Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 improvements young Wolves must make

Timberwolves Improvement No. 2: Jaylen Nowell’s playmaking and defense

Unlike Culver, Jaylen Nowell has proved to be something of a reliable shooter off the bench. But the Wolves need the third-year guard to continue to grow his game.

While Nowell’s career 3-point shooting percentage still sits at just 30.1 percent, he’s shot it much better from deep both in college and in the G League.

Nowell has taken strides for the Wolves each season since he joined them as a rookie in 2019, but what can he improve to help this Wolves bench unit flow better?

For one, if Nowell could get legitimate opportunities to run the Wolves offense off the bench. Nowell has shown that he can be a solid playmaker while keeping the turnovers to a minimum, so if he can continue to do so with an increased role, this will help the Wolves team have an efficient bench unit on both sides of the ball.

Additionally, the Wolves bench unit is young and is not exactly full of strong defenders. To take the next step as an NBA talent, Nowell will need to step up and provide improved perimeter defense.

Nowell is 6-foot-4 with a 6-foot-8 wingspan, which means that he is more than capable of developing the skills needed to match up against top-tier talent at the guard position, let alone guards coming off the bench.

It was clear that the Wolves lacked defense the most out of everything last year, so if young players like Nowell are able to step up and become efficient two-way players the Wolves will be in a good position for next year.