Young starting lineup playing well for Timberwolves

Since the All-Star break, the Timberwolves have turned their focus to the future more than they previously had up until this point in the season.

Zach LaVine has started four of the six games since the break, replacing Tayshaun Prince and giving the Wolves a starting lineup of Ricky Rubio–LaVine–Andrew Wiggins–Gorgui Dieng–Karl-Anthony Towns.

This is the lineup Wolves fans have wanted more of all season; it allows the core pieces of the future to play together, and it is also easily the most exciting lineup the Wolves have.

In addition to giving LaVine more playing time with the starters, the Timberwolves have finally turned over the backup point guard spot to Tyus Jones.

The Wolves reached a buyout with Andre Miller with the full intention of giving Jones meaningful minutes as the season winds down, and the subsequent buyout of Kevin Martin shows that the Wolves are solely focused on developing the young guys the rest of the way.

It seems like this rotation is what the Wolves will finish the season with. They’ve added Greg Smith for depth behind KAT and Dieng, but that obviously won’t affect LaVine’s and Jones’ playing time.

The question is no longer about playing time; the question now is how this rotation will fare compared to the rotation before the break. While the sample size is only six games at this point, we can still extract some useful information from those performances.

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As a team, the Timberwolves had an offensive rating of 103 and a defensive rating of 106.1 in 54 games before the All-Star break. In the six games since the break, the Wolves’ offense has risen to 108.2, ninth in the league in that span. In fact, if the Wolves had that efficient of an offense for the whole season, they would rank 4th in the entire league, only behind the Warriors, Thunder, and Spurs.

On the flip side, the Wolves’ defensive rating has plummeted to 114.2. That is one of the worst marks in the league over those six games, but that drop in defense is to be expected when the starting lineup has an average age of 22.4 years old.

However, things look a little bit better when looking at just that starting lineup. They have an offensive rating of 115.4 against a defensive rating of 113.8 since the All-Star break. While the defense still isn’t great, that extremely young lineup is already outscoring teams, which is a good sign for the future.

The players will become more comfortable on defense as they get more playing time together and learn how to operate within the specific defensive scheme of the Wolves. Rubio and Towns are already great defenders, and with leaders like that both on the perimeter and in the paint, the defense will improve in the coming years.

As for the offense, the ball movement in these last six games has reached peak levels for the season. Playing LaVine alongside Rubio is – shockingly – good for the offense. Surrounding Rubio with shooters helps him out, and playing LaVine at a position where he isn’t the primary playmaker helps him out too.

Feb 10, 2016; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ricky Rubio (9) and guard Zach LaVine (8) talk during the a free throw during the second half against the Toronto Raptors at Target Center. The Timberwolves won 117-112. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports /

The assist percentage has accordingly risen as a result of that ball movement, up nearly five percent from before the All-Star break. The Wolves are also unsurprisingly playing at a faster pace, getting about three more possessions per game post-break.

This is the high-flying, run-and-gun offense fans were expecting to see before the season, and although the defense hasn’t very good, the young Wolves are gaining invaluable experience playing together.

Furthermore, both LaVine and Jones have played better since the break as well. Their roles are more defined, and Jones is getting minutes outside of just garbage time.

In the six games since being named dunk contest champ for a second time, LaVine has improved his statistics nearly all across the board. He has earned nine more minutes per game and has used that to bump up his scoring by nearly three points per contest. He’s also up to 4.7 rebounds per game after averaging 2.9 before the All-Star break.

While that spike in production is to be expected with his increase in minutes, his drastic rise in efficiency is a little less so. Playing alongside a player in Rubio that can find him for easy shots, LaVine has improved his field goal percentage to 48 percent, up from 43.4 percent before the break. His three-point percentage has seen an even larger increase, up to 41.4 percent from 34.5 percent.

Instead of taking shots off-the-dribble and/or late in the shot clock, LaVine has been able to get more transition and catch-and-shoot opportunities playing alongside Rubio. His field goal and three-point percentage in the six games since the break would be great numbers for a shooting guard if he could keep it up, and based on what we’ve seen, there is no reason to believe that it won’t continue.

Similarly, Jones has seen his numbers jump since he began to receive consistent playing time after All-Star Weekend.