The Minnesota Timberwolves knew they would have to shift their identity and experience growing pains when they acquired Rudy Gobert. Their ultimate goal was always to elevate the defense through Rudy, allowing Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns to focus on generating offense.
They had the blueprint in place, but there was still a lot of uncertainty about how they’d play last year despite Gobert’s price. Would Jaden McDaniels take the leap as the point-of-attack defender? Could KAT adapt to more of an off-ball defensive role? Those were the leading discussions heading into the season.
Ironically, the Wolves answered both of those questions in the messy first season with their new core. McDaniels, 22, has developed into one of the league’s best perimeter defenders while still having plenty of room to grow. KAT took time to adjust to his new role, had an injury-riddled season, and did not always look smooth in this new position. However, he retained an impressive defensive rating in a small sample size of minutes alongside Gobert.
Here are Minnesota’s top two lineups that featured Gobert and KAT: and how they fared in defensive rating:
These lineups only represent 697 total possessions and defensive rating isn’t the perfect indication of success. However, it shows that Minnesota’s front line is capable of holding things down defensively. Cumulatively all the lineups that featured KAT and Gobert over 1095 possessions generated a 106.6 defensive rating (DRTG).
While simplifying the stats to just the duo of KAT and Rudy and the 1095 possessions is not as insightful due to the sheer number of different lineups containing these two, it highlights that the most used lineups of the 697 possessions featuring KAT and Gobert are capable of high-quality defense. Overall, they ranked 10th in the NBA in DRTG with 113.1 points allowed per 100 possessions. That’s a pretty favorable DRTG, even with the tumultuous regular season.
However, the increased deployment of perimeter defenders will really shift the defensive loads this upcoming season. For most of last season, McDaniels was the lone perimeter defender they leaned on. Things could get messy fast if he got into foul trouble or had to face a quick, small guard. That put the Wolves in a difficult spot because they were heavily relying on him to take a third-year leap. While he delivered, McDaniels needed some reinforcements.
Minnesota got more perimeter defense when they acquired Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who initially looked like a throw-in in the D’Angelo Russell–Mike Conley deadline trade. The Conley trade changed the completion of the rotation and minutes distribution. It also created more flexibility for guard and wing matchups defensively.
Unfortunately, McDaniels and Alexander-Walker only played 18 games together in the rotation last year. Therefore, it’s hard to accurately project how they will play together this year. Still, the job that Nickeil did against Jamal Murray mitigated some of the sample size concerns.
NAW held Murray to 14 of 37 from the field and 4 of 12 from beyond the arc when he took over for Jaden after his self-inflicted hand injury. Taking on supremely talented scoring guards will only create more flexibility and creativity when they are in the rotation together. It will offer more optionality with the matchups from night to night, allowing McDaniels and Alexander-Walker to take the load off each other during the rigorous NBA regular season.
It doesn’t stop there. Even with Taurean Prince departing this off-season, other players should step into his shoes and take over his secondary perimeter defensive role. There are plenty of potential suitors, too. Edwards showed incredible flashes on the ball when he locks in. Troy Brown Jr. has optimal length and size. And Leonard Miller and Josh Minott are wild cards. They are still unproven on the NBA floor but have intriguing tools to potentially showcase.
Together, this creates a core that can lead to a pathway for success by allowing the Timberwolves to place their identity on the defensive side of the ball. Minnesota needs to work on their freelance offense and find a rhythm for KAT and Ant. But keeping the defense stable to free up more offensive effort is the easier route to take. That will simplify things substantially and create an easier way for them to slow down and control games. If the Wolves want to maximize their success this season, they should go all in on their defensive identity bringing them to regular-season success.
