Minnesota Timberwolves: Hollinger ranks Towns as best pick-and-pop man

This week, the Minnesota Timberwolves had several current and former players discussed in a national podcast.

The Minnesota Timberwolves may not have many recent playoff appearances under their belt — one in the last 16 years, to be exact — but they have employed plenty of players who fit nicely into a variety of “superlative” categories.

Not all of those categories are flattering, necessarily, but hey, at least they’re in the conversation. Right?

Recently, a prominent former Timberwolf and a pair of current Wolves were mentioned on the Hollinger & Duncan podcast.

Minnesota Timberwolves: Wolves featured in Hollinger and Duncan superlatives

The podcast features a variety of categories, ranging from the off-the-wall (what current NBA player would make the best NFL player?) to extremely specific skills, such as the best roll-man and pop-man in the pick-and-roll in today’s game.

The former Timberwolf mention came during a conversation about the players who are most and least-fairly considered “good stats, bad team” guys. Or, to say it another way, the guys who put up the dreaded “empty stats”.

Good Stats, Bad Team

Plenty of Wolves have been accused of this in recent years, but perhaps none as unfairly as Kevin Love, who both Hollinger and Duncan agree as being “unfairly maligned”.

Love put up 23.5 points and 13.7 rebounds per game while shooting 37 percent on nearly five 3-point attempts per contest for a four-year stretch in a Timberwolves uniform. The problem, of course, is that those four teams went a combined 114-198 (.365 winning percentage) and never played .500 ball over the course of a season.

But as Duncan points out on the podcast, Love’s on-off numbers were fantastic, not to mention how much better the Wolves’ point differentials were compared to the actual win-loss record and final results. There are plenty of factors that played into that, but it’s worth noting.

In terms of current Timberwolves, D’Angelo Russell is named as a candidate for “good stats, bad team” guy, which is really only fair for the 2019-20 campaign. Remember, the 2018-19 Nets surprised everyone by making the playoffs, and Russell was the lone All-Star from that team. Prior to that, you’d be hard-pressed to even call Russell a “good stats” guy.

The Most Average Player

The biggest surprise was Russell being named as one of the most “average” players in the league by Hollinger. In fact, John said that Russell would qualify as average if he tried harder on defense.

Russell is a lot of things, but I’m not sure “average” does the best job of summing him up. He’s dynamic with the ball in his hand, occasionally lackadaisical without, and often a poor defender. Sure, the sum of those parts may ultimately be something like league-average, but it’s hard to come away from watching him play thinking that you just watched a decidedly average player.

For the record, other players named as the most average: Former Russell teammate Spencer Dinwiddie and former Timberwolf Ricky Rubio, among others.

The Best Roll-Man and Best Pop-Man

These were technically two different categories, but Karl-Anthony Towns made it into both.

The “best roll man” conversation only included a cursory mention of KAT from Nate Duncan, but there was a much longer discussion detailing Towns’ prowess in the pick-and-pop game.

Clearly, both Hollinger and Duncan feel as though Towns is the class of the league in this category, with his ability to pop swiftly out beyond the arc with his massive strides and release a deadly-accurate 3-point attempt with a quick, high release. His ability to be dangerous as a roller only makes the shooting threat that much more real.

Towns’ ability as the pop-man in the pick-and-roll game is just one of the reasons he was recently named the fourth-best shooting big man of all-time, according to Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report.

Be sure to give the podcast a listen, it’s a fun conversation and there are plenty of Minnesota Timberwolves mentions.