Jake

Layman

Boston brought in Layman on a training camp deal, so he was never guaranteed a spot. Even if he did make the final roster, he wouldn’t have seen any playing time on one of the deepest teams in the league.

Layman started his career in Portland and spent the last three seasons with Minnesota so it would not be all that surprising to see him make Boston’s final roster with a limited role off the bench. But it would take a minor miracle for him to emerge with any fantasy value this season.

Prince is one of seven Timberwolves currently in the league’s health and safety protocols. He hasn’t been productive enough to be rostered in most fantasy leagues this season, so Prince’s absence won’t have much of an impact in that regard. Josh Okogie, who’s listed as questionable for Monday’s game, Jaden McDaniels, and Jake Layman are the players most likely to absorb the minutes that would have gone to Prince. McDaniels offers some upside, especially in deep leagues, but the pickings are slim here.

Layman’s start was his first since April 7, so he’s been off the fantasy radar for quite some time now. His previous season-highs were eight minutes, three points, three rebounds and one steal, so tonight’s useful final line should be taken with a grain of salt. With so many Timberwolves either injured or in protocols, there’s a chance Layman sees some increased run in the short-term, but even then, he’s not someone who needs to be added off the waiver wire.

Karl-Anthony Towns has joined Anthony Edwards, Josh Okogie, Taurean Prince and Jarred Vanderbilt in quarantine, so Reid and Layman will start tonight, with Reid being the preferable target in fantasy hoops. Joining these two in the first unit tonight will be D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jaden McDaniels.

Neither of these guys are relevant in fantasy hoops.

With both Nowell and Malik Beasley (hamstring) on the sidelines tonight, there will be more minutes available for Jake Layman and Jarrett Culver, but both those guys make for risky DFS targets. Nowell is just dealing with a bruised leg, and with news that Beasley will miss the next 4-6 weeks, Nowell gets a boost despite being out tonight. For now, we’ll consider him questionable for Wednesday’s game vs. the Pacers and we’d recommend putting him on your watchlist in deep leagues.

Joining Vanderbilt and Laymen in the starting unit tonight will be Ricky Rubio, Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns. Vanderbilt has essentially been out of the rotation for the past two games, but maybe he’ll be able to get back into the 20s as a starter tonight.

Layman had been starting but that experiment ended tonight with Jaden McDaniels taking his spot. He was nowhere near fantasy value even as a starter, so this should only impact a handful of deep-league rosters.

Ricky Rubio, Anthony Edwards, Jarred Vanderbilt and Karl-Anthony Towns will also start, so Josh Okogie will move to the bench. Coach Chris Finch is still tweaking his rotations until he finds something that works so Layman is worth monitoring after a strong performance vs. the Suns in 30 minutes.