Minnesota Sports Forum

My updated player rankings of the rostered non-"eight starters" group based on three pre-season games. Green equals trending up and red equals trending down.

#9 - Jaylen Clark
#10 - Bones Hyland
#11 - Johnny Juzang
#12 - Rob Dillingham
#13 - Joan Beringer
#14 - Rocco Zikarsky

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Thu Oct 09, 2025 9:17 pm My updated player rankings of the rostered non-"eight starters" group based on three pre-season games. Green equals trending up and red equals trending down.

#9 - Jaylen Clark
#10 - Bones Hyland
#11 - Johnny Juzang
#12 - Rob Dillingham
#13 - Joan Beringer
#14 - Rocco Zikarsky

I think I see it pretty much the same way, Q, although Rob may closed the gap with Hyland a little tonight. Also I would have Ingles 13th with our two teen age giants tied for 14th.

Just from tonight’s game

The Good
-Wolves overall defense from everyone
- Naz
- Donte, Rudy, Jaden hustle
- Ant post ups leading to Knicks defense needing to adjust
- Juzang


The mix bag
- Dilly, when he starts playing out of structure he was bad. When he was with better players he did well
- Tsj and Donte, way to many forced passes but they hustled their butts off
- Randle

The bad
- Ant shot
- Rudy hands
- Jaden Ankle injury
- defensive rebounding

The ugly
- our 2 rookie centers were god awful.

FNG wrote: ↑Thu Oct 09, 2025 9:53 pm

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Thu Oct 09, 2025 9:17 pm My updated player rankings of the rostered non-"eight starters" group based on three pre-season games. Green equals trending up and red equals trending down.

#9 - Jaylen Clark
#10 - Bones Hyland
#11 - Johnny Juzang
#12 - Rob Dillingham
#13 - Joan Beringer
#14 - Rocco Zikarsky

I think I see it pretty much the same way, Q, although Rob may closed the gap with Hyland a little tonight. Also I would have Ingles 13th with our two teen age giants tied for 14th.

Ha, I forgot about Ingles!

Yeah, I've been disappointed in Beringer. He looks overwhelmed a bit and whenever there is a contested rebound in his area, he seemingly never comes up with it. Of course that comes with the acknowledgement that he's super young, inexperienced, and there is still plenty of time.

kekgeek wrote: ↑Thu Oct 09, 2025 11:03 pm Just from tonight’s game

The Good
-Wolves overall defense from everyone
- Naz
- Donte, Rudy, Jaden hustle
- Ant post ups leading to Knicks defense needing to adjust
- Juzang


The mix bag
- Dilly, when he starts playing out of structure he was bad. When he was with better players he did well
- Tsj and Donte, way to many forced passes but they hustled their butts off
- Randle

The bad
- Ant shot
- Rudy hands
- Jaden Ankle injury
- defensive rebounding

The ugly
- our 2 rookie centers were god awful.

I couldn't watch the game (although apparently NBATV showed the second half), so I appreciate the summary. It was obviously a very sloppy game and not good that we had more turnovers than assists, but if Jaden is not hurt too bad, it sounds like a successful night for us. Finchy said we were going to focus on defense this season, and if Ju and Ant are locked in next to elite defenders like Rudy and Jaden, we're going to win a lot of games. Donte's box score isn't very good, so it's nice to hear about his hustle...he was a team-leading +10. I'm not counting on getting much from our rookie centers this season, so I'm not too concerned that they didn't look very good. Q mentioned Joan's inability to get contested rebounds, and I agree that his defensive rebounding needs to be better. Rudy's 5 turnovers are a big problem.

This is coming from an opTIMistic me... I have yet to see signs of a top 5 defense or a top 5 offense. I didn't think the defense against the Knicks was all that great -- the Knicks missed a whole bunch of makeable shots. And while the defense against the Pacers might have seemed terrible, that was aided by the Pacers hitting their makeable shots, even with a decent contest.

The few positives I have seen are these:

- We are clearly looking to create more transition opportunities.
- Randle has looked pretty good.
- Clark has been good, leaving Finch with the dilemma of how to include him in the rotation.
- And Johnny Juzang is playing like he wants that 15th roster spot.

Rudy's 5 turnovers against the Knicks weren't as terrible as it would seem -- several were offensive fouls that were rather meh. Of bigger concern is Rudy's effectiveness in the paint. He is still a factor, but he does not look like a defensive player of the year. Maybe it's just preseason?

Maybe everyone else is just trying to figure out how to apply the stuff they worked on in the summer into the current team. I don't know. I still have hope they'll figure it out, but my 60 win prediction is pretty lame based on what I have seen thus far.

Any update on Jaden's injury?

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 10, 2025 3:11 pm Any update on Jaden's injury?

Yeah, good news...Jon K says he practiced yesterday, and there's nothing serious.

And some more injury news, Keegan Murray tore a UCL in his left thumb and will be reevaluated in 4-6 weeks. The Wolves play the Kings twice in the early part of the season, which will now be sans Murray.

The Wolves damn well better get off to a good start this season!

60WinTim wrote: ↑Sun Oct 12, 2025 4:45 pm And some more injury news, Keegan Murray tore a UCL in his left thumb and will be reevaluated in 4-6 weeks. The Wolves play the Kings twice in the early part of the season, which will now be sans Murray.

The Wolves damn well better get off to a good start this season!

With Murray out, only Sabonis is taller than 6'6" in the projected starting lineup. And ESPN has Zach LaVine listed as their starting small forward! Yes, the start of the season is looking very favorable right now.