After a week of practicing against each other, the Timberwolves finally get to play a game.
The youth-infused roster will get its first taste of preseason action at Indiana on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, not many Wolves fans will see or hear it, since it isn't being televised and won't be on the radio.
But it will be a chance for coach Flip Saunders to see how much his players have learned. The plan for both Tuesday and Friday's game vs. Philadelphia at Target Center is to play a lot of the younger players while limiting the minutes for the veterans.
"I don't' know how much we'll play a lot of our vets," Saunders said after Monday's practice.
"We'll play a lot of the younger guys. We'll pick 10 or 11 guys to play certain games here. Some of the vets will play a little, but not extensive, minutes."
Saunders will use the first two preseason games for individual assessment of players. After a week of camp the Wolves will play two preseason games in four days. Then they have most of a week before the third preseason game, a stretch Saunders will use as basically a second training camp. In that time Saunders and his staff will start looking at potential rotations.
"I'm not going to put too much into the [first two preseason games]," Saunders said. "We just want to see if they are understanding what we're working on in practice, to see if they can translate into game-type decisions."
Etc.
• Guard Kevin Martin [groin pull] didn't practice Monday, will not play Tuesday and likely won't return to practice until Thursday at the earliest.
