The Minnesota Timberwolves drafted Jaylen Nowell with the 43rd pick in the second round of the 2019 NBA Draft. Now entering year three, the guard out of the University of Washington will be entering a make-or-break season with the organization.

Nowell showed a lot of promise during his sophomore season, but there’s still a question about his long-term future with the Timberwolves. One thing to monitor is Gersson Rosas deciding to pick up his club option for the 2022-23 season. If they decide to, he will make close to $2 million (1,930,681) – which isn’t a bad price for a decent offensive bench player.

Nowell isn’t a terrible defender, but he’s not good either. In 42 games, Nowell had a defensive rating of 111.1. However, he’s shown defensive awareness in the past, and understanding where he needs to be on the floor.

In this video, Nowell helps out the defender and comes away with a steal and turnover. One was against Luka Dončić, and the other Damian Lillard – both great offensive players. These aren’t going to be common occurrences, but they are signs of Nowell potentially becoming a better defender, or worst case, a good help defender.

Despite some defensive question marks, Nowell is a solid offensive weapon. Minnesota likes having multiple ball-handlers on the court, and the former second-round pick brings that to the table.

At this point, it’s safe to say he’s not going to become a backup point guard, but he can be a No. 3, or a secondary ball-handler on the floor.

At the University of Washington, he had great success shooting the ball from 3, averaging 39.6 percent over two seasons. For some reason, that didn’t translate during his rookie season. In limited time, he averaged 11.5 percent from 3, after effectively shooting 43.6 percent for the Iowa Wolves that same year.

Last season, he increased that percentage to 33.3. There’s room for improvement and reason to believe he can become a high 30s-low 40s shooter.

One thing that doesn’t get talked about enough has been his ability to create his own shot and efficiently shoot the ball from mid-range or the rim. Last season he averaged 55.9 percent at the rim and 61.9 percent when he’s 10-to-16 feet away.

Here’s a video that shows his ability to handle the ball and work his way in for an easy dunk.

Offensively, Nowell is a poor man’s, CJ McCollum. He can be a backup ball-handler in some fashion, shoots the ball efficiently, and creates his own shot. Both aren’t defensive players, but they bring a lot of upside on the offensive end.

This will be a big year for Nowell to step up and prove to the Timberwolves front office that he’s worth an extended look. Year-three is always a big season for young players on the fringe of playing time, and Nowell will be in that same position this year.