Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 reasons Patrick Beverley is a perfect fit
By Ben Beecken
No. 2: Patrick Beverley is an off-ball improvement for the Minnesota Timberwolves
Wait a minute. Beverley’s a point guard, right? Why would the off-ball improvement matter?
It’s simple. Head coach Chris Finch wants to run the majority of the offense through Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Beverley will come off the bench, but even with the second unit, Edwards and others (Jaden McDaniels?) will have ample opportunity to initiate the offense. Not only that, but you can bet that Russell will have the opportunity to get shots control tempo at times, even if he plays off the ball far more often than he did early last season.
Rubio’s fit with this version of the Wolves was always tenuous on offense. He was too good of a player to be relegated to a straight backup role behind Russell, but he wasn’t a strong enough shooter to play heavy minutes off the ball alongside Russell.
The best version of Rubio involves the Spaniard with the ball in his hands, orchestrating on the fast break and the pick-and-roll. But Finch’s offense will primarily run through Towns in the high/mid-post, including a healthy dose of horns sets, with a big at each elbow. Those actions curb Rubio’s impact.
While more dynamic scorers such as Edwards and Russell can thrive in such a situation, lower usage players with capable outside shooting ability can work, too.
Enter Patrick Beverley.
While Beverley was not all that effective in the pick-and-roll last year, accounting for just 0.90 points per possession (PPP), it was still much better than Rubio’s terrible 0.65 mark. Beverley’s 0.90 sat in the 61st percentile league-wide, but Rubio’s number was just in the 12th percentile.
It’s more important to note, however, that 64.1 percent of Beverley’s shot attempts came from outside the arc last year. It was the fourth consecutive season that his frequency of 3-point attempts increased. For his career, Beverley has attempted 56.1 percent of his shots from deep, and he has converted on 38.2 percent of them.
Frankly, it’s exactly what the doctor ordered for the Wolves backcourt: a low-usage guard who can knock down open jumpers and defend at a high level. Offensively, he’ll function as an undersized shooting guard, but he doesn’t need the ball in his hands much to be effective. Defensively, he’ll lock down opposing guards and provide toughness and energy.
Let’s take a look at the impact of this trade on roster construction and the rotation as a whole.