Minnesota Timberwolves New Year’s resolutions: Player development

5. Average defense

All Minnesota needs to make some noise in the playoffs is an average defense. I’m not even asking for great, good, above-average or anything of that caliber. Simply middle of the pack. If they can do that they’ll be in good shape and have a nice season to build off going into the 2018-19 year.

Right now, they currently have a defensive rating of 107.2 which ranks 24th in the NBA. In order to get to that highly coveted 15th spot (105.2 as of this writing), they need to improve their rating by two full points-very doable. On Dec. 1, 2017, they ranked 23rd with a defensive rating of 107.9. For you math wizards out there, that means they improved by .7 points in one month. At this rate, they’ll be at the average rank at the end of March, just in time to make one last strong push before the playoffs start.

During this current hot streak (7-1 in their last 8 games) their rating has been a gorgeous 105.6-just about where they want to be by season’s end. With Jimmy Butler and Taj Gibson playing their normal stellar defense, a lot of the credit for their defensive improvement belongs to Towns:

Of course, there is still room for improvement for the big man out of Kentucky, as well as his other teammates (I’m looking at you Wiggins and Jeff Teague), but it’s a start. And you have to start somewhere.

Sometimes defense takes certain players longer to grasp and maybe Towns is that type of player. Whatever the situation, there’s appears to be a direct correlation between his improvement and the team’s overall success. Please keep it going.