Howls and Growls: Corner Skips, Heedless Drives And A Rekindled Partnership
Dissecting some interesting nuances since the All-Star break.
This edition of Howls and Growls revels in Minnesota’s perimeter defenders adding extra layers to their game, laments a long-standing problem, and celebrates an old relationship rekindling their once-dying flame.
Howl: Alexander-Walker’s Corner Delights
Somehow, the bedaubed mess that past versions of Nickeil Alexander-Walker had been has been morphed and distilled into this sharp-edged piece of reliable granite that smashes against the skull of opposition teams every night.
As the season has progressed, he’s found other ways aside from his locust-like defense to inject value into Minnesota’s game and, lately, he’s been generating offense consistently from the corners.
Of course, we’re getting a big fat helping of his own shooting. Alexander-Walker is up to 43.4 percent (49-of-113) from on corner guns and that’s up to 50 percent (7-of-14) since he arrived back from the All-Star break.
The Timberwolves as a whole have remained a resemblance of a tottering old lady trying feebly to reach the groceries on the top shelf when it comes to team offense, so having Alexander-Walker as nailing those looks with accuracy (and above-average volume) paints a heavenly hue over some of the more grotesque parts of their game.
What is really piquing the pants pickle, though, is his ability and willingness to set up those looks for his teammates. The 25-year-old has developed a wicked skip pass to the corner, and he’s been wielding it with more frequency the older the season grows.
That’s with his left hand, by the way. A fucking laser beam that almost requires an oven mitt to grasp. As he comes off the ball screen, he waits until the low-man defender has to commit to sliding over and tagging Rudy Gobert’s dangerous roll to the rim, and only then does Alexander-Walker light the wick on that pass.
Again, that’s off-handed brilliance. This time he’s coming off double ball screens and this time he’s got Daniel Theis right in his grill. He still times up Gobert’s roll expertly and then zips it into the Monte Morris’ breadbasket.
Interestingly, it was Morris on the end of both of those reads, too, because those skip passes are a key component of that two-man pairing and it is humming right now.
The duo have played 92 minutes together since Morris arrived in the Twin Cities, and in those minutes Minnesota is posting a 121.3 offensive rating while shooting 48.5 percent from deep. Their gnarly 103.7 defensive rating (+17.5 net rating) only adds to the intrigue of the partnership. Morris himself is knocking down 40 percent (4-of-10) of his shots from the corners and three of those makes have been assisted by Alexander-Walker.
This feels like something we’re going to notice, appreciate, and crave more often as we go headlong into this end-of-season run-in.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Howls and Growls to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.