Bones Hyland scored 24 points off the bench in Thursday’s 133-94 win over Dallas: 7 of 10 from the field, 5 of 6 from three, eight assists and one turnover in 22:41, per Basketball Reference’s game log. It was his best night of the season, and it came with the one number that will be used against him. Minnesota is 20.7 points per 100 possessions worse with Hyland on the floor than off it, per his on/off page.
I don’t think that number is a fluke. But it splits almost perfectly along one line: whether Trey Lyles is on the floor with him. My take: Chris Finch should keep growing Hyland’s role toward 20 minutes a night and make one rule about it. When Hyland checks in, Lyles is out there too.
The number holds up
With Hyland on the court, the Wolves have scored 115.8 points per 100 possessions and allowed 118.0, a net of minus-2.2 in 157 minutes. With him off, they’re plus-18.5 in 424 minutes.
The easy excuse is LaMelo Ball. Hyland plays when Ball sits: Basketball Reference’s play-by-play estimates on the Wolves’ team page have Hyland at point guard for all of his minutes and Ball for 95% of his, so they’ve rarely shared the floor. The Wolves are plus-19.0 per 100 with Ball on, per Ball’s on/off page, and any backup point guard is going to trail that.
It doesn’t save Hyland, though. Even the Wolves’ minutes without Ball are plus-4.9 per 100, and Hyland’s minus-2.2 trails that too.
The Lyles split
Now look at who he plays with. Basketball Reference’s Wolves lineups have Hyland and Lyles together for 107:37, and Minnesota is plus-17.4 per 100 in those minutes. Add Joan Beringer and the trio is plus-37.5 per 100 in 64:16.
That leaves about 50 minutes of Hyland without Lyles. If the paired minutes are plus-17.4 and his whole season is minus-2.2, those 50 minutes work out to roughly minus-45 per 100, weighting by minutes. That’s where the problem lives, in about a third of his playing time.
Some of it is October. In the Toronto win on October 25, Hyland was minus-11 in 15:05 while Lyles was plus-14 in 14:27, per Lyles’ game log.
I’d give Lyles a lot of the credit here. He’s plus-16.6 per 100 in his own on-court minutes, and his numbers without Hyland are about as good as his numbers with him. That’s the case for the rule. Lyles’ lineups have been good with or without Hyland. Hyland’s haven’t been good without Lyles. The bench big who is supposed to space the floor, as I argued in October, gives a shoot-first bench guard someone to play off.
Why Hyland is worth the trouble
The rest of his profile says he’s worth building a rule around. Edwards played the first four games, per his game log, and hasn’t played since. In those four games Hyland played 31:34 in all, went 2 of 10 from the field and was minus-18.
In the eight games since, starting with the Golden State loss on October 28, he has played 15.7 minutes a night. He’s scoring 13.6 points, he’s 19 of 45 from three (42.2%), and he has 31 assists against seven turnovers. His plus-minus in those games adds up to plus-11, and the Wolves are 6-2.
His season rates are excellent: a 26.0 PER, a .626 true shooting percentage and an assist rate of 34.3% against a turnover rate of 8.7%, per Basketball Reference. And he isn’t a player whose lineups have always sunk. In 1,179 minutes last season, the Wolves were plus-4.0 per 100 with Hyland on the floor and plus-3.3 with him off, per his 2025-26 on/off.
The weak spot this season is defense. Opponents have scored 118.0 per 100 with him on and 101.0 with him off, and they’ve turned it over on 12.7% of possessions with him on against 17.9% with him off. Minnesota has the best defensive rating in the league at 104.8, and his minutes aren’t close to it.
Twenty minutes, with Lyles
When Edwards’ surgery was announced, I asked for Hyland to run the bench at around 20 minutes a night. He has gotten there twice in eight games, 20:11 against the Clippers and 22:41 against Dallas, and scored 19 and 24. Tyler Mason of the Associated Press reported on October 28 that Hyland was expected to take on a bigger role, and Hyland said then, “Nobody can be like Ant, but we’ve got players who can step in and just take over a game as well.” On Thursday, he did.
There’s a contract reason to give him the run, too. Hyland is on a one-year deal, as Darren Wolfson of KSTP reported in June, at $2,845,883 this season. That’s a small number on the full Wolves roster and contract breakdown, and Minnesota should find out now what it has before deciding whether he’s part of the plan next summer.
Chicago comes to Target Center on Saturday at 1-9, the night after hosting Atlanta. The Mavericks game, which I wrote about in how the Wolves held Cooper Flagg to two free throws, showed what Hyland can do with 22 minutes. Give him 20 again, and check the substitution pattern. If Lyles comes in with him every time, I expect that minus-20.7 to start shrinking.