Minnesota Timberwolves defense STILL truly dominant + upcoming schedule and trade deadline thoughts

Minnesota Timberwolves defense STILL truly dominant + upcoming schedule and trade deadline thoughts

Hello and welcome into another episode of Locked on wolves today on the show the Timberwolves defense has still been genuinely dominant despite this crazy six we stretch of games we’ll talk about the Wolves defense on the season how much better it is than the League’s second third and Beyond ranked defenses

Uh plus let’s look at nba.com Power Rankings which have gotten a little bit um the wolves have slid a little over the past couple of weeks and then also the upcoming schedule for Minnesota and what the rest of this month could look like for the Wolves also a quick early

Look at the NBA trade deadline it’s all up coming welcome in you are locked on wolves you are locked on Timberwolves your daily Minnesota Timberwolves podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day hello and welcome to the lock of wolvves podast podcast part of the lockdown podcast Network your team every day my name is Ben Beacon I’m the host of lockon wolves today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more right now new customers get

$150 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet visit fanduel.com lockon to get started happy Tuesday everybody and uh it’s a I don’t know I guess it’s not a victory Tuesday because the Wolves win was Sunday um I’m recording this Monday though before the uh the Thunder

Game tonight we’ll talk a little bit about the upcoming schedule what OKC’s been up to later in the show uh but OKC’s got a tough schedule this week and a big wolves Thunder match up this weekend to look forward to I want to spend the first part of the podcast

Though talking about um how dominant overall this Timber’s defense has been and obviously they’re still the number one defense in the league um but despite how crazy the schedule’s been they’ve maintained that spot and only further solidified it as some of the other teams the second third fourth fifth ranked

Defenses have kind of backslid a little bit the wolves have maintained their ranking and uh as the offense really has kind of stagnated it hasn’t gotten much better it hasn’t gotten a whole lot worse despite the tough competition so um it’s the defense that’s still carrying this team we’ll talk a little

Bit about that I want also want to talk Power Rankings upcoming schedule and then also a quick look at the upcoming Trad deadline we’ll do all that on the show here today first of all though a big thank you for making lock and wolves your first listen every day of of course

Lock on wolves is free and available everywhere including YouTube as well as all of your favorite audio platforms wherever you like to listen to podcast you can find lockon wolves you can also watch on the lockon sports Minnesota app on both Roku and Amazon Fire TV and you

Can follow on X lockon wolves and also at B Beacon that’s with 2bs 2 e cken all right um quick quick note if my voice is wavering a little at times I’m I’m still getting over a bit of a a lingering cough here uh so I’m trying

Really hard to get through this without coughing a bunch and cutting the whole thing up so um that’s that’s the heads up if my voice kind of like drops off real quick I’m trying real hard not to cough uh all right um I want to talk about

The the defense overall and the wolves have had the best defense in the in the league all season long and no matter what s you look at basketball reference cleaning the glass everyone’s got the Wolves at number one and it’s not particularly close um I’ve got the so like we could look at

This thing overall we could look at it the last couple of weeks uh we could look at it since the beginning of of December or really I guess December 11th I think is when we decided the schedule got really difficult for Minnesota but I think the most impressive thing is that

Nobody else is close to how good the wolves have been defensively this season and that to me and we did this a few weeks ago it might have actually been about a month ago it was like mid December maybe a little before the holidays when we looked looked at like

The context of hey is this opponent effective field goal percentage the opponent three-point percentage the wolves have continue to drive down this season is that sustainable because there was always this especially early in the season if you listen to National shows or whatever talk about the Wolves

Defense there was always this kind of like well they’ve had some good fortune right opponents aren’t shooting very well from Deep against them um this idea that like you couldn’t impact that as a defense which is of course mostly bunkers like like mostly not true right sure there’s certainly some good luck

When it comes to opponents missing open threes and that’s something else we talked about I think just last week we looked up um def opponent field goal percentage on wide open three-point attempts and open three-point attempts and the Wolves were pretty middle of the pack like teams aren’t making any more

Or missing any more open threes against the Wolves than than League average not significantly more I think it was maybe a little bit on the positive side for Minnesota overall this season the Wolves had a you know a top three three-point percentage against early in the season

Now for the season it’s six the opponents are shooting over 38% a little over 38% against the Wolves uh which is or I’m sorry I read that backwards it’s sixth but it’s actually a shade under 35% 38 would be really really good opponents are shooting just 34.8% on three-pointers against Minnesota that’s

