those teams had nights when the rim seemed sealed shut. On the other end of the spectrum, the Houston Rockets found regular-season success but saw poor shooting haunt them in the playoffs.
Even Boston’s non-2024 playoff runs have shown how quickly this kind of approach can go sideways.
That risk matters more when the opponent can take away clean looks from deep. Against strong 3-point defenses, Minnesota may struggle to generate the kind of shot quality it wants, even with Ball running the show. And beyond the top-end shooters, Jaden McDaniels, Jonathan Kuminga, and Ayo Dosunmu are all fairly inconsistent from outside, with Dosunmu the least reliable of the group.
There are reasons to think the Wolves can keep things from getting too one-dimensional. They ranked 10th in rim frequency last season, according to Cleaning the Glass, and the roster still has players who can attack the basket.
Edwards, McDaniels, Ayo, and Kuminga can all pressure the rim, while Ball can create lob chances for Rudy Gobert. Minnesota should also be dangerous in transition.
That balance - threes on one end, rim pressure on the other - is what could make this work. But there’s also a real warning sign baked in.
The Wolves gave up a lot of frontcourt size, and that could cut into how much they get downhill. Ball isn’t much of a scorer around the rim himself, which only adds to the concern.
At least in the games where defenses protect the paint well, this team is going to lean hard on shooting.
So the identity is set: Minnesota is going to bet on spacing, volume, and shot-making. That could turn into something terrifying if everything clicks. It could also lead to nights - and maybe even playoff series - where the Wolves simply shoot themselves into trouble.
In Other News...
Joan Beringer Is Giving The Wolves One Big Reason To Worry
Joan Beringer has given the Timberwolves a useful preseason glimpse of what he might become, and the early returns are hard to ignore. In limited minutes, he has flashed real value around the basket, averaging 7.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks while giving Minnesota the kind of interior activity teams can lean on when the game gets physical.
The concern, though, is just as clear. Beringer is also averaging three fouls in about 17.6 minutes, and for a team that may need him more as Rudy Gobert gets older and potentially gets managed more carefully, that kind of whistle trouble can become a real issue. Minnesota does not have much room to spare in the frontcourt, so how quickly Beringer learns to defend without sending people to the line could shape how much trust he earns early on. [Read more 🡒]
Former Bulls Guard Now Faces A Brutal Question About His NBA Future
Rob Dillinghams path from highly regarded draft prospect to uneasy NBA afterthought has moved faster than anyone in Minnesota likely expected when the Timberwolves took him eighth overall in the 2024 draft. A standout at Kentucky, Dillingham arrived with real intrigue as a guard who could score and create, but the transition to the league has been rocky, with his size and defensive limitations making it difficult for him to carve out a stable role.
Now without an NBA contract after being traded twice and waived by three teams, Dillingham has become part of a larger leaguewide conversation about young guards who look better on the draft board than they do once the games count. NBA draft analyst Rafael Barlowe and other scouts have started revisiting whether the initial evaluation oversold his upside, or whether teams today simply have less patience for players who need time to develop, leaving Dillingham facing a much harsher question than he did on draft night. [Read more 🡒]
Tim Connellys Latest Wolves Swing Just Changed The Pressure On Everyone
Tim Connelly has made a habit of keeping the Timberwolves in motion since taking over as president of basketball operations in 2022, and this latest move fits the pattern. After a stretch that included headline-grabbing deals for Rudy Gobert and LaMelo Ball, Minnesota has continued to chase the kind of top-end talent it believes can keep the roster in the Wests upper tier. The Wolves made the Western Conference finals in 2024 and 2025, so the pressure around every Connelly swing has only grown louder.
The latest pivot came after Minnesota fell in the second round in 2026, pushing Connelly to rework the core again by moving Julius Randle and Naz Reid for Ball. With Jaden McDaniels drawing encouraging preseason attention, there is at least some reason to believe the framework around the new-look group can still hold up. Still, the bigger question now is whether this kind of constant reshuffling has finally raised the stakes for everyone in the organization, from the front office down to the players expected to make it work. [Read more 🡒]