In his return, Greg Monroe sees Timberwolves pulling together for postseason

Greg Monroe has had to learn a lot of different teams' tendencies and systems over the past few months. He's glad to be back at the place his whirlwind season began.

The well-traveled center has accumulated plenty of frequent-flyer miles with stops in the G League and 10-day contracts with Washington, Milwaukee, Utah and the Timberwolves.

"It's a whirlwind but it's also been fun and I'm still playing the game I love, still playing basketball," Monroe said. "Just take it in stride and adjust on the fly."

Now he's back for the playoff push in Minnesota, where he was in late December as the Wolves went through several COVID protocol absences.

"I learned a couple other playbooks since I was here," Monroe said. "Once you get back out here, in practice we went over some stuff, it comes back a little bit. Definitely happy to be back here."

Monroe is back to add a little size to the Wolves as they get ready for the biggest week the franchise has had in the past four seasons. He was set to get some minutes in Sunday's regular-season finale against the Bulls ahead of Tuesday's play-in game against the Clippers.

The Wolves might have signed Monroe earlier in the season if they weren't up against the luxury tax threshold.

"I know these guys are excited. I think they're ready," Monroe said. "… I think guys are focused. Guys are coming together even more. That's what you have to do in the playoffs. You have to understand that the only thing that really matters is what's going on with the team and the staff and figure it out together."

Monroe's lasting contribution to this season's team was a 108-103 victory over Boston on Dec. 27 when he scored 11 points after beginning his day in the Washington D.C. area. In that game, Jaylen Nowell scored 29 points off the bench and Monroe said he didn't know who Nowell was before that evening. He has a little more time to get to know Nowell and his former/current teammates again.

"Just seeing those guys and watching them every day, it is different when you see people in person, as opposed to from afar," Monroe said. "There's a lot of talented guys. They all bring something different to the team and I think they all fit with each other really well."

Forward Jaden McDaniels said one of the things that was an adjustment for him since returning from a high-ankle sprain was re-establishing his pregame routine.

"When I was hurt on game days, my preparation wasn't the same," McDaniels said.

"I didn't take my nap or little things like that," McDaniels said.

Both D'Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns were out for Sunday's game. Coach Chris Finch said the team took the decision out of Towns' hands whether he was going to play or not. The Wolves also didn't want to push Russell, who missed Thursday's game because of hamstring soreness and missed Saturday's practice because of an illness.