The sixth best Mark in the league it’s not a crazy outlier and and we’ve disco we’ve discussed this before so I don’t need to go too in depth on it but basically the Wolves uh do not allow a lot of corner three-point attempts in general and they

Do pretty good job at contesting above the break threes and that’s a recipe for Success right there’s a there’s a formula to that there’s schematics that that you know the wolves have a schematic that attempts to to to solve that question of or or I should say to

Um to win that category of opponent three-point percentage in fact you could point to a couple plays last night where the Wolves weren’t on point defensively there was one and I think it was it was in the second quarter when the Clippers were making something of a

Run not last night uh Sunday the Clippers are making a bit of a run and La ended up only being down one at halftime after Shing by 10 after the first quarter but the Wolves had a defensive possession where the ball got inside ant rotated down to try and help

And then it kicked back and I forget who was in the slot for the Clippers this was on uh uh the right side of the floor and cat was stuck in between guarding Paul George in the corner and whoever it was in the slot that had the

Ball and he was trying to do both so he kind of stunted in one spot and then recovered to the other and ant never xed out to the corner it was Paul George in the corner I’m pretty sure and ant didn’t X Out to the corner and and cover

That shooter and and PG makes the three and the Wolves give up the wide open Corner three so that was bad for a couple reasons it was wide open and it was a corner three um the Clippers got a couple big Corner threes from Norman Powell too so there were a couple of

Those possessions where the Wolves didn’t do what they were supposed to do but by and large this season they have this formula uh they have the way that a way that they play defensively and a lot of it has to do with just scrambling really hard and having great length um

And deterrence at the rim which leads to these kickouts and the Wolves length is so good that they can bother three-point shooters that helps drive this three-point percentage down this opponent effective field goal percentage down but the Wolves opponent three-point percentage is sixth in the league it’s not the best but their opponent

Effective field goal percentage is first is first and if you’re not familiar with effective field goal percentage a a quick definition of it is it basically accounts for not basically it does account for a three-point shot being worth more than a two-point shot so it’s essentially a weighted field goal

Percentage it’s a better all in compy number than just raw field goal percentage and three-point percentage which are quick and dirty numbers from the box score that work to to have a discussion about a game and you know I’ll do that for oneoff games but an effective field goal percentage is a

Better way to measure um uh efficiency right um so the Wolves still have the League’s best effective field goal percentage and that’s not particularly close either the Wolves defensive effective field goal percentage is 50.8% which is 1.1 points more than a full point better than the number two

Team which is the OKC Thunder another very long team not not nearly as big but lots of long rangy wings and of course the length of chat Homen and um just Rim protection there as well we’re not going to talk about points of the paint or Rim deterrence or Rim defense necessarily

Today but that also factors into it too of course um and by the way there’s four teams that are clustered between 52 and 53% effective field goal percentage the wolves are sub 51% and yes last year that would have easily been the best Mark in the league

And so you could look at that be like ah maybe it’s not sustainable well guess what we’re almost halfway through the season three games shy of halfway through the season by this time next week we’re halfway through the schedule so it feels pretty sustainable plus you

Go back a couple of years and that would be in line I think it was Boston a couple years ago with some of these teams that did have you know sub 51% defensive effective field goal percentage marks and this is a really really uh impressive number that obviously drives the this number one

Defense and I talked earlier about how the Wolves defensive rating was still best in the league um and according to basketball reference their defensive rating is 108. s the next best is 11.4 that is nearly three points better 2.7 points better which is significant Philly’s at number three Boston is down

To four and OKC’s down to five in defensive rating but guess what those teams are all smashed together in fact there’s five teams within a point of each other Orlando Philadelphia Boston OKC and Houston are all within a point of one another between 11.4 and 1124 in in defensive rating which again is

Points allowed per 100 possessions basically is what that is the wolves are three points almost three points 2.7 points better the next five teams are all smashed together within a point the wolves are are 2.7 points clear of that it’s crazy how good the Wolves defense

Has been now by the same token it also kind of underscores how frustrating the offense has been and and that’s more of a conversation for another day I’m not necessarily going to cover that a whole lot today mention a little bit next segment here but um all that to say the

Timber roles formula is working and we could also carve it up by the last you know you want to look at since December 11th when the Wolves played that 16 game Gauntlet and obviously that ended with the Portland game Friday but you know this Clippers game Sunday was as tough

As any of those games during The Gauntlet besides the back-to-back in Boston and you know the Wolves went came out of that what were they nine and seven I think over those 16 games they beat Portland and now they beat the Clippers go back to December 11th through January 14th through that win

