Minnesota Timberwolves roster? Call ’em Fire and Ice

Can you have too much of a good thing? Yes, particularly in the NBA where all offensive and defensive stats are recorded based on the sole limiting factor: One basketball.  That not only limits the number of shots taken, but the number of rebounds, the number of shots blocked, the number of assists, scoring and steals.

So can you have too much of a good thing? But you can never have too many good players, so long as their skill sets do not overlap. The argument against the Minnesota Timberwolves exploring running a roster with two bigs is the belief that the team has doubled up on what Karl-Anthony Towns delivers by bringing in Rudy Gobert. They are different players.

Let’s examine how the Houston Rockets ran their team with both Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon? The marriage worked because Sampson opted to play at the four so that Olajuwon would be able to play in the NBA at his natural position. That selfless play cemented what became an NBA legendary frontcourt:

It’s simply a matter of adding complementary pieces. The Rockets were savvy enough to keep from clogging up the paint with both Sampson and Olajuwon simultaneously. And they had plenty of talent surrounding the pair as well.

So now, let’s flip the switch and visit what the Minnesota Timberwolves are constructing? For starters, he coached for the New Orleans Pelicans as the team tried to marry power forward Anthony Davis with an NBA center. The closest that the team came to that Twin Towers replication was the 2017-18 NBA season when they managed to match Davis with NBA center Demarcus “Boogie” Cousins. That team would go on to a 48-34 season and would finish as the sixth seed in the NBA Western Conference.

The Pelicans were solid offensively, ranking in the Top-3 NBA teams at putting points on the board. But the Pelicans had too much overlap, in that both Davis and Cousins were offensively-charged bigs. They did not have the perimeter shooting needed to space the floor. The team’s three-point shooting was 13th-ranked at just 36.2 percent, 10th ranked at rebounding with 44.3 RPG, and third-ranked with 26.8 assists per game.

No defending two offensive bigs

The Pelicans failed with two bigs because they supercharged the team’s offense while neglecting the defense. Let’s revisit the way that the Pelicans team with assistant coach Chris Finch performed:

The Pelicans were ranked as the 29th-ranked NBA team defensively. How could that be with two supersized players getting quality minutes? Well, bigs are great at blocking shots and grabbing rebounds. But they are not, particularly, the first choice on the roster for contesting shots, defending the perimeter, or even picking the pockets of the ball-handler.

So what is it that made the Pelicans’ defense so very bad? Well, the first clue is the fact that they allowed opponents to make 41.7 shots per game from the floor. The best mark at the time was the Memphis Grizzlies who held opponents to just 37.1 successful shots. So how were opponents making so many shots?

Despite having great scoring front-court folks, the Pelicans were quite bad at rebounding. They allowed opponents to put up 10.8 offensive rebounds (29th ranked) and 34.7 defensive rebounds (23rd ranked). The Pelicans were only getting 8.7 offensive rebounds (26th ranked) but were getting 35.7 defensive rebounds (3rd ranked).

The opponents were also better at ball movement. Against the Pelicans, other teams averaged 23.7 assists per game. That came in as the 20th-ranked APG in the NBA. In short, NBA teams learned to outflank the Pelicans. So what can the Timberwolves do differently?

More than you may realize, it turns out.

Timberwolves roster: Call ’em Fire and Ice

The Timberwolves roster is constructed a bit differently. For starters, the Timberwolves roster was the offensive-centric team that the Pelicans were in 2017-18. So with that in mind, the Minnesota Timberwolves front office, with the aid of some of the brightest NBA executives in the game today, set out to fix the defense.

The front office is not just tossing in a great NBA center, closing their eyes, and hoping it all works out. Rather, the personnel department has been pruning here, grafting there, all with a master plan in mind.

There is more at work in today’s NBA than just packing talented players onto the roster. It’s very much like a jigsaw puzzle. New players have to be more than stats. They need to be a true fit on the team to improve their performance.

Gobert is the ice on the Timberwolves roster. His ability to reject shots at the basket is well documented. He averages over 2.0 blocks per game. But he does more than deny opponent shots. He is a hoover vacuum at rebounding. He averages over 3.0 offensive rebounds and continues to get more and more rebounds at the defensive end of the basketball court.

KAT is now the fire on the Timberwolves roster. He is the guy who gets hot from anywhere on the basketball court. He has flirted with or exceeded 25.0 points per game in the past four seasons. He shoots a phenomenal 50.0+ percentage from the floor, and an even more electrifying 40.0+ percent shooting from three-point range.  He creates havoc for opponents because he is a big physical presence who also has long-range artillery.

Timberwolves roster: Other pieces to the puzzle

If it all ended there, that may not even be enough. The team needs perimeter defense, ball handlers, and players who can create ball movement. To that end, the team has added SF Kyle Anderson and SG Bryn Forbes while trading for C Rudy Gobert.

Anderson adds solid perimeter defense, Gobert adds solid rim protection, and Forbes is a backcourt roster backfill to help absorb minutes in the rotation.

The Timberwolves also re-signed forward Taurean Prince, did not move D’Angelo Russell and have Anthony Edwards coming back for another NBA season, with expectations that he will take the leap into superstardom this year.

But the real magic happens when you compare Gobert and Towns at the NBA.com player comparison chart.  If you click on the link and check it out, you can find how Gobert is ideally suited to work in the paint and hang around the rim. Karl-Anthony Towns is far more effective in space.

With that as the basic foundation, the Timberwolves have laid a foundation to shift the entire NBA paradigm going forward. If the Timberwolves can play strong at the boards, shoot effectively from the perimeter, and pass the ball, they can not only compete with some of the best teams in the NBA, they can beat them.