Derrick Williams spent most of his rookie season in Minnesota trying to find his way.

With a shortened training camp, precious little practice time once the season began and up to five games a week, it was perhaps the most challenging season ever for rookies. The No. 2 overall draft choice had to do a lot of searching – for the right times to be aggressive in Rick Adelman’s offense, for the correct reads on defense when the ball rotated quickly, for consistent playing time to get into a rhythm on both ends.

On the first day of training camp, Williams’ intensity and commitment on both ends stood out perhaps more than any other development on a team with only five players on the roster from a year ago.

via Jon Krawczynski of Associated Press