Wolves F Jake Layman and trainer Reid Ouse form solid bond

Jake Layman missed two-thirds of his first season with the Wolves because of a toe injury. Healthy now, he’s working hard this summer with trainer Reid Ouse.

We connected with Layman and Ouse on a recent morning at a gym in Eden Prairie. It was just another reminder that being a professional basketball player is a 12-month a year job. There truly is very little downtime.

***Click the video box above to watch our chats with Layman and Ouse, and to see footage of the workout***

Layman, 26, went down with a toe injury during the Wolves’ Nov. 20 game against the Utah Jazz and didn’t return to the lineup until Feb. 24, missing 41 straight games.

Layman had scored 16 or more points in three of the final five games before his injury, and played well too in the first few weeks of the season. In other words, when he was on the court, good things happened. The key for the 2020-2021 season will be to keep him durable, and to figure out if he’s best suited to play the small forward position.

He signed a 3-year, $11.5M deal with the Wolves last summer.