LAS VEGAS — Minnesota Timberwolves general manager Matt Lloyd was breaking down the team’s two-day performance in the draft last month when a question was lobbed at him about second-year big man Joan Beringer.

“Oh boy,” Lloyd said, his voice getting noticeably buoyant. “Here we go.”

Beringer played sparingly as a rookie last season, with the Timberwolves bringing him along gradually behind a star-studded frontcourt rotation. But the whispers of his athletic feats in practices during the season and in workouts this summer have grown louder and louder, and Lloyd offered up a specific memory to illustrate how excited the team is about Beringer’s future.

“I think one of my favorite moments thus far of the offseason is we had a pickup game about a week ago and he got a defensive rebound,” Lloyd said. “He dribbled the length of the floor, changed the direction of his dribble twice and finished over the top of another player.”

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That potential is one of several reasons Wolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly made two seismic moves this offseason: trading Julius Randle to Brooklyn and sending Naz Reid to Charlotte for LaMelo Ball. The deals removed all the barriers for entry to the rotation for Beringer, who is currently penciled in as the backup to Rudy Gobert at center.

Beringer played in 40 games as a rookie, the vast majority of them in garbage-time situations. There were very few minutes available on a team that had Gobert, Randle and Reid soaking up all of the frontcourt playing time.

When he did get extended minutes, there were some promising signs. He had 13 points and five rebounds in 30 minutes against Milwaukee in January and had 24 points, 13 rebounds and seven blocks in the regular-season finale against New Orleans.

“I think he’s going to make a huge impact defensively,” Connelly said. “He doesn’t make mistakes offensively. He’s exactly the type of work-ethic, self-motivated, tough player we’re looking for, and I think he has a physical profile that only a handful of the guys in the league have.”

There will be anywhere from 15-25 minutes available for Beringer on a nightly basis. Whether he is completely ready for that responsibility or not, he is going to get it starting in October. The Wolves are giving him some minutes at power forward in the NBA Summer League to test his versatility and give them a glimpse of what he could one day become.

“I know I still have some work to do, especially if I want to play some minutes at power forward,” Beringer said. “I never played this position, but I feel I can be good. I just feel like I have to play more and more. I’m very excited to have some opportunity next year.”

Beringer will not turn 20 until November. He only started playing basketball five years ago. But the improvement he has shown in his first year in the United States has the Timberwolves salivating over what his future holds. His Summer League debut on Thursday did little to temper that optimism.

Beringer had 18 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots in a 105-92 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans, a game notable as much for where and how Beringer was playing as it was for what he did while he was on the floor.

Originally cast as a true center because of his shot-blocking instincts and lack of shooting, Beringer has intrigued Wolves coaches with how quickly he has developed the ability to put the ball on the floor and guard out on the perimeter.

“I think it can be huge because I think I have the ability to drive and, if I play on a big man, beat the guy,” Beringer said. “For me, it’s very, very important.”

He did it several times against the Pelicans, a skill that could help mitigate his lack of outside shooting, which is usually a prerequisite to play the 4 in the NBA. The Wolves are starting him alongside center Rocco Zikarsky to see how Beringer’s game holds up in that spot. Zikarsky’s ability to space the floor makes it a more viable lineup in Vegas in July than it would if Beringer had to share the court with Gobert in December. But his fluidity of movement and assertiveness attacking big men off the dribble does give Minnesota something to think about.

“He was making the right play when he did handle it,” Wolves summer league coach Nate Bubes said. “I thought it was good. All parts of his game are getting better, including the handle.”

Zikarsky did not play well against the Pelicans, scoring nine points on 3-of-11 shooting with six rebounds and four turnovers. But he is playing a big role in Beringer’s development.

They are Minnesota’s odd couple, a 7-foot-3 Australian and 6-11 Frenchman who bonded while trying to find their way in a new country and a new league. They go at each other in workouts and then will go fishing on one of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes. They will lift weights together, and then Zikarsky will give Beringer a ride to the airport for a road trip because he had never driven a car until arriving in Minnesota. (Beringer just passed his driver’s license test this week.)

“We’re both experiencing something new,” Zikarsky said. “We both go through the highs and lows of being a rookie in the NBA. We work out together a lot. It’s great for us. We push each other in the weight room, we push each other on the court. It’s not only on court, but off court that I think is automatically making us better players.”

The two friends are walking down a well-worn path in Minnesota. Reid and Jaden McDaniels established a tradition over the years of staying in Minneapolis and working out together all summer long. Both credit those workouts with helping them develop into players who signed contracts north of $100 million.

Beringer and Zikarsky listened intently last year as Reid and McDaniels talked to them about the work they put in to climb the ladder. On a team filled with veterans who were chasing a title, the new kids on the block stuck together.

“Especially last year when I came here, he helped me a lot,” Beringer said. “For example, when we had a drill that I didn’t really understand, he helped me a lot to understand better.”

Beringer’s English has improved markedly since he first came over. He has been taking lessons with his mother and doesn’t quite need the hand holding that he did in his earliest days. Zikarsky was a help there as well, leaning on his experience playing in Australia with several foreign-born players to try to bridge the language gap.

“To have us together all year, even now in the summer working out together, it’s made the transition so much easier,” Zikarsky said.

It is all helping to prepare Beringer for a real role this season. He still has a tendency to be too exuberant while hunting blocked shots and foul trouble was an issue at times last season. With each workout against Zikarsky in the summer, he gets just a little bit closer to being ready.

“We go at each other,” Zikarsky said. “It’s fun. It’s the best environment I’ve been in, training-wise.”

Like Lloyd, Zikarsky only sees great things ahead for Beringer.

“His athleticism never ceases to amaze me,” Zikarsky said. “I mean, I play above the rim, and the stuff he’s able to do in the air is just so impressive.”