Exploring the Minnesota Timberwolves’ defensive rebounding problem
By Ben Beecken
The Minnesota Timberwolves have had a rough start to the season, and many of their broader issues can be tied back to a specific area of shortcoming: rebounding.
The 2020-21 version of the Minnesota Timberwolves looks a lot different than the roster that began the 2019-20 campaign.
Alas, even while plenty of things have changed, many others have stayed the exact same.
One of the major issues with the early-season edition of last year’s Wolves was the lack of consistent rebounding, and especially on the defensive glass. Playing Robert Covington at the 4 helped Minnesota to a 10-8 start, but there were red flags that the Wolves’ overarching struggles on the glass could be a longer-term problem.
Indeed, here we sit, 13 months after the Wolves’ 10-8 start, and rebounding is still a significant issue for Gersson Rosas and Ryan Saunders’ squad.
The Minnesota Timberwolves’ lack of production at power forward
Through 12 games in the 2020-21 season, the Wolves rank No. 21 in the NBA in defensive rebound rate and No. 25 in defensive rebounds per contest.
Since taking over the Wolves in May of 2019, Rosas has leaned heavily into the idea of playing smaller, more switchable players at the 4. It would be misrepresenting the intention to call it playing true “small ball”, say, in the same way as the 2019-20 Houston Rockets. But the Wolves have certainly not played many traditional 4s at power forward over the past season-plus.
Instead, the Wolves have largely been playing switchable wings at the 4. This goes back to Covington and Jake Layman at the start of last season until Layman was injured and Covington was eventually traded.
Juancho Hernangomez was acquired as part of the same trade that sent Covington to Houston and saw the majority of playing time at the 4 upon arriving in Minnesota.
Hernangomez is the closest thing to a modern-day power forward that Rosas has employed, and with a career rebounding rate of 11.6 percent coming into this season, he isn’t exactly Dennis Rodman on the glass. For context, Covington’s rebound rate last season was 11.4 percent.
In the below play from Wolves-Grizzlies, Hernangomez loses sight of his man in the corner, who waltzes down the baseline and gets not one, but two offensive rebounds with nary a boxout from Hernangomez.
Hernangomez isn’t big enough or athletic enough to grab a board if he isn’t going to bother to be physical and box out — especially not against an athletic big like Brandon Clarke.
This offseason, the Wolves signed Hernangomez to a two-year deal with a club option for a third year at an average annual value of $7 million. After a rough training camp and preseason from Hernangomez, the Wolves inserted Jake Layman at the 4.
Layman’s career rebound rate is just 7.2 percent. In related news, that number has been a horrific 2.9 percent (!!!) in nine games this season. That’s right; he has zero offensive rebounds and seven defensive boards in 127 minutes played. According to Basketball-Reference, 90 percent of Layman’s minutes this year have come at the power forward position.
No, in the Year Of Our Lord 2021, it isn’t necessary to have a 6-foot-10 power forward to guard the opposing team’s bigs in the post. It is, however, necessary that your power forward pulls down more than seven rebounds in nine games.