Breaking down Jeff Teague’s flaws

Offense

Offensively, Jeff Teague may be the best point guard the Minnesota Timberwolves franchise has seen since Stephon Marbury.

There is no denying the credibility that goes along with running the point on the fourth best Western Conference team, but there is certainly some nitpicking that can be done on Teague’s offensive work.

One of the main gripes about the 29-year-old is his reluctance to shoot the 3-ball when the opportunity presents itself, instead turning them down to try and probe the lane. This method chews the shot clock and often leads to turnovers or ineffective shots, especially when the former Atlanta Hawk is shooting a respectable 36.5 percent from downtown.

Here, Teague receives the ball in his shooting pocket and turns down the three-ball on a late-closing Russell Westbrook, opting to attack the closeout and put up a the much more inefficient floater.

As you can see, it doesn’t end well.

That floater that Teague sometimes overuses more often or not results in open scorers going unnoticed. The point guard needs to be able to kick it out to these shooters when the defense collapses on him, this is where Teague struggles at times.

On this play, which came in a crucial moment in a disappointing loss to the Phoenix Suns, Teague breezes past Tyler Ulis, but goes into tunnel vision mode and misses an open Karl-Anthony Towns in the corner and Andrew Wiggins after flairing out after the screen.

When you have the caliber of player on your team that Teague has, you must sacrifice shots like that.

Teague still averages 7.1 assists per outing, which ranks him 8th in the NBA, but he could be much higher if he kept his head on a swivel just slightly more often.

The Timberwolves currently rank third in the NBA in Offensive Rating, so Teague’s offensive mishaps shouldn’t be the biggest issue for Minnesota fans, but if he could  clean up these flaws, Teague and the Wolves would be rolling on all cylinders offensively.