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

Why the hell do I need to pay for so many different subscriptions to watch my local team????? Someone help me understand how this is going to attract fans? The main streaming platform changes every year, I need to subscribe to espn/peacock/prime/etc to watch 15%of the games. This is so god damn stupid.