Against the Clippers on Sunday Minnesota had the uh let’s see where did it go the number three ranked defense over that period of time as well which is just incredible facing the League’s best competition 16 straight teams over 500 couple of back-to-backs 11 of 16 on the road Boston in there OKC

In there still the third best defensive rating since December 11th and still number one with a bullet over the rest of the league for the season and again in a week will be exactly halfway through the schedule so this really impressive and some of the other stuff the defensive rebounding numbers have

Stabilized a little bit the turnover numbers on offense are not great uh but they’ve also again following defensive uh following on the defensive end of the floor you know sticking with the defensive side Minnesota’s improved that too that’s stabilized remember early the season they weren’t following and they

Were rebounding well that kind of went away as the schedule got tougher they had some more travel they had more away games they had some of these tougher games in early mid late December and now it’s stabilized they’re folling a little bit less they’re rebounding the ball a little bit better

On the defensive end of the floor and we head into the schedule as we’ll talk about here next where there’s going to be opportunity to take a breath and the Wolves can’t you know fully do that obviously it’s the NBA you got to keep winning you got to win the games you’re

Supposed to win as we found out last year uh when the Wolves didn’t do that I want to talk about that upcoming schedule next along with the NBA.com Power Rankings which overall I think do a really good job John Schuman does a really good job there uh uh in terms of

Being thoughtful about his rankings but I want to talk about where the wolves are and and some of the competition they have for the in the top five in the NBA over at those Power Rankings so we’ll do all that here next today’s episode of lock wolves is

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Look at the esin power rankings or CBS or whatever occasionally the athletic Zack Harper does a good job and and his his uh his pieces are are entertaining and nba.com John Schuman as I’ve said before I think is the most thoughtful power ranking it’s truly a behemoth of a

Document as he uh as he goes through and writes like I don’t know 800 words or something on every team like it it’s really in- depth and has some fun stats along the way so like for instance this week he’s got um overall strength of schedule through week 12 so so through

The first 12 weeks of the NBA season overall strength of schedule based on cumulative opponent record adjusting for home versus away and also rest now the wolves have had a lot of rest Advantage games and uh if you’ve you know nuggets fans listening to this maybe I don’t know Michael Malone complained about

This a couple weeks ago I think complained is the right is the right uh word to use there about the wolves having rest Advantage games and I think OKC having rest Advantage games and Denver playing so many back-to-backs well I’ve said this before but heads up

Mike uh by the end of the year everybody’s gonna have the same number of back-to-backs right now the Wolves also have the second toughest schedule in the league including accounting for home and away and rest stays the second toughest schedule next to Golden State ahead of San Antonio through the first

12 weeks and guess what Minnesota timber will still have the best record in the Western Conference so uh wh about it all you want but things are going pretty well for the wolves and strength of schedule we can’t ignore that now John Schuman nba.com has got OKC number one

In his power rankings the Western Conference understandable they did have a couple of pretty ugly losses here recently to Atlanta and Brooklyn consecutively after beating Boston uh but then since then they’ve beaten uh you know three teams they should beat Washington Portland Orlando had a nice

Road win in Miami now things get tough for them I want to talk more about that in a second but right now he’s got OKC number one OKC has the fourth best offense and third best defense which is a pretty uh I would say solid combination Boston’s number two with the

Third offense and fourth defense according to nba. com’s defensive rating Denver’s three which feels a little bit aggressive to me I know they’re playing better recently um and and Schuman points out he’s got the same record now that they did after 41 games last year so the Nuggets

Already are halfway through their season uh they’re the ninth rated defense is seventh rated offense but he’s got them number three of course joic is is out of this world right now which maybe should I mean it not maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise uh Minnesota he’s got number

Four which is where he had them last week and of course number one defense by far as we talked about the first segment today but the offense is ranked just 20th he doesn’t really dwell on that in the write up um but 20th ranked defense like you’re not likely to win a title

And maybe this is something I can do for a future episode is go back and look at the regular season ranks for offense defense for eventual title winners you know maybe go back 10 years at least the the more recent kind of um we’ll call it

The uh I don’t know not the I don’t know the the three-point Revolution era or something like that I’m sure someone has a better term for that but maybe look at the last 10 years I I’ll go I’ll do that research um but I don’t think you’re

Going to win a title with the 28th ranked offense and we’ve talked about this at nauseum we’ll talk about it more a lot needs to be done here the Wolves need to figure out the offense of course the record they have is their record for a reason because games they don’t need

