Minnesota Timberwolves: Could McLaughlin and Russell play together?

Could Jordan McLaughlin play alongside D’Angelo Russell for stretches in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ backcourt?

The Minnesota Timberwolves signed Jordan McLaughlin to a two-way contract last summer, but times have changed since then.

McLaughlin only appeared in five NBA games prior to Jan. 1. By the end of the season, he was the primary backup point guard and one of the most productive members of the regular rotation.

With the Wolves’ acquisition of star point guard D’Angelo Russell prior to the trade deadline, there would seem to be a limit to what McLaughlin is able to provide next season. But McLaughlin was good enough that Minnesota may be best served to find a way to include him in the rotation in 2020-21.

Minnesota Timberwolves: Could McLaughlin and Russell play together?

McLaughlin finished the season averaging 19.7 minutes per game. He spent the vast majority of his time running the second unit and did an impressive job.

Compared to expectations based on McLaughlin’s G League stats for Long Island in 2019-20 and what he was able to do at Las Vegas Summer League, his numbers with the Iowa Wolves and with the big club in Minneapolis were a revelation.

In 39 games with the Long Island Nets last season, McLaughlin averaged 15 points and 4.6 assists per game while shooting 42.5 percent from the field and 33.5 percent on 3-point attempts. This year in Des Moines, McLaughlin put up 16.7 points and 6.1 assists per contest while improving his shooting line to 50.2 percent on field goals and 35.2 percent from long range.

With the Timberwolves, McLaughlin shot it even better from deep, making 38.2 percent of his 3-point tries while still managing to make 48.9 percent from the field.

Perhaps most encouraging was McLaughlin’s ability to beat his defenders off the dribble and actually score at the rim with efficiency. More than 36 percent of McLaughlin’s shot attempts came at the rim, and he shot 64.6 percent within three feet of the basket. His free throw rate was just .219, but he was impressive in finishing around and through contact.

McLaughlin was solid defensively, too, which just might be his ticket to finding some minutes alongside the Wolves first unit and increasing his playing time.

The Wolves no doubt want to put the ball in Russell’s hands as much as possible, but there could be something to be said for allowing him to move off the ball. Both guards are solid 3-point shooters and strong pick-and-roll players.

Russell shot 39.1 percent on catch-and-shoot threes last season. McLaughlin shot 45.5 percent, albeit on a relatively small sample size.

Defensively, McLaughlin is better than Russell, but he’s just 5-foot-11 compared to Russell’s 6-foot-4. Part of Russell’s issue is his lack of quick-twitch athleticism and lateral quickness; it’s tough for him to stick with quicker point guards, much less if he gets switched onto athletic two-guards.

While McLaughlin is a solid defender, his diminutive size is the biggest inhibitor to him being able to guard multiple positions. But depending on the opponent, head coach Ryan Saunders has the option to experiment with the duo together.

Saunders did try to use Jeff Teague and Shabazz Napier together some last year. It was only a total of 96 minutes, but the results were disastrous. The net rating of that duo was a horrendous -17.3 during their time on the court, and their problems were on both ends of the court.

Of course, Russell is by far the most talented offensive player of the four point guards, but McLaughlin is likely the best defender. That suggests that a Russell-McLaughlin pairing could be, at the very least, somewhat more successful than their predecessors.

Now, if Malik Beasley is back and Jarrett Culver and Josh Okogie continue to improve on both ends of the floor, there won’t be a ton of minutes to be had. Then again, lineups with two point guards don’t usually work for long stretches at a time, so perhaps it’s something that is used a few minutes a game on top of the 14 to 18 minutes per game that McLaughlin should get at the backup point guard spot.

Regardless of how Saunders puts together his lineups, he should at least give McLaughlin and Russell some minutes together in the preseason to see how things play out. It’s something to keep an eye on, and it could be a creative way to get a pair of strong playmakers on the court together.