Deep Dive: Minnesota's Pick-And-Roll Defense Is Forcing Turnovers and Missed 3-Pointers
The keys to Minnesota's surprising defense start with their adjusted scheme.
Nobody expected Minnesota’s defense to hold water this season and you can’t hold that against any of the doubters. The Wolves have been perennial cannon fodder on the side of the ball that demands structure, intensity, and purpose and there was no reason to think this season would be any different. Sure, they added a couple of defensively-sound pieces, but this was always supposed to be a team that made hay offensively and tried to endure opponent scoring onslaughts as best it could.
Now, at the 15-game marker, the Wolves have been the complete opposite of those predetermined notions. Their offense is an ever-confusing puzzle that never seems to have the fitting pieces, the ball-movement issues and shooting woes have been the chief reason that Minnesota currently holds a 6-9 win-loss record. That record, however, would be shredded even further if Minnesota didn’t have their defense to use as a life preserver. It’s a sentence that still feels weird to type, but Minnesota has been a truly solid defensive unit thus far. A team that seems connected and willing to grind games out even when their offense is missing in action.
According to Cleaning The Glass, Minnesota gives up 105.7 points per 100 possessions, the ninth-best mark in the league. The way they have been able to continue to hover around top-10 and, at times, top-five status is by forcing turnovers and driving down opponent 3-point percentage. Heading into the second month of the season, Minnesota is causing opponents to turn the ball over on 18 percent of their possessions and watching just 31.1 percent of long-range shots go in over their defense. Both of those numbers are the best in the association.
Whether Minnesota can find a vehicle to travel over hell’s frozen lakes and keep up this defensive improvement is yet to be seen, its always feels like a regression to the mean is creeping around the corner. Right now, though, they have a plan and it’s working. Their new and more aggressive pick-and-roll defense involves getting the big defender — usually Karl-Anthony Towns or Naz Reid — to the level of the screen either hedging or trapping the ball-handler. Even in the less-frequent occasions where the Wolves employ drop coverage, they push the big up a few feet and maintain a hassling, hounding, aggressive defense that focuses on pestering the ball-handler and blocking off shots at the rim.
There is more risk, the Wolves can get split open like a katana through a watermelon when opposing offenses play their cards right. However, as we’ve seen on too many occasions to be a complete false dawn, the smash-mouth Wolves can do some splitting of their own. And it all starts with the pick-and-roll defense.
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