Pelicans 87, Wolves 59: Wolves Drop Summer League Finale

Well, the Timberwolves certainly went out on to the court and played basketball for 40 minutes!

The Summer Wolves concluded their stay in Las Vegas with a blowout loss to the Pelicans. You have to wonder what this means in terms of the mental edge New Orleans has gained going into the season from such a pivotal game. I’m not sure how the Wolves will recover from this defeat.

I kid, I kid, but this game really had no consequences, which is why Jaden McDaniels and Jaylen Nowell sat out for the Wolves, as well as Trey Murphy for the Pelicans. Both teams had to have liked what they saw from those guys, so there was no point in throwing them back out there to risk any injury. Without McDaniels and Nowell, the Timberwolves were able to muster more than 13 points in just one quarter. Usually, fans of Minnesota basketball teams head out Williams Arena to see offense like that.

McKinley Wright and Brian Bowen both really struggled to shoot the ball, but in the case of Wright, that might not matter so much since the Wolves would never ask him to be someone who shoots 15 times in a game anyways.

All of this is to say that there’s no reason to feel bummed about this one, and it’s hard to imagine the evaluation of someone like Wright would change too much off of one poor game under these circumstances.

At the end of the day, the Wolves made it through Summer League healthy, and had the front office surely liked what they saw from numerous players during the first four games. That’s a successful Summer League.