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Timberwolves Players Are A Source Of Inspiration For New Celtics Signing
Credit: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Timberwolves have been one of the most successful organizations of the past few years. They have grown from being an underdog to being one of the best teams in the Western Conference. Anthony Edwards and Chris Finch are leading this team to the top, but the rest of the team is also good.

An underrated player during the past few seasons has been Luka Garza. The big man was a bench warmer for the Timberwolves, but he was always reliable when his name was called. Now, he is with the Boston Celtics, another successful team. He wants to keep playing well and implement the lessons he learned while he was with the Timberwolves.

Garza was already a fantastic player during his college years at Iowa, but he had to adjust to the NBA. He was not going to be a star in the NBA, as he backed up both Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert. However, he learned how to be a good teammate, especially with his now-former teammates Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

Reid is the only remaining player from this trio, as Alexander-Walker left to sign with the Atlanta Hawks. Garza made sure to commend these two because he learned plenty of lessons of being with them in practice and in the locker room.

Garza Saw The Blueprint From Reid And Alexander-Walker

As a player who was tied to the bench for a long time, Garza knew it was tough to break into the rotation. However, he realized that Reid and Alexander-Walker were once bench warmers, but they eventually worked their way to becoming vital members of the rotation.

It was a big deal for Garza, as he learned lessons from those players. He loved how those teammates approached their roles, and they earned their way to becoming one of the best players on the team. That should be useful for any role player, and Garza will want to do that in Boston.

"Nickeil and Naz, they just gave me a blueprint that I saw in front of me. Naz was with me when I first got there, and we had just done the Rudy trade, the first couple of games a year, he was sitting right next to me getting DNPs," Garza said to the Boston media.

"Obviously everyone knows what happened after that, and that’ll never happen to him again... That’s my goal, it is to put myself in that position. And the same thing with Nickeil, when he got to us, who knows what his future was in the league, but he took advantage of the opportunities that were there, obviously just got paid this summer."

The Timberwolves Have New Role Players That Can Step Up

With players like Garza and Alexander-Walker leaving the team, that has left the Timberwolves are left without certain players. Thankfully, Minnesota still has players that can step up like Terrence Shannon Jr., who is poised to have a big year. Rookie Joan Beringer can easily slot into the role that Garza left.

The Timberwolves are still one of the most talented teams in the league. That will not change as long as they continue to be one of the top Western Conference teams. They were in the final two teams for the past two seasons, and that should be the standard they look towards.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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