Minnesota Has No Answer for the DiVincenzo Hole Right Now

I wrote last week that the wing math didn't add up. It still doesn't, and nothing has changed on the injury front to suggest it will anytime soon. DiVincenzo remains out with an unspecified injury, no timeline attached, and training camp isn't far enough away to treat this as someone else's problem.

The issue is straightforward. Connelly rebuilt this roster around perimeter depth — Edwards, Ball, Dosunmu, McDaniels as the core — and DiVincenzo was supposed to be the connective tissue, the veteran guard who could guard multiple positions and contribute on both ends without needing the ball. Last season he averaged 11.9 points and 3.7 assists across 79 games. That's not a star line, but it's a reliable one, and reliable is exactly what this retooled rotation needs while Ball and Dosunmu learn to coexist. Without him, Bones Hyland is the next man up in the backcourt, and Hyland's role last year was spot minutes off the bench — not a 30-game audition as a rotation anchor.

The late-season tape on Terrence Shannon Jr. is also worth keeping in mind here. When Minnesota needed him to carry more load down the stretch, his shot attempts nearly doubled but his efficiency dropped noticeably. He's young, and that's not a condemnation, but it's a data point. Leaning on him as wing insurance before he's ready is a familiar trap for this franchise. My read is that if DiVincenzo misses significant time into the fall, Connelly will need to make a move — but nothing in the news suggests one is imminent.