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Jarred Vanderbilt, who defined Timberwolves’ identity, makes his return to Target Center

jace frederick, pioneer press
·3 min read

In his first regular-season game as a member of the Utah Jazz, Jarred Vanderbilt gobbled up 12 rebounds in his first 12 minutes of action, to the surprise of no one in the Timberwolves’ locker room.

“Yeah, that’s Vando, for sure,” Timberwolves guard Jaylen Nowell said.

Minnesota witnessed that type of effort, passion and production on a nightly basis for the last season and a half. Vanderbilt, 23, who will make his return to Target Center on Friday for the first time since he was dealt as part of the Rudy Gobert trade when Utah comes to the Twin Cities, was the spark plug who played a large role in changing the course of the Timberwolves’ franchise from cellar dweller to a playoff team a year ago.

The 6-foot-9 forward did so by playing with a relentless energy that permeated throughout the rest of the team. That energy and effort became Minnesota’s identity.

“He definitely challenged you to bring your energy every day,” Taurean Prince said. “I was unaware that that was really his first year really getting those minutes. And I didn’t realize it until he was gone. But credit to him. He’s gonna have a good career.”

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch called coaching Vanderbilt “a pleasure.”

“The guy works hard. He does a lot of the small things that lead to winning,” Finch said.

And he did so, Karl-Anthony Towns noted, without asking any questions. Vanderbilt was a player who mastered his role as an offensive rebounder and high-level defender, which freed up others to shine in their respective areas of expertise.

“That’s what makes him so special — his value is deeper than stats. There’s a lot of things that don’t show up on the stat sheet that Vando does,” Towns said. “It was one of those things where you knew every single night that things were going to be energetic and people were going to need to run hard, and you could always trust that Vando was doing 40-yard dashes out there.”

He’s a sparkplug Minnesota will now match up against, which could be a problem. One of the few questions facing these Timberwolves is whether they can still reach that level of energy they had last season without the likes of Vanderbilt on the floor. They did not rise to the challenge in Wednesday’s season opener, nearly losing to an inferior Oklahoma City Thunder team simply because they were so brutally out-worked — something that rarely occurred in Vanderbilt’s presence.

“The energy he brought every single game, it’s dope,” Nowell said.

It’s not easy to replace a guy like that.

“Not everybody plays with the energy, effort and passion that he does, so it’s kind of tough,” Jordan McLaughlin said. “But we’ve got a lot of guys in here that can get close to that.”

When asked who could step up in that department, Finch started to list through the entire roster. It needs to be a collective effort.

“They got to do it. If we want to go anywhere, we got to do it,” Finch said. “So, it’s about making yourselves uncomfortable and putting your body on the line.”

So, in other words, be like Jarred Vanderbilt.

“It’s cool to see those guys,” Towns said of former teammates Malik Beasley, Leandro Bolmaro and Vanderbilt. “They gave a lot to this franchise and its history, so respect is earned to them on this side, and I hope the fans give them that respect they deserve.”

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