Minnesota Timberwolves Player Review: Jeff Teague

Jeff Teague had an up-and-down season as the new starting point guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Let’s dive in to part eight of our player review series…

Last June, Jeff Teague agreed to a three-year contract to be Ricky Rubio‘s replacement at point guard in Minnesota mere hours after the Rubio trade was reported.

Rubio, of course, was eminently popular in Minnesota, and was seen as somewhat of a sympathetic figure by many fans throughout the latter portion of the franchise’s playoff drought. He was a lovable foreigner who grew to love the Twin Cities, and, at least early in his career, was a sign of optimism as the Wolves tried to pair him with Kevin Love in something that was billed as Kevin Garnett–Stephon Marbury-lite.

Rubio, for his part, didn’t blossom into a true star, although he seemed to be perennially undervalued by the NBA community at large (and a certain segment of Wolves fans). He was consistently one of the 10 to 12 best point guards in the league, but after Love’s departure did not play with a true star until Karl-Anthony Towns‘ second season in the league, which was the Timberwolves’ 31-win campaign in 2016-17.

That meant that Teague had a mountain to climb when it came to acceptance from the Target Center faithful, fair or unfair. Here’s what I wrote as a rapid reaction in the wake of the signing last June:

"With the news official, let’s unpack what amounts to trading Ricky Rubio for a lottery-protected first-round draft pick and Jeff Teague.Is Teague better than Rubio? In a vacuum, no. They’re probably both in that #8 to #12 range in terms of league-wide point guard rankings. But with this Wolves roster? It’s certainly understandable that Tom Thibodeau could believe that Teague is a better fit.While Teague is far from a sharpshooter — in fact, he’s never averaged more than 1.4 three-point makes per game during his career — he is absolutely a superior shooter to Rubio. But…he’s worse in nearly every other category. And, he’ll be paid in the neighborhood of $4 million more than Ricky will make each of the next two seasons.All that said, Teague is a better option than all of the other point guards out there, save for Kyle Lowry…"

As it turned out, Teague was, in fact, a better fit in Tom Thibodeau’s offensive system than Rubio. It’s also true that the Wolves’ defense would have been better off with Rubio in the lineup, and Rubio improved from an awful start in Utah to finish with a flourish, shooting a career-best percentage from the field and beyond the arc and averaging a career-high in points per game.

Teague was solid, although he had to adjust to play somewhat of a curious role alongside a pair of high-usage wings in Jimmy Butler and Andrew Wiggins, not to mention an All-Star big man in Towns who demanded the ball as well.

Teague’s game was broken down in the media and around the internet more than perhaps any other Wolves player, at times to unfair lengths. What was absolutely fair, however, was the questioning of his post entry passes. This elementary basketball skill still seems to confound Teague, for whatever reason, and it would be the legitimate cause of at least one or two failed attempts to get the ball to KAT each game.

It was a strange year for Teague, as his usage rate of 20.6 and assist rate of 30.6 were his lowest since the 2011-12 season, his third in the NBA. Simply put, this means that he had the ball in his hands less than usual, which is exactly what yours’ truly called for when asking for more Jimmy Butler-led possessions with Teague spotting up on the perimeter.

Indeed, Teague had the highest 3-point rate of his career (28.7 percent of his field goal attempts were threes), and his second-best 3-point shooting percentage ever, clocking in at 36.8 percent.

The biggest concerns with Teague’s season, however, was that he simply didn’t get to the rim or draw fouls, which has been a common theme among Wolves guards so far in this series. Teague’s free throw rate dipped to its lowest point in five years, and he attempted just 20.9 percent of his shots from within three feet of the rim — by far the lowest rate in Teague’s career.

The 84.4 percent career free throw shooter settled for more floaters in the 10 to 16 foot range than ever before, and while taking more threes was definitely a good thing, forfeiting shots at the rim for floaters is a problem, no matter how effective that floater can be.

At any rate, Teague is a solid fit for an offense led by Butler and Towns. He’s not quite a perfect fit (ironically, backup Tyus Jones seems to be just that), as he is a high-usage point guard miscast as a fourth option behind the aforementioned duo and Andrew Wiggins.

Next: Timberwolves Player Review: Jimmy Butler

However, he’s a good enough spot-up shooter and defender to still be a plus-player, although two more years at $38 million in his age-30 and age-31 seasons is a bit hard to stomach for a player that will surely begin showing some signs of decline.