Still No Word on DiVincenzo, and Training Camp Is Getting Close
Nothing has changed on the DiVincenzo front. The injury remains unspecified, the timeline remains murky, and training camp is no longer a distant abstraction. I've written this note twice now in different forms — the wing math doesn't add up, and silence from the organization hasn't made it add up any faster.
What makes the uncertainty genuinely uncomfortable is the context around it. Minnesota traded Randle and Reid this summer, stripping frontcourt depth in favor of a perimeter-first identity built around Edwards and LaMelo Ball. That bet only works if the wings around them are functional. DiVincenzo was a real piece of that — nearly 12 points and close to four assists per game last season, a connector who could handle the ball in a pinch. Without him, McDaniels and Hyland absorb the slack, and neither is a natural fit for the connective tissue role DiVincenzo filled.
McDaniels is the bigger concern. He finished last season forcing shots under a heavier isolation load, and his efficiency cratered in the final stretch. The whole premise of the Ball acquisition was to get him back to cleaner looks off movement rather than creation. That premise holds if the wing rotation is stable. If he's also covering DiVincenzo's minutes, the load creeps back up before the season even starts. Hyland logged limited minutes last year and has never been asked to carry a rotation.
Training camp won't fix a bad injury report. At some point the Wolves need to say something about when DiVincenzo might be available, because right now the answer to "who plays wing behind McDaniels" is genuinely unclear.