The Minnesota Timberwolves are trying to keep the season moving while key pieces are out, and now they’ve lost another useful rotation wing for at least one night.
Terrence Shannon Jr. will not play Tuesday in Houston after being downgraded from questionable to out on the team’s latest injury report. He had already missed Monday’s 112-100 win over Milwaukee with a left hip contusion, which was the first game he sat out this season. Now he’ll miss a second straight game, joining Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo on the sideline.
UPDATED Minnesota @Timberwolves Status Report in advance of tonight’s game at Houston Rockets:
OUT
DiVincenzo- Right Achilles Tendon Repair
Edwards- Right Knee Arthroscopy
Shannon Jr- Left Hip Contusion
Tip-off against the Rockets is set for 7:30 p.m. CT.
Shannon has quietly become one of Minnesota’s more important bench options, which is why this absence matters. He’s played in seven games this season, all as a reserve, and his role has grown along with his production. Through those appearances, he’s averaging 12.0 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 22.0 minutes per game while shooting 39.4% from three, going 13-of-33.
That’s a sharp rise from last season, when he averaged 5.6 points, 1.1 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 12.5 minutes per game across 43 games. His biggest scoring night so far came Oct. 28 against Golden State, when he put up a season-high 19 points.
Minnesota has already shown it can survive stretches without him. The Wolves are 5-3 overall, 4-3 with Shannon in the lineup and 1-0 without him. Against Milwaukee, Trey Lyles and Jaylen Clark each logged 21 minutes to help absorb the minutes Shannon would normally take, and both gave the team solid work.
For now, the Wolves haven’t offered any timetable for Shannon’s return, so the next update will come on the status report after this one.
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The Timberwolves head into their Nov. 4 meeting with Houston carrying a thinner margin for error than usual, and the matchup comes at a time when the Rockets have been playing with real momentum. Both teams enter with players on the injury report, but Minnesotas list is the one that changes the complexion of the night, especially with key rotation pieces unavailable as the Wolves try to keep pace with a fast-starting opponent.
There is still some uncertainty around the rest of Minnesotas availability, and that matters against a Houston team that has been leaning on its top performers and solid team numbers to stay hot. For the Timberwolves, this is the kind of early-season test that can expose depth in a hurry, and the final shape of the lineup will go a long way toward determining how competitive they can be on the road. [Read more 🡒]
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Minnesota had reportedly lined up Norchad Omier for the opening, which would have given the Wolves another developmental piece to stash and evaluate. Instead, Omier wound up signing a two-way deal with the Cavaliers, leaving the Timberwolves to sort out what comes next without much evidence that the role is about to become a meaningful part of the rotation picture. [Read more 🡒]
Jaylen Clark Just Turned Minnesotas Injury Problem Into A Real Debate
Anthony Edwards knee surgery has opened the door for Jaylen Clark, and the change has given the Timberwolves something they did not exactly expect in the middle of an injury hit stretch: a real rotation conversation. With Edwards out, Clark has been pushed into meaningful minutes, and his defense has stood out enough to make him more than just a stopgap. For a team that has had to keep adjusting its depth chart, that kind of stability on one end of the floor matters.
Clarks case is still tied to what he can provide offensively, especially from the perimeter, but the early returns have been encouraging enough to keep him in the mix. Minnesota has seen enough from his activity and effort to make his role worth watching, and now the question is less about whether he can survive in the rotation and more about how much room there is for him to keep growing into it. [Read more 🡒]