Zach Lowe wonders if Timberwolves will trade to upgrade at point guard

Are the Timberwolves going to ride the continuity train and try to win the rest of the season without making a splashy move, or will they address concerns at point guard before the February trade deadline?

"I do wonder if there's a trade to be made here, to upgrade the backcourt rotation at some point," Zach Lowe said on his latest podcast. "They've tried Bones (Hyland). The Bones experience is what it is. They finally gave (Rob) Dillingham some extended run against Charlotte over the weekend. We saw the good and bad of Dillingham."

Do they actually have a problem at point guard, or have concerns been magnified by tough losses to the Lakers (twice) and Nuggets?

Interestingly, Minnesota's starting five without Anthony Edwards, who has missed the last 15 quarters with a hamstring strain, owns the NBA's best net rating at plus-15.9. The lineup combination of Mike Conley, Donte DiVincenzo, Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randle, and Rudy Gobert has played 63 minutes together in five games and posted a 124.1 offensive rating and 108.1 defensive rating.

That's elite. For context, consider that Golden State's starting five of Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, Brandin Podziemski, Draymond Green, and Jonathan Kuminga has a plus-14.2 net rating in 61 minutes together.

The original starting lineup for Minnesota, which features Edwards over Conley, played 23 minutes together and had a 131.4 offensive rating and a 128.0 defensive rating. Is that because they're terrible defensively, or was it a rough start that included a game against the Lakers when Luka Doncic couldn't miss?

Minnesota has blown away Charlotte and Brooklyn in back-to-back games, looking more like the team that had strong depth and top-end talent en route to the Western Conference finals each of the last two seasons. Charlotte and Brooklyn aren't good, so the Wolves still have to play at that level against a quality opponent before anyone will think the early defensive issues are gone.

I'd argue that the early struggles had more to do with Naz Reid providing very little off the bench in half of his games, along with Conley taking time to find a rhythm, Terrence Shannon Jr. getting off to a slow start offensively, and Gobert not challenging as many shots at the rim and rebounding like the Wolves pay him to do at a world-class level.

But the point guard situation is something to monitor. If the Wolves can't continue playing Conley 25-30 minutes a game and they can't trust Dillingham or Hyland, then they almost certainly need to address the position at some point before the Feb. 6 trade deadline.

Dillingham has averaged 16 minutes off the bench since Edwards went down with his hamstring strain. With Edwards possibly back in the lineup Wednesday against the Knicks, it'll be interesting to see if Dillingham stays on the bench. If he isn't playing again, it'll be a sign that his minutes of late were out of necessity, not a want. The Timberwolves need point guards they want to have on the court, and if Conley is the only one they have on the roster, then they're going to have to make a move.

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