That efficient of an offense because the defense is so suffocating and it’s really more due to turnovers than anything else right they’re still shooting the ball really well as we’ve mentioned and I I’ll pull a quick here they’re um they’re actually seventh in affective field goal percentage as a

Team they’re sixth in three-point percentage they’re Sixth and getting to the line like when the Wolves actually execute the offense and by that I mean don’t turn it over they’re really good they’re top seven in both free throw rate and effective field goal percentages in offense and top six and

Three-point percentage like how does a team like that finish 20 how are they 20th in offense well it’s because they turn it over at the second highest rate of any team in the league so that’s why that’s why they’re fourth in these power rankings I you know I’d

Flip them with the Nuggets I think the wolves and we’ll see Denver here we’ve only seen them once this year we’ll see them again here soon um I’d flip him with the Nuggets right now I’d put them three but I understand having OKC and Boston I’d actually go Boston Boston OKC

Minnesota Denver and I think the wolves are better than the Thunder and I think the Wolves will at least split these to we’ll talk about the thunder here in a minute um but I understand if if you want to put the Thunder ahead of Minnesota because lately they’ve been

Really impressive and they beat Minnesota pretty handily right after Christmas so I get it um so Minnesota’s fourth there real quick the Clippers are fifth of course the Wolves just beat them the Pelicans are sixth the Wolves struggle with the Pelicans that’s a tough match up Milwaukee’s seventh um

And then uh Philly 8 as they’ve struggled a little bit more here recently and uh with them beat out missing a bunch of games they’re not good with them beating out on the floor understandably the Pacers are nine and of course they’re the funniest you know the the by far the League’s best

Offensive team but they’re 26 the defensive rating and then uh the heat at 10 Dallas at 11 so um of course the wolves have played well against everyone it’s not like just bad teams are just good teams they have the second toughest schedule and they still have the second

Best record in the entire league so um all that to say understandable why the wolves are where they are in the power rankings real quick related to um well actually no let’s do that here next let’s do that next and then I do want to get to some quick quick thoughts related

To the upcoming trade deadline but I want to mention the thunder schedule and just kind of preview to the preview of what’s upcoming for the Wolves here at the end of the week a fun gaming at OKC we’ll do all that here next today’s episode of lock out wolves

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Entering a a a little bit of a more difficult patch in their schedule and like they’re going to be challenged here they’ve got I’m recording this before Thunder Lakers Martin Luther King Jr evening um in La so the thunder in in LA taking on the Lakers Monday night

They stay in La so it’s at least a no travel back toback for them the next night they’re on TNT playing the Clippers Tuesday night Clippers of course are off Monday after being in Minnesota Sunday so Lakers Clippers back toback so the LA back toback is never

Easy then they travel to Utah on Thursday night to take on a jazz team that’s what like I think 14 and four over the last you know five six weeks or so playing extremely well and then they go to Minnesota for the fourth game of a

Four four fourth game of a four game Road trip and will have been on the road for basically eight days since they beat Orlando at home this last Saturday so the final game of a four game Road Trip for OKC the Wolves will be back home

After playing um well I guess the wolves are on the road Tuesday back or sorry on the road Wednesday back home Thursday so I guess the Wolves will have been at home for a couple of nights after their own back-to-back so Minnesota’s got a back-to-back Wednesday Thursday at

Detroit the old one game Road Trip we’ll talk more about that on Wednesday show um at Detroit on Wednesday then home to play Memphis on Thursday of course no job marant jiren Jackson Jr’s banged up now Desmond Bane is hurt so arguably two of the certainly two of the three or

Four worst teams in the entire league Memphis Sans jaw and with the you Sans ban and some of these other injuries so the Wolves really should win both of those games then you get a day at home to take on the Thunder I would imagine OKC goes what two and one on on

This road trip prior to Minnesota I’d be you know surprised if they won all three but it’s certainly possible they’ll probably be favored in the Lakers and Jazz games probably not at the Clippers on the second night of a back back toback but I could be wrong I mean the

Clippers were favored I think by a point or a point and a half in Minnesota Sunday which I thought was I would say quite a bit surprising I thought it would be flipped I thought the Wolves would be favored by a point and a half two points but instead it was the

Clippers being favored um so all that to say OKC like this is a tough week for them at Lakers at Clippers back-to-back at Utah then at Minnesota they go home and get Portland and San Antonio but then they get the Pelicans uh then they get Detroit and then the Wolves again

