Without many of their veteran players, the Timberwolves took down the league-leading Thunder in a game that could represent what the future may hold.
In the last game before the start of their week-long All-Star break, the Minnesota Timberwolves had one of their best wins of the season against the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder,
The most notable aspect of the game was that the Wolves were missing their four most veteran players, Mike Conley, Rudy Gobert, Donte DiVincenzo, and Julius Randle. The Wolves needed high-quality showings from their young players, and they got exactly that, with Jaylen Clark, Rob Dillingham, and Terrence Shannon Jr., among others, playing key roles in the game.
The youth-led win begs the question, “Is this what a future Timberwolves team could look like?” Let’s take a deep dive into the game to see what aspects can carry over to future Wolves teams.
Young Guards Setting up the Offense
With Conley and DiVincenzo out of the lineup, the Timberwolves were at the two players who have played almost every point guard minute available this season. Without them, the Wolves’ two rookie point guards, Shannon and Dillingham, were needed to fill the void left by the two veteran absences.
Both players stepped into their increased role perfectly, with Shannon leading all bench scorers with 13 points and Dillingham leading all bench players in assists with five. Both were an integral part of an offense that was moving the ball quickly and finding the open man for easy shots.
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Using the screen from Reid, Shannon attacked the rim hard and found McDaniels wide open in the corner. From there, it was passes around the perimeter to Dillingham, Naz Reid, and then finally to Anthony Edwards, who, despite some spacing issues, drove to the basket for an easy layup.
Shannon was also a force going to the rim on transition opportunities and finishing around great defensive players like Chet Holmgren.
TSJ wasn’t the only Minnesota point guard who was able to get out in transition, as Dillingham also showed the ability to push the ball and attack before the opposing defense could get set up.
Picking up the pace offensively is often something the coaching staff points to as an area of improvement as the Timberwolves play at the sixth-slowest pace in the NBA. With the offense as a whole currently ranked 14th in terms of efficiency, pushing the ball in transition like Dillingham and Shannon do might be the way to pull the offense out of mediocrity.
Jaden McDaiels and Naz Reid
The guard position wasn’t the only place where the Wolves were shorthanded, as both Randle, the starting power forward, and Gobert, the starting center, did not play in the game. This necessitated Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid to start the game in positions away from their usual spot.
Reid, who has played most of his minutes at power forward since the addition of Gobert a few years ago, was Minnesota’s starting center for the game. Without either Randle or Gobert on the court, Reid became the focal point of the Wolves frontcourt. Naz took advantage of the added responsibility, leading all scorers with 27 points on 11-18 shooting.
In the play above, Reid is being guarded by a small forward, Jalen Williams, and is running off a pin-down screen to get him an open 3-point look. There aren’t many centers in the NBA who get a play like that ran for them. Reid even seems to have a quicker trigger from long range than Karl-Anthony Towns, who Wolves fans often wanted to see shoot more from beyond the arc.
It wasn’t just his shooting touch Reid was able to showcase in the game, as when the Thunder went zone trying to disrupt Minnesota’s offense, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year posted up right in the middle of the zone and scored with a beautiful move in the paint using outstanding footwork.
There are very few players in the NBA that can both be a lethal threat from 3-point range while also taking their man into the post and scoring without the size advantage. Reid has shown the ability to do both the entire season, which should make him the Wolves’ top priority when he likely hits free agency this summer.
McDaniels meanwhile finished the game with 21 points on 9-18 shooting, adding in six rebounds and five assists. During this stretch, where the Wolves have sustained some injuries for the first time all season, McDaniels has flourished in his increased offensive role.
While the 3-point shot has remained inconsistent (he was 1-6 in this game), McDaniels has used his size and length to get into the short-midrange area and hit shots like the one above over shorter defenders.
Playing Defense without Rudy Gobert
While Gobert’s value is undeniable in the short term as the Wolves have been a top-ten offense each season, the four-time Defensive Player of the Year has been with the Timberwolves, including the league’s top defense a season ago.
