Sunday, the day after Christmas, the Timberwolves reconvened for an afternoon practice, and the game of musical chairs continued.
In: Wolves coach Chris Finch said Patrick Beverley and Josh Okogie were back at practice. Meanwhile, the Wolves are expected to sign center Greg Monroe — who hasn't played in the NBA since the 2018-19 season — to a 10-day contract with back-to-back home games against Boston on Monday and New York on Tuesday looming.
Out: Both D'Angelo Russell and Naz Reid have entered the league's health and safety protocols after both played Thursday night at Utah. Russell entered the protocols earlier in the weekend. Reid was a Sunday addition. They join Karl-Anthony Towns, Taurean Prince, Jarred Vanderbilt, Anthony Edwards and McKinley Wright IV.
Out of the protocols, both Okogie and Beverley are listed as questionable because of "return to competition conditioning." Should Beverley be available, he would represent the only starter available to play against the Celtics.
"We get a couple guys back who can help our defense at the point of attack,'' Finch said. "We got tough matchups coming in here [Monday]. But the more of our guys we have, the better."
Still, Finch will have to continue mixing and matching.
"You know, the way we're approaching this is we wait and see what the morning brings all the time," he said. "Because even if we were to sit down and plan things out right now, if we overplanned it, we might have a different lineup or different roster combination tomorrow."
The signing of Monroe would give the Wolves at least one player with the size to work inside, something the team lacks with Towns, Reid and Vanderbilt — the team's best rebounder — all out. But it remains to be seen how much — or how effectively — the 6-11 Monroe will be having not appeared in an NBA game since he played in 43 games for three teams in 2018-19.