The Minnesota Timberwolves’ starting lineup of the future
By Zach Lung
Minnesota Timberwolves’ starting lineup of the future: Guards
The backcourt starters are both set for the future and a significant question mark within the complete makeup of the team.
More likely than not, D’Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley will remain the starting backcourt by season’s end, although Russell’s most recent injury and subsequent knee surgery will once again delay the dream of Russell, Beasley, and Towns all sharing the court together.
The question moving forward for Rosas is whether or not this backcourt will ever be able to defend at a competent level.
Thus far this season, the two-man lineup of Russell and Beasley is Minnesota’s third-most commonly-used combination with a total of 440 minutes, per stats.NBA.com. This backcourt offers a legitimate scoring punch, proven by their team-best 1,006 points on over 45 percent shooting from the field and over 38 percent shooting from deep.
Unfortunately, this backcourt is a -98 during their minutes together due to their lack of defensive prowess and the team’s overall struggles this season minus Karl-Anthony Towns.
The backcourt struggles have come almost exclusively on the defensive end. Russell and Beasley have defensive ratings of 118.2 and 115.1 respectively, the two worst ratings on the team if not for Juancho Hernangomez. While these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt since the two most-played players for one of the worst teams in the league are obviously going to have poor defensive numbers, but they still serve as a clear identifier of where some of the team’s problems have occurred this year.
Both players, and especially Beasley, have flashed improved defensive potential at times but they each have a long way to go before offering NBA-level point of attack defense.
One thought for the front office before the trade deadline or during the offseason could be to package Beasley in a trade with the purpose of acquiring a two-way shooting guard who can better hide D’Angelo Russell on the defensive end. Beasley’s value is high at the moment thanks to his stellar play in 2020-21 and his contract is easier to move than Russell’s.
However, all indications point to the front office giving this backcourt every opportunity to succeed first before considering any major shakeups. The offensive potential of the Russell and Beasley backcourt is breathtaking and unlocking that potential could be the key to raising the team’s ceiling in the future.