Joan Beringer made his long-awaited rotation debut in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 139-106 dismantling of the Milwaukee Bucks on January 13. The 17th overall pick last year played 17 minutes in the first three quarters of the blowout win and nearly the entire fourth quarter for 29 total minutes.
Chris Finch spoke about Beringer’s debut before the Wolves left for Houston this week.
“What jumps out is kind of,” Finch said before pausing, “he’s just more comfortable in his own skin.
“His fitness was way better,” he added while smiling. “He plays hard, he plays himself to exhaustion, which is what you love. His activity has always been there. I just felt like his activity was in time with the play, where he wasn’t playing catch-up to what was going on around him, so you can tell the game is slowing down a little bit for him.”
Joan Beringer made the most of his minutes, but what was most striking was the similarities to Rudy Gobert, his teammate and mentor.
Flashback to October of 2013, just months after the Utah Jazz acquired Rudy Gobert in a draft-night trade for Erick Green. Former Jazz head coach Tyrone Corbin offered his initial impressions of Gobert.
“He finds a way to get it done [and] be effective,” Corbin told the Salt Lake Tribune. “He can run and jump. He’s really long [and] he’s athletic. He’s smart about when to cut. His hands are pretty good. He has to get stronger. … But if we have to play him, he’ll have moments that are really, really good.”
Fast forward almost 12 years, and look at what Timberwolves Summer League head coach Kevin Hanson said about Beringer.
“I mean that’s what it is, it’s just instincts, isn’t it?” he asked rhetorically. “He just has unbelievable timing, I saw it right off the jump, on both sides of the floor too, his ability to go catch lobs, and [he] has good hands. … That was impressive.”
Instincts, timing, cutting, hands, athletic, both sides of the floor, need to get stronger. Corbin might as well be talking about Beringer, and Hanson might as well be talking about Gobert. The similarities were not lost on draft scouts, either.
Both were considered raw offensive players who could make an immediate impact on the defensive end. People thought both had great size, wingspans, and athletic ability. However, Gobert faced criticism for his “leaping ability.” They both needed to bulk up their upper bodies, and both were compared to defensive-minded role players: Gobert to Shawn Bradley, and Beringer to Yves Missi. Even their draft rankings seem eerily similar below.
Beringer’s debut this week was also Gobert-y in nature: 13 points, five rebounds, two assists, one steal, one turnover, and four fouls. He shot 6 of 7 from the field, with every basket in the restricted area, and his only miss was a push shot in the paint.
Beringer posted a 101.6 defensive rating, which was third-best on the team that night. He also had a similar basket-deterring effect at the rim, although he was foul-happy and seemed to jump at everything to contest.
Flash back to 2013-14, Gobert’s first season in the league, when he finally got a meaningful opportunity. Coincidentally, it came on January 21, 2014, against Minnesota in Utah. He posted 8 points on 4 of 5 shooting, all of which came in the paint, and he snagged six rebounds. Gobert also had an assist, three blocks, one steal, and one turnover, to go along with four fouls in just over 27 minutes. He posted a 100.0 defensive rating, played with endless energy, and seemingly jumped at everything.
People often say “time is a flat circle,” referring to historical events repeating in society. Admittedly, the similarities between Rudy Gobert and Joan Beringer are spooky, even given the repetitive nature of history and time. The likelihood that Beringer becomes a first-ballot Hall of Famer and a four-time defensive player of the year is somewhat slim. Still, with a mentor like Gobert and his raw talent, technically, anything is possible. However, he doesn’t play himself into exhaustion every game.