Straight Sets: Botched Sets Botch Games
Analyzing seven botched sets that broke Minnesota's late-game offense against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Minnesota’s late-game offense has become the world’s worst trope. Like star-crossed lovers finding their way back to each other at the end of a romantic comedy, it feels stupidly inevitable. No lead is ever safe when the Timberwolves hold it, and Monday’s 16-point fourth-quarter collapse against the Memphis Grizzlies was just the latest in a long line of calamitous failures.
Apart from a general feeling of apathy about another season that looks to be falling by the wayside, the sentiment echoing through the fan base surrounded the stagnant offense. Head coach Chris Finch, who arrived with his reputation as an offensive savant proceeding him, has stood on the sidelines and watched his team fall apart offensively over and over this season.
Instead of a free-flowing offense peppered with impactful set plays, Minnesota’s shot attempts seem to be coming off the back of rotten isolation plays. Finch is starting to feel some of the seat-warmth that accompanies such horrendous offensive displays and, while some of it is warranted, the blame lies mainly with a team of players who are continuously failing to execute the plays he is drawing up.
During the Grizzlies collapse, there were seven distinct sets that the Wolves completely bungled. Plays that should work and have worked in the past. Plays that had reads to be made that a team playing with confidence and conviction would make. When those actions weren’t executed the way they should be, the offense crumbled into the cold depths of isolation basketball.
The rot started around the 7-minute mark of the fourth quarter, when Minnesota’s ‘Horns Elbow Get DHO’, which might be their most frequented play, was dismantled by Anthony Edwards inexplicably diverging from the plan.
Usually, after one of the players on the elbow in the horns formation, the player on the other elbow will curl around and take a dribble handoff (DHO). Like the example above, it’s usually Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns — Minnesota’s greatest downhill threats — that fill those positions. By allowing the play to unfurl and using the DHO, the defense is shifting and the action forces on-the-move switches. From there, the player with the ball can make a jumper as the defense ducks under the screening action or put his foot to the floor and get to the rim if the defense tries to get skinny through the DHO.
As you can see, Edwards flares out and refuses to come around the DHO. He does get the switch with Jaren Jackson Jr. eventually, but all of the momentum is sucked out of the play and he ends up having to drag the ball 30 feet from the basket before making his move. This is what pressure seems to do to these offensive weapons. The Wolves know how to execute this play. They run it for both Towns and Edwards every game. Usually, it ends with a good look like this.
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