Denver Primer: The Wolves’ Offense Has the Structure We All Want, and it’s Amazing

05/05/2024

A cool, composed, and not yet injured Head Coach Chris Finch took the stand after game 3 in the desert after another throttling of the Phoenix Suns. It was yet another high-octane offensive performance in which the Minnesota Timberwolves, looking unlike their regular season selves, put up 126 points and executed near-flawlessly on offense when the game called for it.

As a product of the display, Finch was asked to ponder the outward look of a more structured offense.

“We are play calling a little bit more than we had for the regular season,” he said. “But I really think conceptually we understand what we’re trying to do.”

It’s something fans had question marks around, and at points were pounding the table for as they saw the Wolves slip at the turn of the new year offensively. The virus of “your turn, my turn” basketball and a lack of organization in the clutch cause the Wolves to slip from the best clutch team in the NBA to dead last in offensive rating in clutch time (92.5); a part of the stat table that found them in woeful company.

Clutch Time offensive rating, from the date period of January 7 through April 1.

As fast as things went south at the beginning of the year, or perhaps even faster, it seemed as is a completely different team entered the postseason offensively. In addition to more structure, it boiled down to the two top horses in Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards, more willing to get off the ball and not press when it felt like the game needed a bucket. They trusted to run the play and concepts and have further belief that when the ball got to the right person, they would end up making the shot.

Edwards is currently averaging 6.3 assists in the playoffs to his season average of 5.1, and Towns’ patience has paid dividends in reducing the number of turnovers he commits. Over the last three seasons’ postseason first-round series, Towns’ turnover totals are as follows:

2022 (vs. Memphis): 27 TOs, 21.3%

2023 (vs. Denver): 18 TOs, 18.1%

2024 (vs. Phoenix): 7 TOs, 11.1%

I don’t have a math degree, but I see a positive correlation. You may ask, what’s been the overall benefit of Towns and Edwards practicing patience and getting off the ball quicker? The best offensive rating in the NBA during the postseason would be a good place to start.

Postseason Offensive Rating

Good half-court action off of an often called horns set…

Or running motion and getting downhill to the basket off of a screen to make a heavy-minute wing work a little bit harder. This could be something they try on an iffy defender in Michael Porter Jr…

How the Denver Nuggets decide to defend the Wolves will be markedly different than how Phoenix did, both in personnel and level of effectiveness.

I could see a Porter Jr. bothering Towns when he’s away from the basket and having enough length to give him pause about pulling a high volume of threes (not as effective if Towns decides to post up at a higher volume). I could also see an initial wall-up with Aaron Gordon pestering Edwards out of the gate in an effort to be physical with him.

But the good news is those things only work if regression to the February Wolves happens.

If the same level of intentionality goes down as it did when the brooms were broken out almost a week ago?

Game on.

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