Gorgui Dieng is struggling to find his place with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Head coach and president Tom Thibodeau moved him to the bench in favor of free-agent acquisition Taj Gibson, and the returns have not been great. Dieng is still shooting a ridiculously high percentage on long twos, even though his three-point clip dropped, according to Basketball-Reference, but he’s having problems seeing the floor. He’s averaging just over 15 minutes per game—less than half what he did last year.
Dieng readily admits the change hasn’t been easy on him, per the Star Tribune‘s Jerry Zgoda:
“It’s not easy,” Dieng said. “I thought when I got on the bench I probably was going to play more. It’s not something I can control, but it’s not easy. Basically when you start getting a rhythm, that’s when you’re going to come out. With the minutes I’ve been playing, I think I’m playing OK. It’s tough to do a lot of things in 12 minutes … I don’t know, man. I’m sure everyone wants to play.”
The Timberwolves are stocked up front at the moment. Thibs has to play Karl-Anthony Towns, he has a soft spot for Gibson, and Nemanja Bjelica has been shooting the lights out. But he also gave Dieng a four-year, $62.8 million extension last fall, which kicked in this season. Using him so sparingly, at that pay grade, doesn’t make sense—sort of like how it didn’t make sense to give Gibson $14 million per year with Dieng on the roster.
Many continue to spin the signing as an investment in defense. And the Towns-Dieng frontcourt was a disaster last year. But just about every frontcourt pairing has been absolute crud this season. Dieng, at least, is a bit switchier in space. His rim protection isn’t great, and he can be weird on closeouts, but his issues primarily seem to be symptoms of the Timberwolves’ surrounding personnel more than anything else.
Plus, as of now, Minnesota is allowing 105.1 points per 100 possessions with him on the court—not great, but good enough for the second-best defensive rating on the team. With the Timberwolves placing 28th in points allowed per 100 possessions overall, he should absolutely be playing more. If Thibs has any sense, the 25-plus minutes he gave him in the team’s most recent win over the New Orleans Pelicans will be a harbinger of things to come.
