The Minnesota Timberwolves were correct to start Jarrett Culver

Even though Jarrett Culver hasn’t had the most impressive statistical start to his career, moving him into the starting point guard role for the Minnesota Timberwolves was the correct decision.

Jarrett Culver is the Minnesota Timberwolves‘ best option at starting point guard not because of his skill, but because of how he complements the already established pieces.

The Jeff Teague experience in Minnesota has had a similar arc as the Fantastic Four movie franchise: at first, it seemed like a great idea that had a lot of future potential backed by past success. However, due to sloppy writing, poor performances, and bad editing, each sequel became more painful to watch.

When looking at individual skill-sets, Teague is a more talented basketball player than Jarrett Culver. He’s a better shooter and ball-handler, but he is a worse defender and, more importantly, a bad complement for this team’s stars.

Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins are dynamic scorers who are at their best when they have the ball in their hands and dictating the offense. That just hasn’t been a consistent occurrence when Teague is playing point guard.

Due to injuries, the Timberwolves have had an assortment of five-man lineups, but the most common for the Timberwolves this season have comprised of Towns, Wiggins, Robert Covington, Treveon Graham, and Culver or Teague.

In 72 minutes, this lineup with Teague has recorded an offensive rating of 107.7, a defensive rating of 117.2, and (since I’m nice and not making you do the math) a net rating of -9.5, per NBA Stats. In layman’s terms, it has been bad.

Conversely, this lineup with Culver has produced an offensive rating of 113.4, a defensive rating of 100.6, and a net rating of 12.8.

This drastic difference isn’t because Culver is a more talented basketball player. The difference is because Culver is a better defender and can facilitate to Towns and Wiggins’s offensive dominance by essentially staying out of the way.

One of the biggest gripes with Teague’s game is that he just dribbles the air out of the ball instead of moving it quickly around the floor. It is evident that he has lost confidence in his shot, yet he continues to dominate the shot clock with dribble moves that don’t go anywhere.

This season, 36.7 percent of Teague’s shot attempts have come when he takes seven or more dribbles. For comparison, Luka Doncic is at 40.8 percent, Russell Westbrook is at 24.4 percent, and Trae Young is at 44.3 percent. All of those guys can be an offensive focal point when Teague should always be a complimentary piece.

Teague also leads the Timberwolves in touches per game with 69.9 where Culver is just at 43.3. Towns and Wiggins should be miles ahead in this number but Teague’s inability to effectively move the ball restricts the Timberwolves’s offensive ceiling. By moving Teague to a bench role, the Timberwolves have added offense to their second unit, a better defender to the starting unit, and a starting point guard that can facilitate for the established stars.

Even though Jarrett Culver has been dreadful on offense this season, there have been some flashes of what he was at Texas Tech and the type of player he can develop into.

Culver’s shooting numbers have struggled, but he has shown some proficiency when running the pick-and-roll and as a cutter.

When Culver is the pick-and-roll ball-handler, he is scoring .829 points per possession (51st percentile), per Synergy. Due to Culver’s shooting struggles this season, defenses are typically daring him to shoot by going under the screen (24 percent of the time). When they do this, Culver is scoring 1.167 points per possession (77th percentile).

The more important number, however, is Culver’s ability to cut, where he is scoring 1.333 points per possession. This allows the offense to run through Towns and Wiggins while Culver is still a threat to attack the rim against a smaller defender. The importance of this is that we’ve seen the improved passing ability of Towns out of the post in the last few seasons.

When Culver cuts during a post-up, he is scoring 1.6 points per possession. As we can see below, Culver times his cut right when the defender looks away and uses his length to finish at the rim.

Culver still has a long way to go to be a consistent offensive contributor, but the biggest impact of him in the starting lineup is on the defensive end. He allows the Timberwolves to switch easily with the smallest guy being 6-foot-5. As a team, they can cover every position without creating any glaring mismatches.

Below, we can see how easily the Timberwolves can switch. Culver starts the play by guarding the smaller Ben McLemore but doesn’t hesitate to switch onto James Harden. If Teague was in that spot, Covington likely fights to recover more, leaving McLemore open, but since Culver has the size and skill to guard multiple positions, Covington seamlessly switches onto McLemore. Culver is aided by the dwindling shot clock but uses his length and positioning to contest Harden’s shot and avoid fouling.

As an individual defender, Culver is already proving to be more than competent. According to Cleaning the Glass, Culver’s block percentage of 1.1 puts him in the 91st percentile of guards and his 1.4 steal percentage puts him in the 60th percentile proving the impact of his length.

Overall, Jarrett Culver is allowing just .824 points per possession (79th percentile), per Synergy. These numbers continue to impress as you break it down by play type: .706 points per possession in the pick-and-roll (84th percentile), .643 points per possession in isolation (86th percentile), and .538 points per possession when he’s run through screens (95th percentile).

As a team, the Timberwolves have struggled to defend the pick-and-roll this season (25th with .899 points per possession) mainly because they struggle to fight through screens and have sloppy coverages.

Below we see a great example of how Culver disrupts the Spurs’ pick-and-roll action. As the screen comes, Culver does a good job of not overcommitting to that side which would have created a wide-open driving lane. Instead, he waits for the ball handler to make a move and once he does, Culver slips through the screen.

Since Culver is unaffected by the screen, he can stay on his opponent’s hip, not let him turn the corner, and then use his length to take the ball once it’s exposed.

Culver also uses his length in isolation situations as we see below. Recovering on his man to block the shot is impressive. What stood out to me more, however, was Culver’s footwork. He goes from squared up to contesting the shot to cutting off the drive to blocking the shot. The speed and ease that Culver moves his hips and feet (without crossing his feet) are impressive and vital to defending on the perimeter.

Jarrett Culver is the right choice as the starting point guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves going forward. He complements the offense with his off-ball skill set, his ability to run the pick-and-roll, and his understanding that he needs to feed the stars.

More importantly, though, his defense is desperately needed on this team that is falling apart on the defensive end. He can guard multiple positions and is already one of their best defenders.

Moving Jarrett Culver into the starting rotation was the best decision for the Timberwolves, despite his relatively slow offensive start to the season.