When looking at the Minnesota Timberwolves, it is easy to see they have talent. The complete roster reconstruction put together by Gersson Rosas in the last year has been transcendent. The team runs through Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell. Both are extremely talented shot makers, but many have been able to expose their glaring weakness: defense.
Defensive Woes
Minnesota is a team who struggles defensively, and having someone who could anchor the paint would be a tremendous step in the right direction. Towns, who despite being a good athlete, often finds himself out of position and surrenders easy buckets. He has not shown to be a consistent disruption on this end and has offered little resistance down low for the majority of his career.
He has shown improvements this year, but a wrist injury has sidelined the big man. This is the same wrist in which he hurt last year and cost him the rest of the season. The last thing this young Wolves team needed was a setback, and it has been abundantly clear in his absence how desperate they are to get him back.
What’s the plan?
This leads to fascinating roster reconstruction put together by Rosas. When looking at the starting five, you have all but one player who is not a defensive liability. Ideally, you would think that since they have two offensive superstars, they would make up for this by surrounding them with defensive studs who can help hide their deficiencies.
Josh Okogie and Jarrett Culver are the only two players on the roster who consistently defend at a high level. The problem with both of them is that they have proven to be poor shooters and cannot play together because of it. Spacing is a critical factor with this staff and it’s killed when they share the floor.
It appears Rosas has instead opted to go all in offensively. When you pair Russell with Malik Beasley and Towns with Juancho Hernangomez in the front court, you are simply asking to be humiliated on the defensive end. Unless the Timberwolves’ long-term goal is to win shootouts every single night, this current roster won’t be able to consistently compete against the balanced Western Conference.
Even looking at the bench, there isn’t a mix of players who mesh well together. It seems every time Saunders makes a substitution, there isn’t a balance of players who mix well together. The lineup combinations remain a work in progress.
We know Rosas wants to build a run-and-gun, offensive-reliant roster, but at what cost? According to several reports, Minnesota attempted to sign the versatile Derrick Jones Jr. in free agency.
He would have certainly helped next to KAT on defense. Jones Jr. chose Portland because he wanted a bigger offensive role than what Minnesota was able to offer. Understandably, Minnesota isn’t the easiest place to recruit free agents. It still shouldn’t be an excuse to perform as poorly as this franchise has historically. If there is anything we know about Rosas, he is not shy about upgrading the roster. Will he continue to search for offensive weapons, or will he eye defensive standouts to provide stability?
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