In their game against the New Orleans Pelicans, veteran forward Anthony Tolliver received his first DNP-CD of the 2018-2019 season. According to Tolliver, there was no communication from head coach Tom Thibodeau, and the forward said it would have been nice to have received a little bit of a heads up:
A probable reason for the DNP is that Thibodeau might have wanted to give the new guys in Dario Saric and Robert Covington more run to get them used to the Wolves' system and see where they fit in the rotation moving forward. Covington and Saric finished the game with 41 and 20 minutes, respectively, and are looking to be significant parts of the rotation moving forward.
Saric and Covington were part of the trade with the Philadelpia 76ers in exchange for Jimmy Butler and Justin Patton.
It is still unclear whether Anthony Tolliver will be out of the rotation for a while or if he gets some minutes off the bench. He could still have a role as a situational 3-point threat, but the Wolves are now pretty full up front. When asked about his DNP, Tolliver said:
“Obviously it’s not what I came here for, but it’s been one game. It’s a long season. Just figuring out where my value lies and go from there.”
Aside from Covington and Saric, Anthony Tolliver will have to compete for minutes with guys like Karl-Anthony Towns, Gorgui Dieng and Taj Gibson. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if the gets more DNPs as the season progresses.