Malik Beasley was one of the highest-volume 3-point shooters last season, and he was fairly efficient despite a rocky start. He shot just 34.5% from three in 2021. But Beasley shot 40% in the new year and finished fourth in the league with 240 successful 3-pointers. He ultimately took eight 3-point shots per game and was an important, though streaky, facet of the Minnesota Timberwolves offense.
The Timberwolves offense hummed when Beasley was hitting. Per CleaningTheGlass.com, last year, they jumped from 19th-most efficient in the NBA to the most efficient for the final 47 games. Beasley’s shooting was not the sole cause, but there was certainly some correlation. Beasley was a part of three of Minnesota’s five most offensively efficient lineups. The Wolves’ best offensive lineup featured Beasley, D’Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Karl-Anthony Towns. That group played 216 possessions together and put up a mind-blowing offensive rating of 135.2. No other five-man lineup in the league that played at least 200 possessions was better on offense.
So, Beasley was critical, but was he that important? While he was a part of many of the Wolves’ best lineups, the two players in every one of Minnesota’s best are still on the team. I’m referring to Towns and Edwards, of course. Now that Beasley and his eight 3-point attempts per game are gone, there is room for those two to take — and hopefully make — more shots from beyond the arc.
Though Karl-Anthony Towns is a brilliant shooter, rarely have we seen him push the limits of his efficiency by increasing the volume. He is a career 39.7% 3-point shooter, but he has averaged only four attempts per game over his seven-year career.
In 2019-20, we got a glimpse into how good Towns could be if he took more of his shots from deep. He only played 35 games due to a wrist injury, but those 35 represented one of the best stretches of his career. Before his season ended, he averaged 26.5 points, shooting just under eight threes a game at a hyper-efficient 41.2%.
The geometry of the court has also tilted for the Wolves in such a way that it might favor Towns spending more time beyond the arc. Rudy Gobert can be a legitimate offensive force on the low block, and Towns has never quite been paired with a player of this caliber. With Rudy taking up more space down low than Jarred Vanderbilt did, we should see Towns operate from the elbow and behind the arc more often.
Edwards’ 3-point shooting is incredibly promising. It’s crazy to think that his suspect shooting efficiency coming out of college has become one of his greatest strengths in two short seasons. The first signs of a potentially elite shooting stroke showed up in Ant’s catch-and-shoot numbers.
He took a huge leap in efficiency from his rookie to sophomore seasons. His overall improvement from the 3-point line is even more encouraging. Less than half of his attempts are catch-and-shoot threes, so the general improvement in his percentages is a good sign.
I did a deep dive on Edwards’ game logs to see how he’s fared while shooting his highest volume from 3-point range. Last season Edwards took 10 or more 3-point attempts in 24 games. In those games, Ant converted 116/276 attempts. It’s a small sample, but that’s 42% in games where Ant took a high volume of threes. Pair that with his increase in efficiency from his rookie year to his inspiring playoff performance against the Memphis Grizzlies, and we’ve got an evidence base that Edwards should continue to increase his attempts per game. He’s certainly got it in him to be an absolute killer from range. The more he can craft himself into a legitimate threat from deep, the more wide open the rest of his game will become.
There is room for both Towns and Edwards to grow their games from beyond the arc. In fact, I think that they need to if the Wolves hope to reach their ultimate upside. Both are gifted shooters from beyond the arc and have shown the ability to create their own high-quality looks. The Wolves have a chance to be an elite offense this year, but they’ve got to find a way to recreate some of Malik Beasley’s production.
