No amount of speculation or discussion can take away what the Minnesota Timberwolves have accomplished this season. The Wolves are still atop the Western Conference and experienced their first losing streak on Jan. 3.
Every team experiences lulls. The Wolves have found themselves stuck in an offensive rut.
We’ve explored the impact turnovers have had on the Wolves. Correcting simple mistakes and poor decisions would go a long way. But there may be even more room for improvement beyond turnovers.
The best basketball players in the world almost demand isolation plays through their stellar play. Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns are two such players. They’ve received All-Star recognition thanks in part to their scoring ability. Players like Edwards and Towns can excel in a free-flowing offense like Minnesota’s. But opponents frequently double-team them, they can develop tunnel vision, and they often force difficult passes.
Edwards is Minnesota’s leading scorer, but he continues to turn the ball over at a relatively high rate. His usage rate has increased every season, and he’s improved his assist numbers, yet his assist-to-usage ratio remains low for a combo guard (18th percentile per Cleaning the Glass).
After Minnesota’s 117-106 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans last week, Edwards said he would let Mike Conley initiate the Wolves offense more. Rather than coming back to the ball and playing into the defense’s hands, he wants to let Conley steady the ship.
“[The team] needs to let Mike initiate everything,” he said, “including myself.”
Chris Finch stated something similar after their hard-fought 108-106 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 30. “Get the ball in Mike’s hands, get Ant moving around,” he said after the game. “That’s probably the best formula for us.”
Conley is a 17-year veteran who has been a part of several successful grit n’ grind Memphis Grizzlies teams. He anchored dangerous Utah Jazz teams that featured Rudy Gobert, slick-shooting guard Donovan Mitchell, and 3-and-D wings Joe Ingles and Royce O’Neale.
The Wolves have benefitted from Conley’s experience since trading for him at the deadline last year. He knows what it takes to win in the first place and how to continue to win instead of getting complacent.
“When you win, you lose sight of the things that got you there, the easy things,” he told KFAN’s Dan Barreiro last week. “Like the one-two swings to the corner, the passing, the movement, the sense of nature that we play with.”
Minnesota’s offensive flow isn’t quite there yet. Players stand around; they don’t always throw accurate passes or anticipate cuts. The average speed of a Wolves player on offense is only 4.47 miles per hour, the eighth-slowest mark in the league.
The Wolves shouldn’t set screens just to set screens, but they should inject movement into their offense. Their roster is chock full of shooting talent and players who can attack closeouts.
Minnesota has converted catch-and-shoot opportunities at the second-best rate in the league, with a 59.4% effective FG%. Towns, Naz Reid, Jaden McDaniels, Troy Brown Jr., Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Conley, and Edwards can knock down outside shots off kickouts. There’s plenty of scoring ability on the floor, especially in the form of catch-and-shoot. And a decision maker like Conley can ensure that scoring potential doesn’t go unrealized.
Conley’s experience doesn’t just help him be a steadying psychological force. It also allows him to use his play style to create calm.
