So much for continuity: Timberwolves’ embarrassing regular season start scrambles expectations

Did somebody say continuity Wasn t that supposed to be the magical theme song of the - Minnesota Timberwolves After the trading of Karl-Anthony Towns disrupted the group s sportsman rotations and relationships at the onset of the season prior compelling coach Chris Finch to accommodate the oblong skill sets of Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo the bounty for Towns on the fly for much of the autumn of wasn t the hard part supposed to be in the rear-view mirror The Wolves entered this season buoyed by back-to-back appearances in the Western Conference Finals The - campaign unlatched the cage on a marauding defense that ravaged the rest of the NBA It had taken a minute but the synergy of the seven-footers Towns and Rudy Gobert in tandem for a second season alongside wing-stopper Jaden McDaniels helped take the pace space and starch out of opponents in a super-sized frontcourt crew that included Sixth Man of the Year Naz Reid and the deceptively efficient octopus Kyle Slo Mo Anderson as other skilled bigs Related One week in Timberwolves are bereft of their identity and their superstar Slo Mo was shorn as a salary-cap casualty but the budget still pinched any future roster flexibility and so KAT was unloaded less than a week before training camp scrambling the prep for the - season More than halfway through the season the Wolves were barely above with a record of - The once-elite defensive efficiency had slipped from first to seventh while the offensive efficiency languished at th in the -team NBA Then Finch and his crew figured it out Despite injuries that cost Randle games and Gobert they were both out for six the Wolves posted the NBA s th best record the final three months of the season - including a - closing burst with a healthy roster The offensive efficiency soared to nd in that burst while the defensive efficiency held steady at seventh In the playoffs both the Lakers and Warriors were vanquished by -to- margins before the Wolves ran into the Oklahoma City buzzsaw in the conference finals in a similarly-decisive five games This season s salary-cap casualty was Nickeil Alexander-Walker NAW like Slo Mo an invaluable linchpin between the starters and reserves Yet every other member of the -player rotation was intact and a trio of young reserves Jaylen Clark Rob Dillingham and especially Terrence Shannon Jr seemed primed to collectively fill the void During the Media Day interview sessions that inaugurated training camp for the - season the Wolves spoke of the previous year s acclimation like surfers who had successfully negotiated the chop and churn of inhospitable tides and now expected the continuity of their hard-earned prowess to further tame the turbulent vitality of inclement weather for an exhilarating ride into championship contention The subsequent ineptitude through the first eight games of the season has cast those vows and assumptions into embarrassment The only continuity the Wolves have shown thus far is an ability to scratch out wins against hapless opponents and a mortifying tendency to fall apart when trying to prevent quality offenses from scoring Three of their four wins have come against the dregs of the lesser Eastern Conference who have a collective record of - And all four of their losses have been to foes who rank among the top five in offensive efficiency in part because they had the pleasure of encountering Minnesota s porous defense Specifically the Wolves have lost to Denver New York and twice to the L A Lakers The overall offensive ratings points scored per possessions of those three teams are for Denver for New York and for the Lakers The Wolves defensive rating in those four losses points allowed per possessions is more than seven points above what any NBA offense has mustered Overall the Wolves are allowing points per possessions after eight games which ranks th in the NBA The three teams allowing more than that have a combined record of - The latest indictment of the Wolves inability to get stops occurred Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden where the Knicks lambasted them - scoring a whopping points in the second half The detailed numbers from those final two quarters are damning The Knicks shot from two-point range -for- from beyond the three-point arc -for- and from the free-throw line -for- The Knicks exclusively owned the boards in the second half more than doubling up the Wolves in overall rebounds -to- and outhustling and -muscling Minnesota on its own defensive glass -to- Those rebounds contributed to second-chance points remember this is just one half of play The Wolves forfeited more points through their nine turnovers a ratio that demonstrates a feeble response toward limiting the damage from their miscues Tonight we stood around and watched Finch disclosed after the encounter In the locker room as quoted by Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic DiVincenzo added You can talk about it until you re blue in the face but you ve just gotta go out and do it Right now we re a sometimes crew We need to be an inevitably club in that regard In our conversation before training camp Finch stated a priority for this group heading into the season was improving the defense when Gobert wasn t on the court Well time to go back to the drawing board or better yet get a new drawing board Gobert has played exactly two-thirds of the Wolves - season thus far In the minutes he s been on the court the unit has allowed points per possessions In the minutes he s been on the sidelines the