Checking in on the Timberwolves’ progress after 3 games
By Ben Beecken
The Timberwolves have played three games thus far — too soon to draw any definitive conclusions, of course, but how can we summarize the first five days of the young season?
Pretty much any way you slice it, a 2-1 record is a solid start to the season. This is especially true for a squad integrating three new starters, and after playing three playoff teams from a year ago, two of which they faced on the road.
After a largely flat performance in San Antonio on Wednesday, the Wolves opened their home slate with a three-point win over the Utah Jazz. They looked better, for the most part, than they did on opening night. And then on Sunday, they looked even better yet, leading for nearly the entire game against the new-look Thunder in Oklahoma City.
The Spurs started the season by slicing and dicing the Wolves defense, which, outside of some solid wall-ups from Taj Gibson, didn’t look much better than last year’s 27th-ranked unit.
But the defense improved ever so slightly against a challenging Jazz squad. There was some regression in OKC on Sunday — namely, in covering Russell Westbrook-initiated pick-and-rolls — but such a half-step backwards can be forgiven when coming against the Westbrook-Paul George–Carmelo Anthony trio.
Karl-Anthony Towns is still struggling in virtually all facets on defense, from help defense in the lane, to pick-and-roll coverage, to defending big men one-on-one in the post. (More on that in an upcoming post.) Gibson, as mentioned, has been awesome defensively, Wiggins seems to have taken an incremental step forward, and Butler is typically solid. The defensive step backwards from Rubio to Jeff Teague has been more apparent at some times than others (Dejounte Murray got where/what he wanted last Wednesday, but Teague was much better against Utah and Oklahoma City); it’s something to keep an eye on.
Offensively, the Wolves are clearly still trying to figure out how to function. The good news is that the sheer talent of their starting five is good enough that they’re able to make tough shots when needed (especially Wiggins and Butler), and the threat of their wing duo has been enough to get Towns open looks at the rim and Gibson and Teague open looks from the mid-range.
It’s appeared as though having four starters that can all hit open 3-point shots at a slightly above league-average clip has helped space the floor somewhat, although they’re still taking far too many jumpers from well beyond the arc. The team is shooting 37.9 percent from long-range through the first three games — a number that would surely place them in the top five or six teams in the league if it was maintained for the entire season.
Really, it boils down to this: the Wolves have improved incrementally over the first three contests of the season. They’ve won a couple of one possession games, and while there’s certainly some variance in those virtual coin flips, starting the season being on the right side of those close-and-late situations should be a boon for the team’s confidence moving forward.
Next: Brian's Breakdown: Patience is key for Wolves
Stay tuned for a breakdown of KAT’s defensive issues thus far, and some thoughts on what the Wolves can do to start games by playing to his strengths and setting up Butler and Wiggins to initiate the offense around him.