Isaiah Evans scored 21 points in 30 minutes Friday night, and he did it from the three-point line: 5-of-10, plus 4-of-4 at the free throw line, in a 133-116 preseason loss at Chicago, per the ESPN box score. He led all scorers. It was also more points than he had in his first four preseason games combined.
I’m glad he got the night. The depth chart stays put, and he should get first call when the team wants a second shooter.
What the finale was
Look at who did and didn’t play. Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, Rudy Gobert, Jaden McDaniels, Jonathan Kuminga, Ayo Dosunmu, Bones Hyland, Trey Lyles, Donte DiVincenzo, Enrique Freeman and Rocco Zikarsky all sat. Evans played 30 minutes with Zyon Pullin (38), Jaylen Clark (29), Drew Timme (27), Cody Williams (27) and Joan Beringer (25).
Chicago played real rotation pieces too. Josh Giddey, Norman Powell and Matas Buzelis each played 15 to 19 minutes, and Caleb Wilson played 23. But Edwards and Ball sat, and Evans played 30 minutes against a Chicago group that wasn’t facing Minnesota’s starters. That’s real, and it’s the easiest version of the job.
The 11-for-34 that surrounds it
Add up the whole preseason from the ESPN box scores and the picture is less shiny. Evans played five of six games and went 11-for-34 from the field (32.4%) and 9-for-24 from three (37.5%) over 79 minutes, for 38 points.
Take out the finale and he was 5-for-21 from the field and 4-for-14 from three over his first four games, for 17 points. In Milwaukee he went 0-for-6 in eight minutes. In Indiana he went 1-for-5 in seven. The best of those four was the 9 points on 3-of-5 from three he put up in 22 minutes at Miami.
The three-point number is the encouraging part and the field goal number is the worry. At 6-6, he’s a shooter first. Duke’s numbers say that’s the right read: per Sports Reference, he scored 15.0 points a game as a sophomore and made 36.1% of his threes on 7.4 attempts a game, and he’s at 38.0% for his two college seasons. That’s a real volume of attempts at a good clip. Inside the arc he is 2-for-10 this preseason.
He has been through worse than a cold week. In his summer league debut in July he shot 2-for-15 and missed all nine of his threes, NBC Sports reported. Then he scored 22 on Indiana before summer league ended, with four threes.
The Detroit game is the one I’d watch
On Wednesday against Detroit, the closest thing the Wolves had to a dress rehearsal (Edwards played 28 minutes, Gobert 22, Kuminga 22, McDaniels 23), Evans did not play. Neither did Antonio Reeves. The guards who got the minutes were Dosunmu (24), Terrence Shannon Jr. (18), Hyland (15), Ball (18), Pullin (7) and Clark (8).
Finch can spread 240 minutes only so many ways, and rookies often wait. But in the preseason’s most serious game, he wasn’t in the rotation. Our depth chart has him on the bottom line at shooting guard behind Edwards, Clark and Shannon, and that still looks right to me.
Where he can actually play
The opening is the one the injury list made. DiVincenzo tore his right Achilles on April 25, and as of the GM’s September 4 comments the team hadn’t given a return date, so the minutes he would have taken are open. As the media day piece argued, they go to Hyland, Clark and Evans, and none of them has locked down a playoff-caliber role.
Of those three, Evans is the only one whose case is built on a skill the starting group needs. With Ball running the offense, the Wolves want people who punish help defense. Hyland’s five threes in Miami were a one-game sample too, and he has been the cold half of the same preseason story: 0-for-3 from deep in the Detroit game.
My version: when Finch wants a second shooter with the bench group, Evans gets the first call, in bursts of six to eight minutes. If he makes two or three threes a night in the first week or two, he stays in. If he goes 0-for-5 a couple of times, Clark’s defense takes the minutes and nobody should be surprised.
What I’d watch next
The Wolves open Wednesday at Miami, then play at Orlando on Friday, which is the start of the first 20 games that I’d use to judge this team. I’d watch two things from Evans in them.
First, his shot mix. He has taken 10 of his 34 preseason shots inside the arc and made two. If that keeps up, the finale was a hot night. If more of his shots are catch-and-shoot threes, the finale was a preview.
Second, whether he plays in the games that matter. A rookie who plays 30 minutes of an exhibition and zero in the real dress rehearsal has an audition, and Friday was a good one. Opening night is when we find out who the Wolves actually think he is.