During games, Wolves head coach Ryan Saunders can often be found meandering towards the halfcourt-line where he has a better chance of hearing how his players are communicating on the defensive end.
In Sunday’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks, Saunders was reminded that his team has quite a ways to go before its fully up to speed with its defensive schemes.
“I heard three coverage calls that we don’t have in our package,” Saunders said before Monday’s practice. “As soon as there was a dead ball, you call that guy over and right away he’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s a blue here, that’s not a flat. Or that’s a black here, that’s not a switch.’”
Revamping the Wolves’ roster mid-season has already brought plenty of benefits to the franchise but it did force the new Wolves to learn things on the fly while rather than during the preseason.
But that’s just a reality that’s all part of the process for D’Angelo Russell.
On Monday, Russell said the Wolves are continuing to invest in film sessions to help mend their defensive lapses. And of course, building chemistry off the court will also speed up the process.
“Off the court, it’s the comradery whenever we get to go to dinners and just get to do regular things together you get to see guys’ real personality off the court and you find a correct way to approach it whenever you see something that they don’t see or vice versa,” Russell said.
For Russell, defensive improvements rely on strong communication.
“I think we have a good group of guys who have credibility and voice their opinions often enough to where you respect it and it’s coming from a good place,” Russell said. “That line of communication is where it starts.”
The Wolves will need all the defensive communication they can get on Tuesday when they face the New Orleans Pelicans for the first time since the multifaceted Zion Williamson recovered from the knee injury that kept him sidelined until Jan. 22.
“He’s a player who values physicality, a player who welcomes contact, but at a young age, you don’t always see someone welcome it and actually impose it upon other players and other grown men the way he has this early in his career,” Saunders said.
Not only is Williamson a generational force in the paint, but he also has the speed of a guard, which makes shutting him down next to impossible.
“The way he runs the ball and can push in transition, the way he’s scoring in halfcourt too — especially against matchup problems — he’s definitely a challenge,” Saunders said.
But Saunders and his players know that facing players of William’s caliber is also a necessity when it comes to making defensive strides.
“As competitors, that’s what you want,” Saunders said. “You want to compete against the highest level of athlete and team. He’s playing well and he’s obviously been on a historic run.”
DLo and J-Mac, A Dynamic Duo
Russell and fellow point guard Jordan McLaughlin have only played 46 possessions together since Russell joined the team on Feb. 6.
That’s an incredibly small sample size, and the duo’s two-player lineup stats should be taken with a grain of salt. But they’re also worth mentioning here at Timberwolves.com.
When the two share the court, the Wolves are recording a 58.3% effective field goal percentage (99th percentile in the league) and have just an 8.7% turnover rate (100th percentile). The DLo-J-Mac lineup also holds opponents to 50% effective shooting and a 22.7% turnover rate. Again, a sample size of 46 possessions is pretty menial, but those comparisons are not.
“D’Angelo is a player who can score in a number of ways,” Saunders explained. “We’ve seen more blitzes of him out of timeouts or down the stretch. Jordan handling the ball allows him to get off the ball a little bit, tough for the blitz.”
And when Russell draws blitzes, McLaughlin has more room to shine.
“I think it makes us that much more dangerous,” Russell said when asked how he liked playing with McLaughlin. “With Jordan, he’s a sneaky, fast, crafty guard who gets it done. Whenever I get off the ball and they’re trapping me or whatnot, that’s two guards getting down and making plays for us. So I think it makes us that much more dangerous.”