Minnesota rookies key in improbable win
The landscape of the Minnesota Timberwolves roster had yet to go under seismic change when they were on the clock with the 27th pick in the NBA Draft in June. They needed some wing depth after having circles run around them by the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference finals, and they wanted someone who could be ready to play right away.
Terrence Shannon Jr. was set to turn 24 a month after the draft, ancient in terms of NBA prospects. He was older than Anthony Edwards by more than a year, for crying out loud. Where many teams see a player that old as a problem, the Wolves saw a benefit. They would not have to wait for Shannon’s body to physically mature. He was a 6-foot-6, 215-pound wrecking ball, a relentless scorer and punisher of anyone who dared step in his path.
A few hours earlier on that draft night, the Wolves grabbed 19-year-old point guard Rob Dillingham, a shifty, undersized player they knew would take some time to develop. In taking Shannon, they believed they were getting someone who could physically stand up to the rest of the league. They watched film of Shannon at Illinois laying siege to the rest of the Big Ten, bullying his way to the basket and getting out in transition for violent dunks.
Their kind of player.
“He loves finishing with reckless abandon, and we need that,” coach Chris Finch said. “It’s a part of the reason we identified him in the draft. We had other guys that maybe were younger guys, but we wanted somebody who was a little bit more physically and mentally ready to play right away.”
Shannon was an integral part of one of Minnesota’s most improbable wins of the season — a 116-101 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday that came one night after losing to the Milwaukee Bucks without Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard. The Wolves were missing Rudy Gobert (back), Julius Randle (adductor), Donte DiVincenzo (toe) and Mike Conley (finger) on the second end of a back-to-back. Edwards has looked a little bit off the last few games while dealing with a hip injury and was just 5-of-18 from the field, including 3-of-12 from 3-point range.
That is what made Shannon’s contribution so important. He had 13 points, six rebounds and was a team-leading plus-23 in his 29 minutes. Most importantly, he played with a break-neck force that the Wolves needed against what has been the dominant team in the league.
“He’s super tough, but we already knew that,” Dillingham said. “Anytime I see him on the fast break, I throw it up. It’s an automatic bucket or a foul. And he plays defense, and he tall as hell. He’s definitely nice. Super nice.”
Shannon was just 4-of-10 from the field, but he also went 4-of-4 at the free-throw line, hit a 3-pointer and had three massive offensive rebounds to extend possessions.
When the Wolves selected Shannon last June, there were real minutes available for him. They still had Karl-Anthony Towns with Gobert in an oversized frontcourt and wanted to add Shannon’s size to the wing position, a spot that was thin before DiVincenzo arrived as part of the trade that sent Towns to New York. After the trade, DiVincenzo gobbled up 25 minutes per night, making it more difficult for Finch to find time for Shannon and Dillingham.
The minutes have been few and far between for Shannon in the first three months of his NBA career, limited primarily to some garbage time here and there on a team that just always seems to be playing close games. His first real splash came in the loss to Milwaukee on Wednesday night, when he scored 11 points, dished out six assists and grabbed five rebounds in 20 minutes. He left his mark.
The Wolves coaching staff has been cajoling their team to get out in transition more. Shannon needs no prodding.
“I feel like I’m feared in transition and getting downhill,” Shannon said, “and that’s where I’m at my best.”
The sporadic nature of his opportunities has been difficult for a player who spent five seasons in college, the final two at Illinois. He is used to having the ball in his hands, to having an entire team on his shoulders. The adjustment to a little-used player off of the bench has not always been easy for him, and it led to some admittedly tentative play when injuries opened the door to a back-end rotation spot earlier this month.
Shannon had just six points and two rebounds combined in his first two turns in meaningful rotation minutes, a win over Portland and a loss to Cleveland.
“First couple of games, playing timid,” Shannon said. “I was having a talk with the coaches and some of the players, and it’s starting to click for me a little bit.”
Timid and Shannon are rarely seen in the same sentence. He is a runaway train on the court, at his best when he is barreling to the basket at 100 miles per hour and daring anyone to step on to the tracks in front of him. Over the last two games, Shannon has started to assert himself. That is exactly what the Timberwolves needed when facing such long odds in their final game before the All-Star break.
The Thunder (44-10) had won seven in a row and were a staggering 30-3 with center Isaiah Hartenstein in the lineup. But all season long, the Timberwolves (31-25) have been a team that can slay a dragon or get devoured by a chihuahua.
So of course Shannon came off the bench for game-changing minutes along with Dillingham (six points, five assists, three rebounds, plus-18 in 21 minutes) and Luka Garza, who shook off some monumental struggles over the last two weeks to put up eight points, eight rebounds (six on offense) and a couple of impressive contests at the rim against driving Thunder players.
The Wolves outscored Oklahoma City 23-11 on second-chance points thanks to 20 offensive rebounds. Shannon grabbed three offensive boards, including a heavily contested board in the fourth quarter that ended with him kicking the ball to Edwards for a 3-pointer and a 12-point lead.
“I’ve got great guys around me like Ant, Naz, Jaden, who can all space the floor,” he said. “So they give me space, and I just do my thing.”
Of course, Reid moved back to center with both Gobert and Randle out and delivered a career night. He put up 27 points, 13 rebounds, a career-high seven assists, zero turnovers and better than 60 percent shooting. The last person to put up a similar stat line was Antetokounmpo in 2022.
“H e was just kind of active everywhere we needed him to be,” Finch said. “Went to work in the post when he had a mismatch. He kind of cut against a lot of the doubling of Ant.”
Of course, Jaden McDaniels looked like the best player on the court for long stretches, with 21 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Of course, Jaylen Clark played hellacious defense on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, forcing him into 6-of-21 shooting. Of course, Nickeil Alexander-Walker broke out of a mini-slump to go 4-of-9 from 3-point range.
It all added up to the Timberwolves’ most complete performance of the season. Despite Edwards’ poor shooting night, Minnesota had enough depth thanks to the youngsters taking control when they were needed.
If there is any positive to be gained from all of the injuries the Wolves have suffered recently, it is the free glimpse they’ve gotten at several players who have not been in the rotation until this point. Dillingham is getting more run at backup point guard, Shannon and Clark are becoming fixtures on the wing thanks to tremendous defensive effort and even Garza just not getting cooked on the perimeter on defense was enough to warm the heart. All three have had their struggles at different points in the season. But all three are also showing how effective they can be when their games are right.
Finch said after the game that they are earning more opportunities, even with Randle, DiVincenzo and Conley all progressing toward returns later this month or early next month.
“I love how the young guys have been playing, I really do,” Finch said. “We’ve got to try to maintain a role for them going forward. Maybe not every night. They’ve got to stay ready.”
All of those youngins were underwhelming in the loss to Milwaukee, and maybe that brought some more fire on Thursday. Getting the win helped them avoid too much doom and gloom before heading out of town for the All-Star break.
The coach has often only turned to the young players in periods of frustration or angst. Maybe someone is out with an injury. Maybe there is foul trouble. Whatever the reason, Finch is getting more confident with putting Dillingham, Shannon, Garza and Clark on the floor in big situations.
“You’ve just got to take coaching and don’t look at it like it’s just being hard on you,” Shannon said of Finch’s approach, “but it’s just getting you better for the long run.”
Jon Krawczynski is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Minnesota Timberwolves, the NBA and the Minnesota Vikings. Jon joined The Athletic after 16 years at The Associated Press, where he covered three Olympics, three NBA Finals, two Ryder Cups and the 2009 NFC Championship Game. Follow Jon on Twitter@JonKrawczynski