The All-Star break provides a great opportunity for teams to recharge and refocus. Of course, the Minnesota Timberwolves are one of the many teams that will benefit from this weeklong break. Inconsistent play, especially defensively, has hurt the Wolves all season.
Recent back-to-back losses to the New Orleans Pelicans and the Los Angeles Clippers have highlighted this problem. As the Wolves ride a two-game win streak heading into the All-Star break, it’s clear changes need to be made during this time off.
The biggest change that is relatively easy to fix is the defensive intensity and commitment, especially from Wolves’ two best players. Throughout parts of the season, we have seen impressive defense from both Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle. More often than not, however, they have not committed to good defense.
No doubt, the All-Star break gives these two stars (and the rest of the team) a perfect opportunity to refocus and commit to playing high-level defense to close out the season.
Defensive consistency will define the rest of the Wolves season
According to Cleaning the Glass, the Timberwolves are 11 points per 100 possessions worse with Randle on the floor and 7.7 points per 100 possessions worse with Ant on the floor. For both Randle and Edwards, these issues are mostly off-ball rather than on-ball.
Edwards and Randle have poor off-ball defensive habits, including ball-watching, slow rotations, poor screen navigation and lackluster closeouts. According to the Basketball Index, Edwards ranks in the 33rd percentile in help-defensive talent and in the 16th percentile in ball-screen navigation. Likewise, Randle ranks in the 30th percentile in help-defensive talent and in the 4th percentile in ball-screen navigation.
While these issues are concerning, they are also highly solvable. Hopefully the breakup can help these two stars flip a switch.
Despite the lackluster involvement of the Wolves’ top two players, they rank seventh in the defensive rankings according to Cleaning the Glass. At their core, the Timberwolves are a defensive-minded team; they have been in the DRTG top 10 for the past four seasons. Nevertheless, when losing, the Wolves have a DRTG of 122.5, a number that ranks 17th in the league.
It’s clear that the 34-22 Wolves need more defense from their stars to reach their full potential. If these issues continue for the remainder of the regular season, the Wolves could fall into the Play-In Tournament. And of course, if these issues continue in the playoffs, Minnesota will be guaranteed an early exit.
Conversely, if Edwards and Randle come back from the All-Star break locked down defensively, a top-three finish isn’t out of reach. When Edwards and Randle are deployed without the ball, the Wolves defense is a force to be reckoned with.
The defensive effort from Edwards, Randle and the rest of the team is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of the latter part of the Timberwolves’ season.
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