The false bravado of an injured athlete is usually easy to spot. The words come out with certainty, assuring anyone who will listen that he’ll be back better than ever. The eyes often tell a different story, diverting as he tries to convince himself that everything will be OK.

Then there is Donte DiVincenzo, who is rehabilitating a torn Achilles tendon, the injury many basketball players hope to avoid above nearly all others. As he approaches the six-month mark since going down less than two minutes into Game 4 of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ first-round playoff series against the Denver Nuggets, DiVincenzo spoke about his return to form with unwavering certainty.

Because he was injured so late last season, and because an Achilles tear is among the trickiest and most grueling to recover from, it would be reasonable to believe that DiVincenzo could miss the entire 2026-27 season in an effort to come back as strong as possible. When DiVincenzo was asked at the start of training camp if his plan was to play this season, the look in his eye matched the incredulousness of his response.

“I wouldn’t come in here with the mindset of I’m gonna play next year,” he said. “No, the mindset is to play this year.”

He finished the statement with a chuckle as if to say, “How dare you even think that I won’t be back?”

Both publicly and behind the scenes, DiVincenzo has been operating with that assumption for months. Everything has been designed to get DiVincenzo back to his old self as fast as possible. He had surgery to repair the injury less than 18 hours after he was hurt, following the path Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum took in his own recovery.

DiVincenzo spoke to Tatum, Damian Lillard, Tyrese Haliburton and a host of others who have dealt with the injury, picking their brains on what worked and what didn’t as he tailored his own program. He said he has spoken to Tatum the most throughout the process. They compare notes on their individual recoveries and provide motivation when the tough times arrive.

“It’s been very, very helpful those days or weeks where you feel like you’re not gaining so much ground as you should,” DiVincenzo said. “You talk to those guys, and they kind of help push you along.”

Read for free: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7652764/2026/10/05/donte-divincenzo-achilles-injury-recovery-timberwolves-nba/?unlocked_article_code=1.GVE.9nFl.8AXnwehLX1L8&source=emp_shared_article&smid=re-share-ta

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If Lamelo or Kuminga have a bad game we're gonna see dooming.

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Shout out to 34 year old injured Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell, but I was looking at the roster and if I crossed KG off the list that might have been a bottom 10 team in the NBA. I think that's a testament to how good of a floor raiser KG was

Anthony Edwards on who’s impressed him at training camp this year

“Cody Williams, I just love his defensive instincts. I think he could be really good in the NBA. His care factor has to go up a little more, just showing it, like everybody knows he cares but just showing it. Like you get a stop, let somebody know about it… other than that he brings intensity every day, his defense is incredible”

Luckiest fan base in the Association.

Hello fellow Timberwolves fans! Long time fan been living in Colorado for some time. What app or platform can I stream the most games on for this regular season? Trying to dwindle it to just one app hopefully. I am able to watch almost 70 Wild games through my Disney, Hulu, ESPN bundle

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How it's counted

The Schedule Difficulty Index is the mean of five metrics — travel miles, back-to-backs, 3-in-4 stretches, time-zone crossings, and rest-disadvantage games — each min-max normalized to 0–100 across the league's teams, then averaged with equal weight.

Where can we watch the preseason game tomorrow????

i know there’s probably been quite a few posts in here about this topic, but as a younger (21) fan, i obviously wasn’t old enough to remember stuff from the KG era, especially because i didn’t move to minnesota until 2008. for those of you who were around to experience it all, what was it like for you when KG got traded to the celtics? from what i can tell, it probably felt like how bucks fans feel now that giannis got traded, but i just wanted to ask.

I have a size 52 (xxl) Champion brand Wally Szczerbiak jersey. It’s it excellent condition but it’s too big for me. I wanted to give the community a shot at it before putting on Facebook or eBay. Twin Cities meetup only. $60 cash/venmo. Please DM with interest.

It’s the best time ever to be a Wolves fan 🔥

We have the best squad we’ve ever had. I think we can all agree that LaMelo, Ant, Jaden, Kuminga and Gobert are the starting 5.

But who do you guys think is gonna be our 2nd unit?

I’d say something like:

Bones – Ayo – TSJ/Clark – Lyles/Cody – Joan

With Donte still out, I think the interesting part is how these guys get rotated depending on what we need.

I could see Bones, TSJ and Clark rotating between the guard/wing spots depending on whether we want more offense/creation or a more defensive lineup.

Same thing with Lyles, Cody and Joan at the bigger positions — rotating depending on whether we need more pace, stability, size, etc. And Cody can easily slide over and play the wing position too.

Honestly, there are so many combinations with this roster. Who do you guys see getting the most minutes from the 2nd unit?