{"id":118150,"date":"2025-01-15T15:30:19","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T20:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=118150"},"modified":"2025-01-15T14:24:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T19:24:49","slug":"timberwolves-finding-success-after-lineup-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/15\/timberwolves-finding-success-after-lineup-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Timberwolves Finding Success After Lineup Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been an inconsistent season for the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a>. They\u2019re eighth in the West which has them in the play-in, a spot they found themselves in for most of the season.<\/p>\n

As they continue to climb up the standings they\u2019ve found some recent success after inserting Donte DiVincenzo<\/a> into the starting lineup ahead of Mike Conley<\/a>. With a 21-18 record, it was only a matter of time before the Timberwolves tried something new and this could be the small change that could change their fortunes for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

Timberwolves Finding Success After Lineup Change<\/h2>\n

Donte DiVincenzo Stepping Up<\/b><\/h3>\n

DiVincenzo has started in the last five games. Over that stretch, the Timberwolves have gone 4-1. Though it\u2019s a small sample size, it\u2019s encouraging because two of those wins were against teams above .500. Their only loss came against the Memphis Grizzlies,<\/a> a game that went down to the wire where Ja Morant<\/a> made the game-winning floater.<\/p>\n

Over that stretch, DiVincenzo has been giving Minnesota exactly what they need plus more. He is averaging 15.4 points a game and shooting 40 percent from three over that five-game stretch.\u00a0He notched a season-high 27 points in their loss to the Grizzlies.<\/p>\n

Even though he isn\u2019t listed as a point guard, it\u2019s not an issue because Anthony Edwards<\/a> and Julius Randle<\/a> already are playmakers. Now DiVincenzo can do that at times but he\u2019s more dangerous when playing off the ball and he can be another scoring option amongst the starters if Ant and Randle are having off nights.\u00a0He fits seamlessly with the starters and this change looks like it will be in effect for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

Mike Conley Finds New Role Off the Bench<\/b><\/h3>\n

Moving Conley to the bench isn’t necessarily a demotion. He is more effective coming off the bench than starting. Conley has not been very efficient this season and it was time for the 37-year-old to take a step back in place for the younger DiVincenzo.\u00a0Even though Conley didn\u2019t have much of an impact playing with the starters, he definitely provides some much-needed playmaking off the bench. This allows for the offense to not become completely stagnant when Anthony Edwards goes to the bench.<\/p>\n

As a result, Edwards has taken up more playmaking responsibilities<\/a>. Being the primary ball handler has allowed him to get his own while getting his teammates involved. Conley’s minutes are reduced but his role stays the same. Over the last five games, he\u2019s averaging 22 minutes a game which is similar to Nickeil Alexander-Walker\u2019<\/a>s minutes.<\/p>\n

Looking Ahead<\/b><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s still too early to tell if this tweak in the lineup will be enough for the Timberwolves to climb themselves out of the play-in. Also, the rotation may be in flux when Rob Dillingham<\/a> returns from an ankle injury. Where would he fit in the rotation now that Conley is coming off the bench? For now, the Timberwolves have found something that worked in the short term and we\u2019ll have to wait to see if this change came at the right time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been an inconsistent season for the Minnesota Timberwolves. They\u2019re eighth in the West which has them in the play-in, a spot they found themselves in for most of the season. As they continue to climb up the standings they\u2019ve found some recent success after inserting Donte DiVincenzo into the starting lineup ahead of Mike […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5371,"featured_media":118189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,21,62],"tags":[1553,208],"class_list":["post-118150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-timberwolves","category-nba","tag-donte-divincenzo","tag-mike-conley"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118150"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118192,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118150\/revisions\/118192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}