It's early, but this Timberwolves roster has two glaring weaknesses

The Wolves' two biggest weaknesses are areas they've tried to address in the past two drafts.

Nov 5, 2025; New York, New York, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch coaches against the New York Knicks during the second quarter at Madison Square Garden. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

It's still very early in the 2025-26 NBA season for the Minnesota Timberwolves, who fell to 4-4 in a blowout loss to the Knicks on Wednesday. The Wolves have a talented roster, led by the trio of Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle, and Jaden McDaniels, which should have them in the mix once again in the Western Conference.

With that said, there are some concerning trends within the first ten percent of Minnesota's season. Their four wins have come against a 5-3 Trail Blazers team, as well as the Hornets (3-5), Nets (1-7), and Pacers (1-7). Against the Knicks, Lakers, and Nuggets, they're 0-4, although two of those games were played without Edwards.

When looking at the state of the Wolves' roster, two glaring weaknesses stand out: They don't have a true starting point guard or a backup center. Those are areas the front office has tried to address over the past two NBA drafts, but 20-year-old PG Rob Dillingham and 19-year-old rookie center Joan Beringer don't appear to be ready to help right now — or at least head coach Chris Finch doesn't seem to think so.

Point guard was an obvious question mark coming into this season. Dillingham had a minor role as a rookie, despite Mike Conley's performance slipping quite a bit in his age-37 season. It's now Dillingham's second season, and his minutes have only jumped from 10.5 to 12.8 per game. The former No. 8 overall pick still isn't getting extended rotation opportunities or eating into Conley's minutes so far. When he does play, he's not playing particularly well, albeit in a small sample.

But while point guard is an issue, it doesn't feel like the Wolves' biggest issue right now. Conley is at least shooting the ball well from deep, and the Wolves have plenty of key offensive players — Edwards, Randle, McDaniels, Donte DiVincenzo — who can handle the ball and initiate offense.

Incredible ball-movement to create a wide-open 3 for Julius Randle, wow pic.twitter.com/ot3pbRHABc

— Timberwolves Clips (@WolvesClips) November 6, 2025

The more glaring one, especially after Wednesday night's game, is at backup center. Rudy Gobert can be criticized for certain aspects of his play this season, but the Wolves' defense simply craters when he's not on the floor. (Note: the stats below exclude garbage time).

• With Gobert (247 min): 118.1 ORTG, 109.4 DRTG, 8.7 net rating
• Without Gobert (107 mins): 120.1 ORTG, 144.2 DRTG, -24.2 net rating

That 144.2 defensive rating in the non-Gobert minutes is absurdly bad. For context, the worst DRTG by a team last season was the Utah Jazz at 119.4.

Because the Wolves don't have a backup center, the non-Gobert minutes mean either Randle or Naz Reid has to play the five spot. They're 6'9" power forwards who are known for their offense. Lineups with both Randle and Reid on the court, per databallr, have a 139 defensive rating and -17.2 net in 87 non-garbage time minutes.

Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

To be clear, those numbers should even out over time. The Wolves didn't have a backup center last season either, and they were able to survive non-Gobert minutes (5.9 net with him on the floor, 2.8 net with him off). Randle and Reid lineups were functional last season and won't be this bad all year. But right now, it's a mess.

The Timberwolves were mauled by the Knicks on Wednesday because they couldn't get stops or grab defensive rebounds. New York had 21 offensive boards. Minnesota had 22 defensive boards. Knicks backup center Mitchell Robinson — who is the exact kind of player the Wolves could desperately use — had a whopping 9 offensive rebounds in 16 minutes.

Because this issue is so obvious and destructive, it'll be interesting to see if Finch experiments with giving Beringer a shot at rotation minutes soon. Even if he's extremely raw, his size and leaping ability alone might theoretically be useful for the Wolves in the rebounding and rim protection departments.

And if they aren't going to play Beringer this season, they may need to seriously explore their avenues for adding a veteran center to the roster. Randle and Reid have to be better, but there's only so much they can do to overcome their clear shortcomings when forced to play out of position on the defensive end of the floor.

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