As Gobert ages, though, and as his offensive warts inch closer to outweighing the defensive genius, it seems likely that the next version of the Edwards-led Timberwolves will be with a center that can space the floor. That idea is a double-edged sword, as finding enough defense without Gobert will not be as easy as it may seem.
During the 2021-22 season, the last season before the Wolves acquired Gobert, Minnesota played an aggressive “high wall” pick-and-roll coverage that saw the Wolves’ center, at that time Karl-Anthony Towns, play up at the level of the screen, forcing the ball handler to get rid of the ball.
On Friday night against the Thunder, from the first possession of the game, the Wolves played that same defensive coverage to great success.
Above, Clark and Reid were able to get the ball out of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s hands while also rotating perfectly on the backend of the play to force the contested 3-pointer from Lu Dort.
This type of defensive coverage requires a big man who is willing to play defense 25 or more feet away from the basket, as well as wing defenders who can make the proper defensive rotation.
One of those wing defenders was Jaylen Clark, who guarded SGA much of the game and did a fantastic job matching up against the league’s leading scorer, shutting off his watch most of the night and often forcing him to take tough shots.
The aggressive defense also takes buy-in from young players who may not be used to playing that type of defensive style. In the play below, Dillingham and Shannon do a fantastic job shutting down OKC’s offense, showing great communication while switching who is guarding the ball handler.
The most obvious piece missing with the Wolves’ defense any time Gobert is not on the floor is rim protection. Even with a fly-around defensive style, there is still a need for a player who can guard the rim when opposing players inevitably get into the paint.
In this game, it was Reid who stepped up into the role, shutting down Williams’ drive and finishing the possession with a defensive rebound.
While there are still many questions about what a Timberwolves defense not led by Gobert would look like, at least for one night, the Wolves showed that they have options to use without their star defender.
The Importance of Continuity
Before the game, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch was asked about the importance of continuity, specifically how important it’s been for Edwards, McDaniels, and Reid to all be ascending into their prime at the same time.
“Well, I think it’s vital. It’s tough to have a significantly different roster every season. If you look at what they’ve done, Oklahoma City, a lot of smart people over there, they’ve step-by-stepped it. Where they are now is a part of where they were several years ago. It’s the product of it.”
Finch continued talking about how the Wolves have built their team a little bit differently while still valuing keeping the same group of guys together.
“Every team is built a little bit differently. We have a young core and we’ve augmented them with different vets for different reasons. We want to bring proven winners in here around our young court to show them what that looks like. To make sure Anthony’s playing as many meaningful games as he possibly can.”
Comparing the Wolves and the Thunder is interesting in this area because while the Wolves have been adding players like Conley and Gobert, who have brought the Wolves, along with Edwards, to the playoffs the past three seasons, the Thunder have decided to build their team slowly, having yet to make a big move with their bounty of draft assets.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault was asked a similar question about the player growth that can be gained by keeping the core of a roster together.
“I think continuity helps. In a team sport, you know, it’s an interconnected game. And so you have to be able to play together. There’s chemistry. There’s not only chemistry on the court with your style of play, but also just understanding the rhythms and the season and how people react.”
Daigneault continued to speak about what is gained from having multiple players around the same age together on one team as they come up in the NBA.
“I think having guys that are in similar seasons of their career and life also helps. They’re having shared experiences that you don’t quite have when you’re in different [stages]. You know, some guys are 19 and then the other guys have like four kids. I don’t know what they talk about on the plane. And it’s good to have veteran guys. We have veteran guys. We have guys with kids. But when you’ve got kind of core of guys that are together that are in the same, like I said, season of their career, I think there’s benefits to that.”
Similar to the Thunder with their trip of SGA, Williams, and Holmgren, the Wolves have a contingent of young players, including Edwards, McDaniels, and Reid, who have been playing together in the NBA for multiple seasons, all in similar points of their career.
While the Wolves have done well pairing that trio with vets like Ricky Rubio and Patrick Beverley in the past and Conley and Gobert in the present, the future of the Timberwolves will likely be far more focused on the players that took down the best team in the NBA on a frigid February night at Target Center.