Wolves guard Beasley taking his game to new heights

President of basketball operations Gersson Rosas has a vision for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

After making big changes to the Wolves’ roster at the 2019-20 trade deadline, Rosas has surrounded All-Stars Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell with a core of promising young talent.

Each Thursday, we’ll be tracking the progress of these young players while also keeping up with the G League Iowa Wolves to see who will rise to the challenge of bringing a consistent, winning team to Minnesota.

This is the 5th edition of the 2020-21 Young Wolves Tracker.

SPOTLIGHT ON …

Malik Beasley

Beasley is on a roll.

Minnesota’s fifth-year guard has established himself as a consistent scorer for the Timberwolves.

On Jan. 25, Beasley racked up 30 points on 10-of-18 shooting against Golden State, his first game with 30+ points in a Wolves uniform. Since then, Beasley is averaging 23.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in six contests.

There weren’t many positives to take from Minnesota’s 111-108 loss to San Antonio on Wednesday night, but Beasley was one of them. He knocked down 12 of 18 attempts (66.7%) from the field and 4 of 8 from deep. It was Beasley’s third career game making at least two-thirds of his attempts from the field while taking 15+ shots.

Beasley is doing a good chunk of the damage from outside the arc. He broke a franchise record by nailing 50 3-pointers in January, the most by a Wolves player in the year’s opening month. That was just three shy of the single-month record, set by Zach LaVine in December of 2016.

Beasley leads the Wolves with 60 3-point makes on the season, ranks second in points per game (20.1) and third in 3-point percentage (37.5%).

When Karl-Anthony Towns gets back healthy on the floor, the offensive combination of Beasley, D’Angelo Russell and Towns should be deadly.

WOLF TRACKS

— Jarred Vanderbilt grabbed 11 rebounds on Thursday night, his third career game with double-digit rebounds. He ranked second on the team in rebounds per game (6.2), trailing only Towns (12.5), who has played four contests.

— First overall pick Anthony Edwards made his first career start Jan. 29 against Philadelphia. He’s started the last four contests, averaging 16.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists while shooting 45.5% from 3-point range (10 of 22).

— After appearing in just two of Minnesota’s first 16 games, second-year guard Jaylen Nowell has played the last five, averaging 11.4 points and 1.2 assists in 18.5 minutes per game. Nowell is shooting 30.4% from 3-point range in that span (7 of 23).

— Jake Layman, who barely qualifies for the Young Wolves Tracker at the age of 26, poured in 11 points against San Antonio for his third double-digit scoring night of the season. He scored nine of those 11 points in the first half.

— Russell is averaging 17.8 points and 4.5 assists over his last four contests but hasn’t been efficient. Russell is shooting 36.8% from the floor and 30.3% from 3-point range over that span.