What we can learn from the Minnesota Timberwolves’ best five-man lineups

The Minnesota Timberwolves had a few five-man lineups that stood out clearly above the rest.

Let’s take a look at common themes in those lineups, including what qualities each grouping holds that might suggest future success.

The Minnesota Timberwolves best five-man lineups in 2020-21

In 2020-21, the Timberwolves had five five-man lineups that played together for more than 60 minutes total over the course of the season and also finished with a positive net rating.

Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards, and Ricky Rubio were each in four of the five lineups and D’Angelo Russell was in three. But there are other threads that run through the Wolves’ most successful units.

The lineup of Rubio, Russell, Edwards, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Towns was the best group, putting up a net rating of +29.3 in just 63 minutes together. The next-best unit clocked in at a +12.1 in 71 minutes and consisted of Russell, Edwards, Josh Okogie, Jaden McDaniels, and Towns.

The third-best group of five was Rubio, Malik Beasley, Edwards, Vanderbilt, and Towns. They put up a 10.5 but played significantly more than the top two units, logging 111 minutes together.

The next unit was the outlier (more on that in a moment). Russell, Jordan McLaughlin, Juancho Hernangomez, Vanderbilt, and Naz Reid put up a +9.5 in just 65 minutes.

Rounding out the group of five five-man units is Rubio, Edwards, Okogie, McDaniels, and Towns. They played the most of any of the groups by far, eking out a positive rating of 3.0 in 172 minutes.

Common themes among the Minnesota Timberwolves best lineups

Three out of the five of the above-mentioned five-man units look similar to one another while a fourth isn’t much different.

Put in simplest terms, the top three units in terms of net rating all have three offense-first players and two players whose greatest strengths are on the defensive end of the floor.

In the first and third-best units, Rubio and Vanderbilt are the defensive anchors. In the second, it’s Okogie and McDaniels.

The fifth-best and most commonly used group has Rubio, Okogie, and McDaniels while Towns and Edwards provide the offense. Unsurprisingly, this was the unit with the worst offensive rating of the five groups.

The true outlier, however, is No. 4: Russell, McLaughlin, Hernangomez, Vanderbilt, and Reid. This is a weird lineup, with two point guards, no Rubio, no Edwards, and no Towns. Somehow, it has the second-best defensive rating of these five units despite having both Russell and Hernangomez on the floor.

What does this five-man lineup data say about the Minnesota Timberwolves?

Moving forward, it’s fair to assume that Gersson Rosas and the front office are focused on finding defensive-minded players to shore up a unit that has been bottom-10 in each of the last seven seasons, including No. 28 in 2020-21.

Okogie and McDaniels are both solid individual and team defenders. Jarrett Culver is decent, too, and McLaughlin can be effective depending on matchups, although he’s a restricted free agent this offseason. Jarred Vanderbilt is a good team defender and rebounder, although he isn’t quite as switchable as McDaniels and Okogie.

The lineup data tells us that the Wolves’ best offensive players (Towns, Edwards, Russell, and Beasley) are all good enough to carry the team on that end of the floor. As long as they’re paired with the right type of defenders, the team can manage a positive net rating.

The other part of this, of course, is that the offense-first players all have to improve defensively. Remember, the jump from atrocious to mediocre could matter just as much as the jump from average to outstanding.

The Wolves really just need two of Russell, Beasley, and Edwards to avoid being actively awful on that end of the floor, and they should see plenty of improvement. Towns has already made strides, and even if he is simply average defensively, it will make a huge difference once the perimeter defense improves.

It’s up to Rosas to find another player or two that can contribute to the defensive efforts. But that’s not all that needs to happen.

Assistant coach Joseph Blair, the newly-appointed leader of the defense, said that jumping to No. 15 in defensive rating would make a huge difference (subscription required). Now it’s up to the coaching staff and the players themselves to commit to that improvement.