unit has allowed points per minutes The disparity is even larger if you remove garbage time when the tally is so lopsided late in the match that the minutes won t affect the outcome The website Cleaning the Glass eliminates garbage time and calculates that the Wolves allow fewer points per possessions with Gobert on the court versus when he subs out It s a small sample size total minutes played vs eight games with no overtimes but the size of the chasm in defensive competence nevertheless highlights an obvious challenge When Gobert is out a pair of -foot -inch forwards Randle and Naz are the greater part frequent frontcourt duo In their minutes together thus far this season the Wolves allow points per possessions And that unsightly number is very slightly mitigated by the minutes when Naz Randle and Gobert have all shared the court this season and posted a defensive rating of Or you can ditch the stats and see for yourself because the eye test has also not been kind to the Wolves defense The bread-and-butter necessity of any association is a capable pick-and-roll defense and the Wolves have been dreadful at it The participant defending the ball-handler gets hung up on the screen and help via a switch or rotation is woefully slow in coming Conversely a defender wills himself through the screen but the teammate guarding the would-be roller wasn t convinced that would happen switches off and lets the roller go free Elsewhere the Wolves too frequently get exposed in rotation resulting in one of their smalls majority of painfully Mike Conley or Rob Dillingham needing to furiously foul a leviathan in the paint before it becomes a layup and or an and- three-point play The irony here is that Naz and Gobert have been a superb defensive tandem for the past -plus seasons In - and - the pair gave up fewer points per possession than any -player lineup combination logging regular minutes together Sure enough of the two-player lineup combinations together for at least minutes thus far this season Gobert and Naz again top the defense by allowing a stingy points per possessions in minutes Among the top most-deployed duos Gobert and Mike Conley are next-best together at points allowed per possessions in shared minutes What skews the stats in Naz s favor is that Gobert is dominant in rotations against the opponent s second-unit personnel Guys coming off the Wolves bench who have generally been abysmal on defense get well in a hurry when Rudy is beside them Minnesota s points allowed per possessions is in the minutes when Rob Dillingham is with Gobert and in the minutes Dillingham plays overall For Shannon it is points allowed in minutes he alongside Gobert and in the total minutes he has played Even the superb defender Clark has his points allowed in his total minutes on the court significantly impacted by the points scored against the unit in his minutes with Rudy It is likely too early for dramatic changes to the status quo Finch has demonstrated that patience and minor tweaks that don t involve abrupt challenges to the existing rotation can and usually do pay off But that doesn t stop me from again suggesting that Naz and Jaden McDaniels flip their roles Granted it is a small sample size but McDaniels seems the least vulnerable playing defense without Gobert In fact the Wolves have allowed points per possessions in the minutes they have shared the court and points in the minutes McDaniels has logged overall it is just minutes but the defensive numbers are better for the association when he is without Rudy The argument is buttressed by the increasing evidence that the offensive prowess of McDaniels is being throttled by his presence in the starting lineup when everyone is healthy Consider that in the five games that Ant was injured he played just minutes against Indiana McDaniels averaged points per tournament on shooting from the field from three-point range and from the foul line His made free throws was second on the club to Randle during that span His usage was behind only Randle and Naz among the members of the regular rotation Related Wolves expectations ride on rising NBA superstar Anthony Edwards When Ant returned from injury Wednesday against the Knicks McDaniels attempted shots down from when Ant was out and scored just points His usage was down just slightly to but then again Ant logged less than minutes easing himself back into action and attempted only shots himself Before the contest Finch was honest about the fact that Ant s re-entry into the rotation was destined to diminish the scoring and playmaking of other players on the squad This is acutely true for McDaniels who is not a catch-and-shoot three-point shooter a la DiVincenzo and thus finds his creative space not to mention his touches on the floor eaten up by Ant Randle and Gobert By putting Naz in the starting lineup and bringing McDaniels off the bench Finch would be better spacing the floor on offense while protecting both of the bigs Naz and Randle who suffer without Gobert beside them on defense The move would put more onus on Ant to guard the other band s top scorer as he did Wednesday on Jalen Brunson of the Knicks retaining his focus at that end of the court Meanwhile McDaniels ever-burgeoning skill set on offense would be allowed more freedom to evolve even as he would become more of a big on defense another eye-opening aspect of his versatility that has been showcased when the opportunity has been there to flex it At this point it might just be better than continuity The post So much for continuity Timberwolves embarrassing regular season start scrambles expectations appeared first on MinnPost