It’s not Anthony Edwards. It’s not Rudy Gobert. It’s not a lack of talent. Is it simply the absence of Karl-Anthony Towns? Why are the Timberwolves (6-5) struggling so early in the season?
Towns is having a great first season with the Knicks. He is averaging 24.5 points, 12.4 rebounds and shooting 51.1% from three-point range. His player efficiency rating (PER) ranks fifth in the league at 27.1, behind only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (27.4), Giannis Antetokounmpo (30.2), Anthony Davis (31.4) and Nikola Jokic (33 ,4).
You have to scroll all the way down to No. 41 in the PER rankings to find the first Minnesota player, and it’s not Edwards. It’s Naz Reid with a 20.0 PER. Edwards ranks 47th with a 19.6 PER. Just facts…
Maybe the Timberwolves are just going through growing pains after trading Towns for Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. It would make sense, because players don’t just gel overnight. Heck, even the Knicks are a little slow with a 5-5 record.
Randle has has filled the stat sheet, averaging 20.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists while shooting 52.0% overall and 38.3% from 3. The relevant number associated with Randle is rebounds. Never in his career has he averaged fewer than 8 rebounds per game. His 6.6 rating this season is well below his career average of 9.3.
DiVincenzo has was a pest on the defensive end of the floor, but his shooting was atrocious through 11 games. The number to focus on is his three-point shooting. A whopping 78.2% of his attempts come from behind the arc and he only makes 32.9% of them. He shot 40.1% from deep last season and finished fourth in the NBA with 3.5 made 3-pointers per game.
This is not the level of play the Timberwolves thought they would get from DiVincenzo when they made the Towns trade. Remember, DiVincenzo was a monster for the Knicks last season. He averaged 17.7 points in 63 games as a starter during the regular season and was closer to 20 per game in February, March and April. He left with scoring performances of 25, 28, 35 and 39 points in the playoff series against the Pacers.
DiVincenzo hasn’t scored more than 16 points in a game against Minnesota this season.
As easy as it is to point to Towns missing, Randle not rebounding and DiVincenzo struggling with his shot, it’s even easier to point out Minnesota’s problems with turnovers.
The Wolves had 23 goals in their NBA Cup loss to the lowly Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night. It was their third straight game with at least 20 turnovers. With 16.1 turnovers per game, the Wolves rank fifth in ball security.
Edwards had six turnovers in back-to-back games against the Blazers and Heat, but he had just one in the second opportunity against Portland on Tuesday night. But just as Edwards was cutting back on his turnovers, Randle, Gobert, DiVincenzo and Jaden McDaniels each had four turnovers.
How do the Wolves solve these problems? More effort on Randle’s glass seems like an easy solution to his problem. If DiVincenzo simply escaped from a shootout, his problem would be solved. The grid gelling over time would eliminate the Towns problem. And taking care of the ball is the easy solution to the turnover problem.
The one thing that doesn’t seem to have an easy answer is the lost defensive identity that made last season’s Wolves so ferocious. Finding an answer to that may be something the players will have to discover from within because, hypothetically, the roster is generally better defensively with DiVincenzo and Randle than it is with Towns.