The Wolves Must Unlearn What They’ve Learned About Isolation

In Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back, Yoda is perched leaning against his cane. “Hear you nothing that I say?” he says, looking up at a sweaty Luke Skywalker. “You must unlearn what you have learned.”

With a sigh and turning back to the swampy water that encapsulates his X-Wing, Luke responds, “All right, I’ll give it a try.” Almost immediately after finishing his sentence, Yoda says one of the most famous lines from the entire Star Wars series:

“No, try not.”

“Do or do not. There is no try.”

The Wolves are closing in on the midway point of the season. Their Yoda, albeit a much taller and less green version, has been echoing the same message to the Wolves. Chris Finch is telling the team they must unlearn certain aspects of their collective game and start playing to their strengths.

There is no more time for trying.

Finch laid that out in painful detail after Minnesota’s gut-wrenching 133-107 loss to the New York Knicks on Dec. 19.

“There were a lot of possessions [where there were] very few passes, none at all,” said Finch. “Then, when we got down, we try to go iso a lot, which has been a habit of ours.

“We did not stay in the flow.”

Finch added that he has been trying to create movement from the sidelines, specifically during the Knicks’ 26-2 second-quarter run, which essentially broke the game open for New York’s victory.

“Been trying to call a lot of sets, a lot of plays throughout that part of the game,” Finch added. “We know what works. When we move the ball early, get other guys involved, shots will open up.”

Fortunately, Finch doesn’t speak in nearly as many riddles as Yoda. Therefore, it’s fairly easy to deduce what he was saying. The Wolves must unlearn the brand of isolation offense that has often caused the team to lose the flow (the basketball version of the force). They must stop trying to move the ball and start doing it.

The Wolves run the sixth-most isolation plays in the NBA (8.9%), ranking between the Milwaukee Bucks (7th) and the Dallas Mavericks (5th).

That looks like good company. However, the Bucks run an offense centered around two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. Meanwhile, Dallas’ best players are Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving, two of the best ball handlers and decision-makers ever.

That’s where the comparison between the Wolves and those teams ends.

In their isolation plays, the Bucks average 0.95 points per play, good for 7th in the league. The Mavericks have a remarkable 1.02 points per isolation play, good for 2nd in the NBA. That arguably makes Dallas’ isolation one of the best shots in basketball. However, the Wolves rank 28th (0.76), immediately above the 7-24 Toronto Raptors and below the 5-23 Washington Wizards.

Unlearn the iso, the Wolves must.

Minnesota’s lousy isolation stats end there. 17.3% of Minnesota’s isolation plays result in a turnover, 29th in the league between the Raptors (28th) and the Wizards (30th). They have a 36.1% field goal percentage on isolations, which is slightly better, ranking 25th. Still, it’s 9.6% worse than their regular-season total percentage.

Even if we factor in fouls drawn, the Wolves rank 29th in scoring frequency. They only score on 35.6% of isolation plays in some way, which is only 0.2% better than the Raptors.

The main culprits of the isolation plays are probably obvious. 21.8% of Edwards’ plays are straight isolation, 7th-highest in the NBA. 55.1% of all of Minnesota’s isolation plays are specifically Edwards. He only scores 0.8 points per play, which ranks 94th in the NBA, tied with Jalen Williams, who runs isolation plays at 8.0%, Malaki Branham (7.4%), and Bradley Beal (5.9%).

Last year, Edwards ran isolation plays at 17.5% and was considerably more effective. He scored 0.93 points per play, identical to All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell. Given his success last season, it would make sense for Edwards to feel confident running isolation plays. However, due to his struggles, Edwards must unlearn some of what he learned last year and embrace more ball movement.

“Whether it’s Mike PnR [or] Ant PnR, those actions are very successful for us,” Rudy Gobert said after losing to the Knicks. “We have to do more of what we’re good at and do less of what we’re not good at.”

Just as Finch said, We know what we’re good at, and Minnesota’s Yarael Poof (apparently the tallest Jedi) is also right: do more good, do less not good. The pick-and-roll is a great place to start.

Edwards averages 0.18 points better per pick-and-roll play than isolation. If Edwards exclusively ran pick-and-roll plays, that would amount to just over 5 more points per game. While it’s unrealistic that Edwards would never run an isolation play, the balance and timing between the two plays is crucial. If only 20% of Edwards’ isolation plays became pick-and-rolls, Minnesota’s total points per game would increase a full point. That could make all the difference in a league where so many games come down to the wire.

Here’s where the last part of Yoda’s instructions come in: Do or do not. There is no try. The Wolves have consistently spoken about being more intentional with ball movement.

“It’s really the simple things we’re not doing,” said Mike Conley, Minnesota’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. “it’s finding open man, guys who are cutting to the basket we got to deliver the ball on time.”

The Wolves must put words into action and trust the ball movement. Evidence is starting to accumulate that the team performs much better when it moves the ball. This season, they average 4.4 assists in wins. Their percentage of total baskets assisted is 4.5% higher, and their offensive rating improves by 7.6 points.

Minnesota has played 29 games, or 35.4%, which means there is plenty of time to relearn tendencies and begin to turn into the contender many fans thought they would be before the season started.

There are 376 total minutes in the original Star Wars trilogy, and Luke didn’t visit Yoda on Dagobah until 33 minutes into the second movie, or 40.1%. The Wolves still have time to unlearn what they’ve learned and discover the flow.