The Wolves have a challenging preseason for more than one reason.
The first, of course, is that they are going halfway around the world to play two preseason games against the Warriors.
The second is that the Wolves are playing in just three preseason games, which is less than ideal considering the Wolves have so many new faces on their team.
“We probably would have liked to play another game or two,” Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau said after Thursday’s practice. “ . . . It is a challenge, but everyone’s playing less. Over the years, it sort of went back to seven and then to six . . . The only thing is the conditioning is a little bit more important in August and September.”
The challenge for the Wolves will be for the core of the team to get some time together. Obviously you want to keep the players fresh for the regular season, but you also want to see what rotations and lineups look like.
“We’ll sort of get a feel for it. We’d like to get some sort of rotation down,” Thibodeau said. “ . . . Certainly the first game won’t be like a regular season game.”
Other Important Stuff
- Thibodeau praised NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and his commitment to the game. Silver recently passed a new lottery rule that gives the top three teams the same amount of chance to get the No. 1 pick.
- Wolves forward Nemanja Bjelica and his wife had their second child on Tuesday. Congrats to Nemanja!
- Instead of more preseason games, Thibodeau did say the Wolves will play in some sort of intersquad game before the season.