ESPN’s Ben Golliver placed Joan Beringer fourth on his list of the 10 most interesting sophomores for the 2026-27 season, published Wednesday — ahead of top-five picks VJ Edgecombe and Ace Bailey. For a Timberwolves team that spent the spring trading away most of its frontcourt depth, the ranking lands on the roster’s most obvious open question. Beringer’s Vegas week has been a mixed file: an 18-point, 12-rebound, four-block debut, then back tightness that cost him games in the middle of the schedule.
Golliver’s case rests on opportunity as much as talent. Beringer, the No. 17 pick in 2025, averaged 3.9 points and 2.3 rebounds across 40 appearances as a rookie, buried behind veterans on a team coming off consecutive Western Conference finals trips. That logjam is gone. Minnesota sent Julius Randle to Brooklyn and Naz Reid to Charlotte in this offseason’s LaMelo Ball deal, leaving Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels as the frontcourt mainstays and little proven size behind them.
“Minnesota likely won’t have enough size to keep up with the West’s elite unless Beringer can handle rotation minutes,” Golliver wrote, adding that the 6-foot-11 Frenchman’s mobility could make him a lob target for LaMelo Ball. The defensive job comes first — Minnesota needs an interior presence for the minutes Gobert sits — but the fit next to Ball is the part that raises the ceiling. Ball’s whole career has been spent throwing passes that make rim-running bigs look better than their box scores.
The ranking is a projection, not a verdict, and the 19-year-old still has to answer the two questions Summer League posed: whether the debut performance is repeatable, and whether the back issue is a blip or something the Wolves will manage into camp. The team has offered no timeline on the latter. But the direction of the roster is settled. Minnesota chose Ball and its young size over the Randle-Reid version of this team, and Beringer is the player that bet most depends on.
For fantasy purposes, Beringer is one of the more interesting cheap bigs in dynasty and a name to watch in deeper redraft leagues. The path to backup-center minutes behind Gobert is essentially uncontested, his block rate travels even in small roles, and a Ball-to-Beringer lob pairing would add easy field goals. Temper it with the back tightness — his health into training camp is the thing to monitor before drafting him anywhere.
