A former Timberwolves reserve is breaking out as a starter in the East

Former Timberwolves second-round pick and reserve forward Josh Minott, who could never truly crack the rotation in Minnesota, is now seizing an opportunity and breaking out as a starter with the Boston Celtics early in the 2025-26 season.

Minott has started the past two games for Boston. On Monday, in his first NBA start, he put up a career-high 15 points and 9 rebounds in a win over the Pelicans. On Wednesday, he followed it up with 11 points, 3 steals, and a career-high 15 boards in a win over the Cavaliers. Four games into the season, he's averaging 9.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per night while playing quality defense.

✅ First NBA start
✅ Career-high 15 points
✅ +26 in Q4, a Celtics record

The Josh Minott Effect pic.twitter.com/fpRoAZlc6E
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 28, 2025

How he got here

Back in the 2022 NBA draft, the Timberwolves drafted Minott 45th overall in the second round. At the time, he was a raw 19-year-old wing who wasn't even a starter in his one-and-done season at Memphis. The tools were there, but he needed plenty of development. Minott appeared in 15 games for Minnesota as a rookie and played in 20 games in the G League, where he put up strong numbers.

Over the past couple seasons, his role simply never changed much for the Timberwolves. He played in three Summer Leagues, but once each regular season started, he was unable to secure a permanent spot in the rotation. Minott saw action in 32 games in 2023-24 and 46 last season, but most of those appearances came in garbage time or brief spurts.

When Minott did get chances to play real competitive minutes for Chris Finch, he struggled to perform effectively enough to stay on the floor and earn a longer leash. This past January, Finch cited fouls and game plan mistakes on defense as reasons why Minott had fallen out of the rotation once more. In total, Minott played in 93 regular season games for Minnesota over three years, averaging 2.3 points and 1 rebound in 5 minutes per contest.

This offseason, Minott and Luka Garza both asked the Wolves to decline their team options so they could seek new opportunities elsewhere. Minnesota obliged. Both players happened to find their way to a Celtics team in transition mode. Minott signed a two-year, $5 million contract with Boston. It's very, very early, but that deal looks like a potential steal for the Celtics.

Does this reflect poorly on the Wolves?

Some fans on social media this week have used Minott's recent performances as a way to criticize Finch, who has taken some heat during his Wolves tenure for his usage (or lack thereof) of young players. That figures to remain a talking point if Minott — who turns 23 in a few weeks — continues to play well and ascend in Boston.

To me, that's a bit silly. Minott didn't crack the rotation in Minnesota over the past few years because the Wolves had a strong group of forwards (Jaden McDaniels, Karl-Anthony Towns/Julius Randle, Naz Reid, Nickeil Alexander-Walker) and were busy reaching back-to-back conference finals. When Minott did get chances in Minnesota, he didn't do very much with them. He's not a strong outside shooter, and his lapses on defense were sometimes glaring.

Minott is now on a Celtics team that's without Jayson Tatum (Achilles) and lost Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, and Luke Kornet over the offseason. An opportunity exists there for Minott that probably still wouldn't exist for him in Minnesota, even with NAW gone.

An argument can perhaps be made that Minott should've gotten more of an extended look in real minutes for the Timberwolves. But this also doesn't have to be made into something that reflects poorly on Finch or the Wolves. It can simply be a cool story about a young player who needed a change of scenery to show what he's capable of doing.

How he got here

Does this reflect poorly on the Wolves?

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