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Quick Hits - Oct. 8 | The Legend Of Bjelica Continues

I was debating whether or not to write a Quick Hits for last night’s 122-99 Timberwolves loss to the Thunder.

I mean, it’s preseason and does anyone really care about preseason? Well, for a young team like the Wolves, with so many moving parts, the answer is yes.

What do we know so far?

The starting lineup will likely be Ricky Rubio, Zach LaVine, Andrew Wiggins, Kevin Garnett and Karl-Anthony Towns.

Rubio is hurt with a right quad injury, but I wouldn’t look too much into that. He’ll be ready for the regular season.

So, Who’s Coming Off The Bench?

What we don’t know is what the full rotation will be. Last night Adreian Payne was the first power forward off the bench. His results were uninspiring, although he did rock a headband, which was an above-average look for him. He had a nice defensive rebound in the fourth, dribbled the ball up with grace… and then jacked up a 3-pointer (Josh Smith style) with 22 seconds left on the shot clock. Probably not the right basketball play.

The biggest competition for Payne for playing time will be 27-year-old rookie Nemanja Bjelica.  

My goodness is he special to watch. He doesn’t have a chiseled body. He isn’t all that fast. But he does everything right. He pump fakes, finds ways to get away from defenders. Once he attracts a double-team, he’ll kick out to an open teammate, often times ending with a hockey assist. And when he wants to score, he can score. It’s not hard seeing him playing 20-25 minutes per game by the end of the season considering he can play both forward positions.

Interim head coach Sam Mitchell has preached ball movement all camp. The definition of that so far has been BJelica’s game.

Bjelica finished with 11 points, five rebounds, two assists and a steal last night. He shot 4-for-5 from the field, 1-for-1 from the 3-point line and 1-for-1 from the free-throw line.

He’s serious about getting minutes.

Towns Strives For Perfection

Towns was 8-for 12 on the night with 18 points and five rebounds.

Pretty good for a rookie’s first game, right?

Not so fast. Towns told reporters in the locker room after that he was disappointed and that he strives for perfection. He also said he can’t turn the ball over three times and needs to stay on his feet on block attempts – be smarter about picking his battles.

I love that Towns is hard on himself. That’s probably why he’s in the NBA and I ate Pizza Rolls for breakfast this morning. But he should be proud of his performance. He looked much more comfortable in his first preseason game than he did during the team’s open scrimmage and in Summer League.

He also joked in the locker room that he played 28 minutes last night.

“I only played eight more minutes than I did in college,” he told Andrew Wiggins.

Well, 14 players played last night. That’s not going to happen during the regular season. You can probably expect 32 minutes per game for Towns.

Cool First Matchup, Bro

With Rubio out, rookie Tyus Jones received the start at point guard.

His first matchup?

Russell freaking Westbrook.

As expected, Westbrook dominated Jones. The Tasmanian Devil finished with 14 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds in 22 minutes and 25 seconds. My goodness. Did he pay the stat guy to add a few assists and rebounds to his total? How is that possible?

Jones had the opposite stat line. In 23 minutes and 54 seconds, he went scoreless, but did have a team-high four assists. He also added a rebound and a steal. He shot 0-for-5 from the field and 0-for-2 from the 3-point line. Jones probably shouldn’t get too down on himself. I mean, it was Westbrook. He would have done that against anyone. And offensively, Jones won’t be going up against a Westbrook-type of player every night. That will be Rubio’s job. Jones will be going up against guys like D.J. Augustin. No offense to Augustin, but he’s no Westbrook.

Jones will look a lot better once he’s going up against guys who don’t play basketball on Mars.

OKC Might Win A Million Games

That’s not actually possible because there are only 82 games in a season, but my goodness. Between Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Serge Ibaka and Enes Kanter, this is an offensive juggernaut. Despite not being able to play any defense at all, Kanter is so good offensively. Ibaka has extended his range. Durant is still Durant and Westbrook is still Westbrook.

The team still isn’t very deep, but as long as there isn’t a major injury to Westbrook or Durant (again), this team is going to win 60 games. #HotTakesWIthKyle

We’ll get our next look at the Wolves on Saturday against Chicago. The game will be played in Winnipeg and will air on NBA TV.

Until then, my friends.