Scheduled
Los Angeles Lakers at Utah Jazz
2026-27 · Regular season
Chris Finch is ‘still feeling my way through’ the Timberwolves’ rotation as Joan Beringer and Trey Lyles push for minutes
The 2-0 Timberwolves have started the same five both nights, and Ayo Dosunmu and Terrence Shannon Jr. are locked in. Behind them, Chris Finch is still testing Joan Beringer, Trey Lyles and Bones Hyland before the home opener against Toronto.
In this article
The Minnesota Timberwolves open their home schedule against the Toronto Raptors on Sunday, October 25, with a 2-0 record and a bench that Chris Finch is still sorting out. The top of the rotation has not moved through two road wins. The last three or four spots have.
Finch has been open about it. “I’m still feeling my way through some of the rotation pieces,” he said before the second game of the season, adding that his staff works from a plan without being tied to it: “We’ve always had a blueprint, but we always leave ourselves the freedom to deviate off of it.”
Five starters, three sure things
The opening group has been the same both nights: Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, Jaden McDaniels, Jonathan Kuminga and Rudy Gobert. Edwards logged a little over 33 minutes in each game. Ball went from 27:47 in Miami to 23:03 in Orlando, and Finch has not said whether he will keep staggering his two lead guards over a full season.
Off the bench, Ayo Dosunmu is the first call. He played 28:59 against the Heat and 26:39 against the Magic, more than Ball in Orlando, and answered with 16 points and then 14 points with 9 assists. Terrence Shannon Jr. is next, at 19:17 and 22:19, with 10 and 13 points.
Where the minutes are moving
After those eight, the picture changes from game to game. Trey Lyles went from 13:14 and one point in the opener to 16:31, 9 points and a plus-10 in Orlando. Rookie center Joan Beringer held steady near 14 minutes both nights, but the second outing was far louder: 9 points and 9 rebounds after a scoreless debut, with Minnesota plus-12 while he played.
Bones Hyland doubled his time, from 3:51 to 7:53, the first minutes of his season that came before garbage time. Jaylen Clark, Cody Williams and Isaiah Evans have each been held to about three minutes or less per game.
The size of the wins has made the experimenting cheap. Minnesota beat Miami 131-106 and Orlando 115-93, and it owned the glass in both, 52-34 and then 60-43, with 38 offensive rebounds to 12 for its opponents. A tighter game is where Finch’s choices will show, and the schedule brings one quickly: the Wolves play Sunday at home and Monday in Cleveland.
Full lines from both games are in the Timberwolves-Heat Game Center and the Timberwolves-Magic Game Center.
What comes next
Toronto visits Target Center at 7:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, October 25. Follow it on the Raptors-Timberwolves Game Center. Minnesota then visits the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday, October 26, at 7:00 p.m. ET, the back end of a back-to-back; that one is on the Timberwolves-Cavaliers Game Center.
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