World Cup Wonderings: Game One

Taking down some notes on each Wolf in their World Cup opener.

FIBA

Basketball is back. The Wolves are back.

Sure, they’re scattered around Asia and they’re playing on different teams and the actual NBA season is but a distant glint in their eye, but they’re back all the same.

There are five Wolves representing their countries in the FIBA World Cup, spanning five nations with five very unique situations and five very different chances at climbing the podium and tournament’s end.

Anthony Edwards has transformed into the face of USA hoops seemingly overnight. Karl-Anthony Towns is reaching back to his roots to represent the Dominican Republic for the first time since he entered the NBA. Nickeil Alexander-Walker is part of a deep Canadian squad. Kyle Anderson made the somewhat surprising move to don the red hues of Team Dragon and represent China. And Rudy Gobert resumes his long-time love affair with his native French national team.

So, after each player has finished their games, we will reconvene to take some notes and try and decipher the intricacies of international hoops from a Timberwolves perspective.

Let’s start with game one.

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Alexander-Walker’s Trial Run

It feels like there is an empty, Jaylen Nowell-shaped hole that has been pried open for Nickeil Alexander-Walker to slink into next season. And, even more so, it feels like he will be much better suited to maximizing it.

Nowell’s role was more malleable than that of a standard role-playing bench guy. He had the freedom to make things happen within the offense just as often as he was asked to stand on the 3-point line and knock down catch-and-shoot triples. In the exhibition games and now on opening night of the tourney, Alexander-Walker seems to be flourishing in that same kind of role with Canada.

His box score — 12 points on four triples from eight attempts — suggests that he was merely throwing stones from beyond the arc, and his streamlined shooting form seems to be working wonders in doing so, but Alexander-Walker’s game had more branches sprouting from it.

At times, he was the traditional point guard, entrusted with bringing the ball up the floor to either initiate for himself or pick out shooters in pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop scenarios. At others, he was off the ball, spotting up for jumpers, making heady cuts, and running off screens. He worked alongside a more ball-dominant star in Shai-Gilgeous-Alexander and he worked alongside Canada’s wings like RJ Barrett and Dillon Brooks.

Unlike Nowell, who was far more concerned about guzzling his own mead than being a part of any kind of liquid offense, Alexander-Walker was a key part of smooth offensive possessions like this, where he played the role of the point guard and the off-ball mover all at once.

For the Wolves next season, that role should easily dovetail with Shake Milton off the bench or Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels in blended lineups. It should work well with Rudy Gobert’s rim-rolling and Karl-Anthony Towns’ presence as a pick-and-pop big. It can fit next to Naz Reid and it can fit next to Mike Conley.

If all of that can mingle with his usual brand of suffocating defense, there’s a real chance Alexander-Walker becomes a monumental piece of Minnesota’s rotation next season.

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Perimeter KAT

The Philippines roster was too small to guard Karl-Anthony Towns. He looked like a storybook monster traipsing over an army of ants. And yet, he still wielded his dominance from the perimeter inward, rather than the post outward.

That doesn’t mean Towns was out there launching treys like it was going out of fashion, Towns only attempted five 3-pointers and converted just one of those looks. But he wasn’t bogged down by constant low-post possessions that inevitably lead to double-teams, spacing issues, and a huge helping of stray voltage.

Instead, Towns started possessions above the arc and then bullied his way to the rim. That’s why he was able to rack up a whopping 16 free throw attempts, that’s why he was able to yank the game away from the Philippines, and that’s why he was able to dominate despite shooting just 31.2 percent from the field.

Look how high he starts this possession, giving him the runway to use his outlier speed and finishing ability for a big man.

And, when the defense shifted over to cover him, he was able to draw a ton of fouls or use that gravity to exploit the gaps in the defense.

With Gobert promised to crowd the paint next season, Towns needs to weave this mindset into what will be the biggest season of his career, individually and from a team perspective. He needs to figure out who he is and start using his talents in a more succinct and impactful way.

From the perimeter, where he is nearly unmatched throughout the history of the game, should be where he makes hay. Hopefully, this FIBA experience is just a prelude to that.

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