Breaking down the Timberwolves’ pick-and-roll offense

At times, the Timberwolves have looked unstoppable when keying their offense through a high pick-and-roll. Let’s break down some of the more successful looks they’ve shown thus far this season.

The Timberwolves offense has gone through stretches where they’re reliant on the pick-and-roll. But then they’ll go possessions on end without initiating it, despite having a solid screener in Karl-Anthony Towns who is adept at both rolling to the basket and popping out beyond the arc.

The numbers tell us that the Wolves have ranked near the top of the NBA in ending possessions with a pick-and-roll; a total of 27.3 percent of Minnesota’s offensive possessions so far this season end with one of the two players involved in the pick-and-roll having the ball in his hands, according to NBA.com.

(NBA.com actually breaks it down by the roll-man and the ball-handler, and eight percent of possessions finish with the roll-man, compared to 19.3 with the ball-handler. Only three teams feature the roll-man finishing possessions at a higher rate than the Wolves, and eight teams finish possessions more frequently with the ball-handler.)

The Timberwolves still aren’t launching many threes compared to the rest of the league, and rank near the bottom of the NBA in spot-up jumper attempts, too. However, the Wolves offense ranks fifth in the league in offensive rating through 15 games, so something is working.

The relative success of the offense and the high frequency with which the Wolves run pick-and-roll suggests that this particular playtype is a boon for Tom Thibodeau’s squad. This is somewhat true, as the Wolves do average 1.15 points per possession when the roll-man gets the ball, good for 11th in the league. But the ball-handler isn’t scoring nearly as well — just 0.76 points per possession.

Let’s break down a few different pick-and-roll looks from the Wolves of late, and what steps they could take to increase the effectiveness of the play.

This was the first offensive possession of the second half in what turned into a blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors.

Jimmy Butler clears out the backside of the play and Teague delivers a perfect pocket-pass on time to Towns, resulting in an easy and-one. These are exactly the type of plays that Towns excels with in the paint, with a full head of steam and using a combination of solid athleticism and size to power through contact and score.

Just this past Wednesday night, the Wolves played a poor first quarter and appeared well on their way to losing to the San Antonio Spurs for a 13th consecutive time. But Tyus Jones and Towns heated up in a hurry in the second quarter, scoring on a high screen-and-roll on four consecutive possessions, in three completely different ways.

Here, Jones delivers a similar pocket pass to the one that Teague threw at Golden State.

The next time down the court, Pau Gasol plays the drive and recovers to get in front of Towns about 10 feet from the basket, so KAT stops on a dime and knocks down the free throw line jumper.

Then, Patty Mills goes under and then around a great screen from Towns, and Jones is able to pull up at the free throw line for a wide-open jumper of his own while Gasol remains anchored to the center of the lane.

The final time around, Gasol comes all the way out to about 15 feet, leaving a huge lane for Towns to stroll to the basket. Once again, Jones delivers a fantastic bounce pass to hit KAT in stride for an easy dunk.

So, we’ve established that Towns is a good screener and a great roll-man. And if the video isn’t enough, there’s this: Towns has the best points per possession (1.19) of any big man that plays that role for more than four possessions per game.

What could the Wolves do to improve their pick-and-roll offense? My answer: use Jimmy Butler as the ball-handler with a higher frequency.

This would accomplish a few things. One, it is an easy way for the Wolves to get the ball into Butler’s hands without forcing an isolation play — a far less efficient playtype than a pick-and-roll. It also allows Teague, a superior 3-point shooter to Butler, to spot-up on the perimeter and space the floor. One of the main reasons that the Wiggins-Towns pick-and-roll didn’t work consistently a year ago was that Ricky Rubio wasn’t anywhere near as good of a shooter as Teague. Now that Teague is in the fold, Tom Thibodeau should play to his strengths.

Butler’s no slouch as a decision-maker, either; his assist rate improved each year over the first six seasons of his career, reaching 24.8 a year ago in his dominant final campaign in Chicago. Plus, any time you can run a pick-and-roll with a 6″-7′ guard and a 6′-11″ big man, it puts additional pressure on the opponent.

Check out this possession from Friday night’s win over the Mavs.

For whatever reason, Dirk Nowitzki hangs back in the paint, allowing Butler plenty of room to make a decision. Butler could have pulled up for an open jumper from the elbow, dished to Towns in the short corner for an open three, or kicked to Teague in the slot. He chose the latter of the options, and it worked out in the Wolves’ favor.

So far this year, Butler has only handled the ball in the pick-and-roll on 4.6 possessions per game, trailing both Teague and Wiggins. Somewhat surprisingly, Wiggins has a superior points per possession mark to this point (0.73 to a poor 0.58 for Butler), but this can be attributed to Butler’s poor start from the field to start the season. His turnover rate on these plays is a passable 16.7 percent, which is lower than Teague’s.

You can bet that as Butler continues to get more comfortable playing with Towns, Wiggins, and Teague, the above numbers will improve. In fact, just last season, Butler helmed 8.2 pick-and-roll possessions per game, and the Bulls scored 0.91 points per possession while Jimmy G. only turned the ball over 11.1 percent of the time as the ball-handler. Remember, that was with a far inferior supporting cast to what Butler has in Minnesota. And so far this year, the Wolves are scoring 0.85 points per possession with Teague as the ball-handler, and are turning the ball over 18.4 percent of the time.

For Teague’s part, the Pacers scored 0.98 points per possession with him as the pick-and-roll ball-handler last year, but he did turn the ball over more often than than the Bulls version of Butler.

In summary: the Wolves are already a solid pick-and-roll team, and utilize these sets more often than many of their peers. But they would surely benefit from expanding their playbook to include more situations in which Butler handles the ball in the middle of the floor, versus isolation situations on the wing. Getting the ball in Butler’s hands and allowing him to make decisions with Teague, a 38 percent 3-point shooter over the past two-plus seasons, and Wiggins spotting up would seem to be a smart play.

Next: Is Jimmy Butler being too unselfish?

Don’t be surprised if Butler finds the ball in his hands more often as he continues to familiarize himself with his new team. And if and when he does, the Timberwolves offense will be better for it.