Timberwolves Unleash Video Game Starting Lineup Featuring Ball and Kuminga
Underdog NBA tweeted: 'Lineup alert: Wolves will start Ball, Edwards, McDaniels, Kuminga, Gobert on Monday.'
The Minnesota ' new starting five is officially here, and it looks like a video game roster where someone turned the salary cap off and just started mashing the trade override button.
Underdog NBA confirmed that Minnesota is rolling out LaMelo Ball, , Jaden McDaniels, Jonathan Kuminga, and Rudy Gobert for Monday night's game.
Ball changes the entire geometry of this offense. He put up 20.1 points and 7.1 assists last year, which means Edwards finally has a backcourt partner who can actually initiate the offense instead of forcing him to play hero ball for 48 minutes. Edwards is coming off a brutal 5-for-23 shooting night against the , so getting some clean catch-and-shoot looks from a true point guard is exactly what he needs to get right.
The real wild card here is Kuminga sliding into the frontcourt next to Gobert. Minnesota spent the whole summer trying to figure out the power forward spot after shipping out Julius Randle and Naz Reid. Now they have a hyper-athletic wing pairing in McDaniels, who is quietly grabbing eight boards a game this year, and Kuminga to fly around the perimeter while Gobert cleans up the paint.
For anyone staring at the prop markets for Monday night's matchup against the , this lineup completely scrambles the usage rates. You can probably expect Ball to dominate the early touches, which might artificially deflate Edwards' assist numbers but give him much better scoring .
Minnesota is already riding a three-game winning streak where they are absolutely blowing teams out, including a 117-94 dismantling of the Toronto Raptors over the weekend. If this new starting five clicks immediately against Cleveland, the rest of the Western Conference is going to have a massive headache trying to match up with this much sheer athleticism.