LAS VEGAS \u2013 It took all of one possession for Timberwolves rookie Joan Beringer to excite the fan base. <\/p>\n
The 17th overall pick in this year\u2019s draft, who the Wolves project will need some time to develop before he plays regular rotation minutes, came out of the gate swatting shots left and right in his Summer League debut, a 98-91 Wolves win over the Pelicans.<\/p>\n
Beringer blocked two shots on the first possession of the game, and finished with seven, tying a Summer League record. It was an impressive debut for the French rookie, who also scored 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting to go with eight rebounds. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even have to explain, y\u2019all see it,\u201d guard Rob Dillingham said of Beringer. \u201cHe was like that since the first day. He plays hard, run the floor, take coaching well and he plays with everybody. \u2026 He\u2019s gonna be special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beringer\u2019s debut was everything the Wolves could have hoped for. Strong Summer League performances don\u2019t always translate to the main league, but it was easy to see how Beringer\u2019s quickness and his athleticism would fit in the NBA as he continues to learn a game he has only been playing seriously since 2021. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always thinking about how I can impact the game. My defense I think is the biggest thing,\u201d Beringer said. <\/p>\n
Beringer said he looks up to his countryman Rudy Gobert, but the way he plays is different. Beringer, who played soccer before converting to basketball only about four years ago, has ample quickness that allows him to eat space in the paint and recover off double teams in time to block shots, as he did Thursday. Wolves assistant coach Kevin Hanson, who is helming the Summer League squad, raved about Beringer\u2019s instincts. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got great timing. He\u2019s always got his hands ready,\u201d Hanson said. \u201cHe has unbelievable timing, I saw it right off the jump on both ends of the floor, really. His ability to catch lobs, good hands, and that was impressive, especially going against a starting center in [Yves] Missi.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2013 It took all of one possession for Timberwolves rookie Joan Beringer to excite the fan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-329","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\/329","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=329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}