Timberwolves 'got to get back to some basics' on defense

Minnesota is planning to focus on its defense over its mini break this week.

Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker cuts through Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, forward Jaden McDaniels (3) and center Naz Reid (11) for a layup during the second quarter at Target Center in Minneapolis on Nov. 17, 2024. / Nick Wosika-Imagn Images

Just last season, the Minnesota Timberwolves boasted the top-ranked defense in the NBA. They pride themselves on being a defensive team, but that hasn’t truly been the case through 14 games in the still young 2024-25 season.

That’s not to say the Wolves are bad defensively. They currently rank 11th in the league in defensive rating, allowing 111.7 points per 100 possessions. But that's still a clear drop off from last season's defensive rating of 108.7, and there have been clear lapses early on. Take Sunday, for example, when the Phoenix Suns were scoring at will for much of the game.

"Just our defensive fundamentals are leaky right now, just they really are," Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said.

In some respects, the Wolves are still in the figuring out process. They underwent major roster reconstruction, bringing in Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo in the trade that sent franchise staple Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks. Fortunately, that's brought offensive improvement as they continue to sort through their defensive issues. They went from a middle-of-the-row unit last season to a top-10 offense this year, with a ninth-best offensive rating of 114.5.

The Wolves have relied on their offense when defensive woes have hit them in the last two games, both of which they still managed to win against undermanned opponents. On Friday, the Sacramento Kings were without DeMar DeRozan and Malik Monk, but De'Aaron Fox torched them for a career-high 60 points before the Wolves edged them in overtime.

Facing the Suns without Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal on Sunday, Devin Booker picked apart their defense for 44 points before the Wolves made a late rally, escaping with a win on Julius Randle's game-winning, buzzer-beater 3.

Simplifying the game plan

The Wolves have a mini break until they take the court again when they visit the Toronto Raptors on Thursday. Finch said that time will be focusing on the defense and simplifying the game plan. What exactly does that entail?

"First of all, we got to get back to some basics. I think that we're seeing trends that we're seeing over and over in the league and trying to get better at some of those actions," Finch said. "We've got to kind of also, I believe, kind of free up Rudy (Gobert) to be more aggressive, just a little bit too much indecision there and inconsistency there about when he's coming, when he's not. And we need it. We need his presence every single time, so that is somewhat scheme-related, and he's got to kind of make that adjustment right now."

Gobert agreed with Finch's sentiment. He said that while the improving defensively is a collective effort, it needs to start with him setting the tone. Gobert feels he needs to be more consistent, and pointed to his own indecisiveness for his lack of consistency this season. His aim will be to get out of his head, not overthink and to trust his teammates behind him.

That will open things up for the four-time Defensive Player of the Year to be more aggressive.

"If we want to be great as a team and if you want to be a championship team, I have to be, every minute that I'm on the floor, I have to be the best in the world at what I do," Gobert said.

Late-game defense

The Wolves have shown flashes defensively, and no better example came than during the final stretch of Sunday's game against the Suns. The Wolves closed the game on a 12-2 run and were able to get the ball out of Booker's hands. On their final defensive possession, Minnesota stopped Phoenix not once, not twice but thrice before getting the ball back with just seconds remaining. While that was a great defensive stand, the defensive rebounding has been part of the issue.

"We've struggled to rebound in clutch situations," Finch said. "... We just got to get better at these little things. We were so good last year of closing with our defense, we would get a lot of stops in those situations. And our offense kind of came and went. This year, our offense is really good closing, our defense has got to get up to that level."

The Wolves have the fourth-best offensive rating in the clutch at 131.6. Their defensive rating in the clutch is 17th at 120.0. The late-game rebounding has been a big part of the issue. Their defensive rebound percentage in the clutch is just 52.8%. That's an issue that persists the entire fourth quarter (67%) and throughout games (69.8%).

And while the offense ends the fourth quarter strong, it doesn't always get off to a great start in the final frame. Overall, the Wolves' offensive rating actually drops off in fourth quarters to 112.1. Finch noted the team's ill-advised turnovers late in games. The Wolves have the third-worst turnover ratio in fourth quarters at 17.9%. Oftentimes, Minnesota will let its issues on the offensive end translate to the defensive end, a big part of what's leading to the issues defensively.

“We’re a defensive team, man, so we just focus in on defense. It won’t be hard at all to find," Anthony Edwards said. "... If we do that throughout the game when we don’t got the juice on offense, just like, defense, defense, defense. We let our offense fuel our defense, and the whole all of that is on me because I don’t talk to my teammates enough that we need to just focus on defense. Let our defense fuel or offense. We do a bad job of letting our offense — if we making shots, we’ll play defense. If we not making shots or we not scoring, we don’t take a lot on defense. And that’s a problem of ours and we’re gonna fix that.”