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Welcome back to the Den. The Wolves are ten games in and their record stands at 7-3. Over that time the Wolves sprinted out of the gates, lost Anthony Edwards to dirty knees in need of a cleaning, and have mostly righted the ship. Their losses are on travel back-to-backs and their first game without Edwards where they didn’t even have a chance to practice before tip-off.
This team found something special in their first four games and then had their literal knees cut from them. Through the mire of the early season, as the rest of the league reels from their own injuries, the Wolves are looking for another new identity. An identity that does not include Edwards but prepares for his return.
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As you can imagine, there are a lot of questions for this team to answer. Here are some of them.
Note: So much of this is small sample size theater.
1. Can Jonathan Kuminga keep this up?
It’s just flashes. He had similar highs in Golden State before cooling down. There’s no way he can keep this up. Here he goes again driving into traffic to get blocked… huh, nice pass. No no no, don’t shoot tha…SPLASH! Oh my gawd, he got up so high for that rebound.
This short-staged drama has occurred inside my head in nearly every game this year. In good games and bad, Jonathan Kuminga has shown up to do whatever is asked of him.
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In every counting stat except points per game, Kuminga is averaging career bests; rebounds (5.7), assists (2.9), steals (1.2) and blocks (1.0). His highest BPM through his first five seasons was 0.1. This season he is at 2.9 and has his career first positive for Offensive Box Plus Minus (0.6).
Head Coach Chris Finch has heaped praise on JK. In Minnesota’s more read and react, flow, style, the Wolves starting power forward is emboldened to make a play when the ball finds him. His cuts aren’t always rewarded but it sends the defense into a panic and opens things up for his teammates. It also puts him in the middle of the floor to grab or poke out offensive rebounds.
I am running out of excuses for why it won’t last. After the first few games, I thought his play would disappear once the initial…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/den-questions-finding-identity-turmoil-180000201.html
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Publish date : 2026-11-07 18:00:00
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