The Timberwolves have re-found defensive intensity that made them last year’s top defense as they have held their last two opponents to just 80 points.
Last season, the Minnesota Timberwolves were not just a good defense, but a historically great defense that led them to the Western Conference Finals. The Wolves ended the season with a defensive rating six points better than the league average, something only the 2019-20 Milwaukee Bucks accomplished over the previous eight seasons.
This season Minnesota has struggled to find the same quality of defense. There have been countless defensive issues including poor point-of-attack containment, missing or slow rotations, Rudy Gobert not playing up to his high standards, lack of a true backup center, and an overall malaise that seemed to infect every aspect of the team.
The play below is a perfect encapsulation of everything that had been going wrong for the Wolves on the defensive side of the floor. Mike Conley, who is out of position to start the play, gets blown by, putting the Wolves defense into scramble mode before an Anthony Edwards missed rotation leads to a wide-open shot. Even if Edwards had rotated over, his assignment would have just been wide-open himself as neither Randle nor Gobert were in position to continue rotating.
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The Wolves hit rock bottom last Wednesday when they had a particularly dispiriting effort against the Sacramento Kings. They gave up 42 points in the paint in just the first half and, after taking a 12-point lead, gave up points on 11 straight possessions, leading to a 115-104 defeat.
The loss was the Wolves’ seventh loss in nine games including the last four, dropping their record to 8-10. Their defensive rating had fallen to 12th, a mark that would have seemed unthinkable for a team that brought back most of its defensive talent from a year ago.
After the loss, Edwards spoke candidly about why the team, specifically on the defensive end, was in his words “trash” and what they had to do to fix it.
“Doing what the fuck the coach tells us to do. The coach tells us one thing, and we go out there and do a whole other thing. That’s not our game plan. The shit that you see us all doing on defense, that’s not what the coach is telling us to do. We supposed to be doing a totally different thing.”
Since that game, the Timberwolves have won three games in a row with their defense suffocating the opponent in each game. It started with an ugly but needed 93-92 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. The next two games, the Wolves held the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers to just 80 points, the lowest any team has scored in a game this season.
These three dominant defensive performances have raised the Wolves defensive rating all the way up to sixth. While both teams were on the second night of a back-to-back, that does not fully explain how the Wolves were able to hold two different teams to the league-wide season-low offensive total.
The more likely explanation is that the Wolves have re-gained many of the defensive traits that made their team so dangerous last year. For as many aspects of the defense that were going wrong to start the season, they have showcased as many if not more reasons that their defensive resurgence is more than just a hot streak.
Rudy Gobert Back to DPOY Status
Last season, Gobert was named the 2023-24 Defensive Player of the Year, his fourth time winning the award and his seventh time being named to the All-Defense 1st Team.
To begin this season, Gobert was unable to find the same level of defensive consistency, partially due to the changing roster and the decreased size with Julius Randle now playing the power forward position.
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch after a mid-November game against the Phoenix Suns talked about trying to get Gobert, and the defense as a whole, back to playing the way they know he can play.
“We’ve got to also, I believe, free up Rudy to be more aggressive. There’s a little bit too much indecision there and inconsistency there about when he’s coming when he’s not and we need his presence every single time. That is somewhat scheme-related, and he’s got to make that adjustment right now.”
That adjustment didn’t come right away, but these last three games Gobert has been all of the defensive force he was last season, locking up the paint defensively, and not allowing a single easy basket while he was on the court.
There have been seemingly countless highlights just like the one below where an opposing ball-handler has a step on his defender and Gobert has to play perfect drop coverage, guarding both players involved in the screening to allow the point-of-attack defender to get back into the play.
In this case, Bones Hyland has a step on Nickeil Alexander-Walker, but Gobert perfectly keeps him from scoring at the rim while also taking away the rolling Ivica Zubac to force the turnover.
Many of these defensive highlights don’t show up on the stat sheet. While Gobert can certainly block his fair share of shots, many times, opposing players don’t even try to challenge him at the rim.
Here, D’Angelo Russell has an open lane to the rim with Jaden McDaniels screened out of the play, but thinks better of it when he sees Gobert, leading to a contested mid-range jump shot.
Later in the same game, an almost identical play happens, this time LeBron James is the one who sees Gobert lurking leading to the missed shot outside the paint.
Gobert has also been effective at playing aggressive defense to take away entry passes for points on the other end.
With Gobert playing like this as the stalwart of the defense, the floor for Minnesota’s defense is incredibly high and is likely to continue trending toward a top-five rank in defensive rating and possibly another All-Defense team for one of the greatest defensive players in the history of the NBA.
Julius Randle Limiting Mistakes and Finding His Role
Randle has drawn much consternation from Wolves fans who feel his addition to the Wolves roster is the reason for the Wolves drop-off defensively. While some of that frustration is overstated as he is far from the only reason for the Timberwolves less effective defense this season, he has not had the same fly-around mentality that made last year’s Wolves so special defensively.
