3 Points of Interest to Watch in Timberwolves' Game vs. Pistons

The Minnesota Timberwolves have another opportunity to keep building on their chemistry with the regular season tip-off in Miami just one week away now. Wednesday's preseason home opener against the Pistons puts the focus on a few key areas for Minnesota—let's dive in ahead of this clash.

1. How Lamelo Ball has already changed the Wolves offense

The biggest thing I think to notice when watching the Timberwolves tonight is how LaMelo Balls\'s playmaking has changed the way the team moves the ball around and how opponents have had to guard Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels.

The clear impact on McDaniels is particularly notable because last year he shot over 51% from the field and 41% from three but averaged under 15 ppg. Now that Naz Reid and Julius Randle's shots are gone, McDaniels is being more relied on as a scorer and that's showed up in the preseason thus far, as he's been knocking down his open threes and getting to the rim well.

It's hard not to notice the effect of teams having to guard him with their weakest defender with Ball drawing tons of attention. The Bucks had to guard McDaniels with Tyler Herro, the Pacers used Tyrese Haliburton, and the Knicks had no answer Monday night.

Edwards also has a much simpler role on offense now. Last year he relied so much on creating his own shots and making tough shots, which you still want in your offense but is not sustainable as a full-time strategy.

Now Edwards can simply come off screens and get open and know Ball will find him. Or he can just spot up in the corner and, for the first time, not have the entire defense looking at him and find himself wide open.

It's just hard not to love the upside this team has offensively with the quality of looks they can get, so it will be nice to see if they can do it against an elite Detroit defense tonight.

2. Can the Wolves make their defense into easier offense?

As much as we love the new offense, Minnesota's identity will always be defensively. Tonight's game is a nice chance to see how the new-look roster can hold up.

Rudy Gobert will be the defensive anchor he's always been and we all know how elite McDaniels is on defense. They will always be the leaders and foundation of the defense, but the Wolves are still looking for that commitment from other guys.

Edwards has made it a major talking point that he wants to be more locked defensively this season. Ball has had a reputation as a bad defender in the past and is looking to change the narrative around him now that he's got the best defensive personnel around him in his career.

If these two stars really buy into this side of the ball, I think it could lead to the Wolves leading the league in transition points. If they are able to get lots of deflections and steals, rebound the ball well and force bad shots, Gobert and Jonathan Kuminga in particular will benefit a lot with Ball pushing the pace.

Edwards has also said he wants to shoot a lot more trail threes like Karl-Anthony Towns used to do, which we saw a couple times already in this small sample size of preseason. Stars like Cade Cunningham on Detroit will always put a test to your team defense regardless of who's around him, so this is a good warm-up for the regular season on the other side of the ball for Minnesota.

3. Who can stand out and earn more rotation minutes for the regular season?

The Wolves, for the most part, know who their core starting lineup and first couple guys off the bench will be. But with Donte DiVincenzo still injured, plus the offseason losses, Minnesota needs more reserve production over the course of the 82-game season.

Bones Hyland and Terrance Shannon Jr. are talented and have given the Wolves some important performances the last few years, so let's see if they can continue to build on that tonight and get Chris Finch's trust for when it matters.

Cody Williams has also really impressed me this preseason, especially on defense he locked up Jalen Brunson a couple times on Monday night, so he could become very important since the Wolves need more forwards to step up this year.

Joan Beringer is one of the biggest x-factors of the season if he's ready to give Minnesota significant minutes this season, as that'd help Gobert down the long run. A physical Detroit defense is a great test for Beringer, who still has some work to do.

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