Minnesota can’t seem to catch a break early this season. Wolves coach Flip Saunders confirmed Tuesday afternoon that Nikola Pekovic will be out until at least next week with a wrist ailment and that Thaddeus Young won’t be back with the team until Sunday following the death of his mother. Ronny Turiaf will also miss the game against the New York Knicks on Wednesday night.
These challenges come a little more than a week after Ricky Rubio was ruled out indefinitely with a significantly sprained left ankle.
In the midst of a five-game losing streak, and with the latest slew of hardships, there aren’t many giving Minnesota much a shot moving forward. That feeling, however, certainly doesn’t resonate across the team.
“We’re dropping like flies,” Kevin Martin said, “but the team is committed to going out there and playing hard every single game. We know whoever is out there is going to give a good effort.”
That said Minnesota will be without three of its best players — Rubio, Pekovic, and Young — for at least the next three games. Saunders said Gorgui Dieng would fill in for Pekovic at center for the next stretch of games and that Anthony Bennett will likely start for Young.
“We’ll be a little undermanned, but we’re ready to go,” Saunders said. “We had a good practice and no one got hurt so that’s a positive.”
Saunders said that he’s going to have to monitor minutes of guys like Dieng and Bennett over the next few games, and alluded that a few players might have to play out of position in that span.
“We’ve got to watch who we have on the court because we’re going to have some backups in case guys get in foul trouble,” he said. “We’ve only got three guys we consider power forwards or centers on our roster right now. We’ve got to monitor those guys.”
There could be a scenario where Robbie Hummel might have to eat some minutes at center over the next few games and it wouldn’t be a shocker to see guys like Shabazz Muhammad and Glenn Robinson spend some time at power forward.
Though it’ll be tough, Andrew Wiggins in confident in his team’s ability to compete.
“It just means that other people on the team have to step up and everybody’s role becomes that much bigger than it was before,” he said. “It’s a bigger opportunity for everyone. We’ll get better and get more experience because of it.”
ADDED WEIGHT PAYING DIVIDENDS
Dieng added some weight throughout the offseason, and with the amount of minutes he’ll have to play over the next three games, that weight is sure to pay dividends.
Saunders said he already sees the impact the extra weight is having in Dieng’s performance.
“It’s helped him a lot,” Saunders said, “ and I think when a guy like that gains strength, he gains confidence. He still has problems sometimes with stronger type centers. He’ll put on another 20 pounds in probably a year just doing the same thing. He’s going to get big eventually.”
Dieng also appears to have developed a nice little leg-kick jumper — almost Dirk Nowitzki-esque without giving him too much credit — that he’s leaned on this season. Dieng is already a force on defensive end of the floor and if he can grow his offensive game that adds another dimension to his game, thus making him more valuable.
A GUY THAT 'CAN SCORE 50 ON ANY NIGHT'
Carmelo Anthony and the #KnicksTape come to town Wednesday night and Martin is more than familiar with the what the Wolves will be up against at Target Center.
“They have a superstar that can score 50 on any night,” Martin said. “We have to contain him first and make sure other guys around him don’t get off.”
Wiggins will likely be tasked with marking Anthony for most of the game — and he seems to be pretty excited about it.
“He’s an elite player,” Wiggins said. “It’ll be my first time playing against someone like him so I’m sure it’ll be fun. … I just need to play hard and try to lock in on defense. I’ve got to remember he’s one of the best players in the league, so it’s going to be a challenge.”