Plays like the one below have become far too common as he loses track of his defensive matchup, Harrison Barnes, leading to an easy bucket in the paint.
These mistakes have been greatly reduced in the past few games as the plays where the opponent back cuts and Randle is looking around wondering whose man that was only to realize it was his has not been present.
In the win against the Clippers that snapped the four-game losing streak, Randle had multiple plays as the “low-man” where Gobert is guarding the action away from the paint and it is Randle’s responsibility to rotate over and provide rim protection.
Here, Amir Coffey gets behind McDaniels and Randle makes a fantastic play sliding over to take away the easy basket.
A similar play happened in the same game when Jordan Miller got around Edwards and Randle was the one to prevent the easy layup and force the missed shot.
Important to note also that despite Edwards gambling for the steal and getting beat, he hustled back into the play to take away the pass to Zubac under the rim.
Randle has also shown some ability to guard the pick-and-roll as the screen defender. Here he plays solid drop coverage, taking away the drive from James Harden without completely losing the rolling Zubac.
The up-and-down play defensively from Randle will likely continue the entire season as it has most of his career, but as he becomes more comfortable with Minnesota, this Wolves team, and his role on both ends of the court, he should be able to limit the defensive mistakes and increase his defensive intensity as the Wolves hope to start winning more games and building the good vibes.
Naz Reid’s Positional Versatility
One of the biggest red flags of the Wolves defense has been the minutes with Gobert on the bench as Naz Reid transitions back to playing minutes at center after doing so sparingly last season.
Similar to Randle, there has often been poor execution and confusion about who is supposed to be the one rotating under the rim defensively to protect the paint. In this play, Reid should be the one picking up the driving Ayo Dosunmu and Randle is late to rotate leading to the dunk.
Plays like that have been largely non-existent in recent games as Reid seems to be getting better acclimating to playing center more often. A good example of that is below where, as the “low-man,” Reid picks up the driving Harden and gets the block, leading to a Randle dunk in transition.
One strategy the Wolves could more often employ with Gobert off the court is switching one through five in pick-and-roll coverage as Reid has more often shown the ability to guard in space on the perimeter than he has as a true rim protector.
Here, Reid is able to take the step-back 3-pointer away from Harden, making him put the ball on the floor, and forcing him into a missed layup with the help of Donte DiVincenzo.
For as problematic as the Reid at center minutes have been early in the season, his minutes playing power forward next to Gobert have been an outstanding success as they were a year ago.
In this play, Reid again shows just how versatile he is as a player as he navigates around the screen on the perimeter and recovers to the driving James to get the block and rebound.
The minutes without Gobert on the floor will likely be a net-negative on the defensive end all season, but as Reid becomes more comfortable in his role as backup center, and if the Wolves are able to further lean into his versatility, they should be able to limit the damage on that end of the floor as the pairing with Randle has been solid offensively.
Perimeter Defense and Screen Navigation
Similar to Gobert, what was an unmitigated success last year, point-of-attack defense for Minnesota has not been quite as successful to start out this season. Edwards, McDaniels, Conley, Alexander-Walker, and DiVincenzo have all been up and down defensively with effort and focus often being an issue.
After an early-season game against the Chicago Bulls, Edwards spoke in the postgame locker room about some of the energy issues going on with himself and the game.
“I mean cuz y’all see it. We came out today like you shoot it, okay you shoot it. We come down, we score we good. Like we ain’t even taking no pride in stopping nobody right now early in the game so you know, I mean that’s troubling, that’s scary right now so we got to figure that part out.”
It took close to a month, but the Wolves have finally figured out playing with defensive intensity and focus throughout the entire game and much of that shift has to do with the Timberwolves’ perimeter defenders.
Here’s McDaniels recovering after a screen from Derrick Jones Jr. to get the block on Harden.
In a play somewhat reminiscent of the one that made Jamal Murray frustrated enough to later throw multiple objects onto the court during a playoff game, here Edwards and Alexander-Walker trap Russell in the corner to force the contested shot by Anthony Davis.
The other aspect of the Wolves perimeter defense that has seen a resurgence has been their ability to navigate around screens and recover back to their assignment.
Below, McDaniels navigates around screens from James and Davis to force Russell into a terrible turnover, leading to the Gobert dunk on the other end.
With the combination of Gobert regaining his DPOY-caliber defense and the Wolves perimeter defenders ready to put opposing guards in absolute hell, the Wolves defense is primed to dominate opposing offenses again.
While the struggles through much of this first quarter of the season should not be ignored or brushed off, there are many signs that these defenders are back and ready to carry the Timberwolves through the regular season and hopefully beyond.