{"id":203272,"date":"2025-10-05T11:47:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T11:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/203272\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T11:47:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T11:47:06","slug":"two-former-timberwolves-have-a-golden-opportunity-to-rejuvenate-their-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/203272\/","title":{"rendered":"Two former Timberwolves have a golden opportunity to rejuvenate their careers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The start of the 2025-26 NBA season is quickly approaching, with training camp and preseason now underway. For many players, a new season signals a fresh start. This is absolutely true for former Minnesota Timberwolves players Josh Minott and Luka Garza, who are now members of the Boston Celtics.<\/a><\/p>\n

Minott and Garza both struggled to get minutes <\/a>on a loaded Wolves rotation the past three seasons. Nevertheless, on a Celtics team with uncertainty and injuries, both players will have ample opportunities to carve out NBA roles and rejuvenate their careers. <\/p>\n

Minott’s path to minutes<\/p>\n

Minott, a second-round pick in 2022, averaged just 5 minutes and 2.3 points in his three seasons with the Wolves. Regardless, the 6-foot-8 wing is a disruptive and versatile defender. Notably, per Databaller, Minott averaged 2.1 blocks per 100 possessions, a number that ranks in the 100th percentile and in the 92nd percentile, posting 5.2 deflections per 100 possessions. <\/p>\n

As a career 33.9 3-point shooter, developing on offense will be key for Minott. This is especially true in Joe Mazzulla’s 3-point-centric style of offense. Nevertheless, Minott’s impressive defense will get him some minutes on a Celtics team that lacks wing depth. <\/p>\n

Jaylen Brown and Sam Hauser are clearly above Minott. Second-year wing Baylor Scheierman is likely above Minott as well. As a result, Minott will mainly be competing with Jordan Walsh and Hugo Gonz\u00e1lez for minutes. Walsh has similarly struggled on offense and hasn’t shown the same defensive acumen as Minott. Gonz\u00e1lez is an unproven rookie. Given this, Minott has a reasonable path to minutes. <\/p>\n

Garza’s path to minutes<\/p>\n

Garza arguably has a clearer path to minutes considering the Celtics’ lackluster center rotation. Neemias Queta, who is a skilled yet still fairly raw big man, seems poised to earn the Celtics’ starting center role. Veteran big man Chris Boucher is also likely to see some sizable minutes. However, after that, Xavier Tillman and second-round pick Amari Williams will be Garza’s competition for minutes.<\/p>\n

Garza is the opposite of Minott, as he is a gifted offensive player who struggles on defense.<\/a> The Iowa product has spent four years in the NBA, including the last three with Minnesota. For his career, Garza has averaged 7.8 minutes and 4.9 points. While it’s a flawed stat, it’s not nothing that he has averaged 22.3 points per 36 minutes for his career. Likewise with the Wolves, he averaged an impressive .72 points per minute. <\/p>\n

Regardless, Garza’s poor mobility hurts him on defense, and this may prevent him from ever being a quality NBA center. The Celtics will give him an opportunity to develop on defense, and his offensive skill set will help him get some real minutes. <\/p>\n

Ultimately, on a team that will give them more minutes, both Garza and Minott are facing a pivotal season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The start of the 2025-26 NBA season is quickly approaching, with training camp and preseason now underway. For…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-203272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}