And that wolves OKC game in OKC on the 29th is the second night of a b back to back for the Thunder it’s also a travel back to back they’re in Detroit the night before and it’s the first game back after a three-game road trip in a

Stretch of seven of eight on the road for OKC so OKC this isn’t anywhere near as difficult of a stretch as the Wolves had but in terms of travel back-to-backs Etc that makes this much more difficult and by the way their game after Minnesota is Denver so you look at the

Next two weeks for OKC and they get the Clippers the Wolves and the Nuggets all during that stretch stretch they have three backto backs in the next two weeks and they’ve got six of seven on the road at or Sorry Seven of eight on the road so this is an opportunity for

Minnesota to I don’t want to say put a little bit of distance because um I mean it’s still mid January but to grow that lead in the Western Conference a little bit sitting here right now they’re only a half game up on OKC they’re a full

Game up on Denver of course they’ve only seen Denver once as of now the Wolves season series against the Thunder is a split I think it probably remains that way if I had to get right now OKC Minnesota Saturday and then in OKC here in a couple of weeks they probably split

Those two as well but it’d be great to get them both and get that tiebreaker and the Wolves of course have Denver three more times this year so all that to say it’s a tough stretch for OKC could we see them slip behind the Nuggets it’s entirely possible um here

Over the next couple of weeks now the Thunder still do have the second best point differential in the league we talked about top five offense top five defense there’s a reason they’re number two in the power ranking so um it should be a ton of fun on Saturday but the

Wolves do have a bit of an edge in terms of the week leading up to it the travel schedule Etc we’ll have a slight Edge there as we go into Saturday all right real quick trade deadline thoughts and we’ll of course spend more time on this we’re about three weeks out from the

Deadline it’s upcoming on February 8th so um you we talked about this a little on last week’s Minnesota basketball party we do that every Wednesday uh myself Jack Borman from Kana suus Reggie Wilson from car L Ron Johnson for the Ron Johnson show and uh um Sam XTR we talk wolves basketball we

Talked a trade deadline this last week and we had mostly an agreement um I believe Ron wanted the Wolves to get a backup point guard I believe that um I thought that the Wolves didn’t have a whole lot to offer in a trade and W were not likely to trade Kyle Anderson and

Then Jack Borman was a bit more forceful saying there that he really doesn’t think there’s any way they trade Kyle Anderson and that they could move something else and it would be surprised if they didn’t make a move I I understand that perspective and I I’m

Sure the Wolves will try to do something but they’re going to have to find a willing trade partner the only assets the wolves have if if you buy they’re not going to move Kyle Anderson which I agree with Jack they’re not going to uh it just wouldn’t it doesn’t make sense

Because of you know they need his size to be able to play either the three or the four mostly the four but um or sorry mostly the three this season but his ability to to operate offense to to be that second unit kind of facilitator point guard guy like because of all that

I I think it’s pretty unlikely and then also rocking the boat you’re the number one see in the west like why why would you trade a top seven rotation guy I don’t think they trade Kyle aderson but Jack was saying that he thought the Wolves would need to trade

That they could trade Shake Milton Wendel Moore Jr Josh Minot and his thinking being you know if they’re not in the rotation now when would they be in the rotation I think it’s very likely they would trade Shake Milton they’ even attach a second round pick to him

Remember he’s got a non- guaranteed contract for next year so he could be an attractive tra trade chip as a as an expiring maybe a team on the verge of the play or on the the kind of the precipice of the playoffs that wants use him as a six-man catch some lightning in

The bottle Maybe Shake gets hot can help them get into the playoffs or the playin or whatever and then being expiring at the end of the year or the option to bring him back next year there’s a lot of flexibility there it’s why the Wolves signed him to that contract but you’d

Have to have a team that says yeah I’m in for that and then willing to give something up that the Wolves would find to be beneficial I don’t think you can just say hey the Wolves need quote unquote shooting because who’s you know where does that shooting fit in the

Rotation of course depth is great and if someone gets hurt great you have somebody but they had depth shooting at Matt Ryan and let it walk they have depth everything else right they have depth bigs uh in terms of Kyle Anderson you know Luca Garza if you need him but

They you know the wolves are comfortable to play big and small you’ve got some length and athleticism and Josh Min not you’ve got yeah like I don’t know it would seem to be just making a move for the sake of making a move I like I have to really study some of the

Guys who potentially could be on the market and see if there’s a perfect fit out there but how are you going to acquire that perfect fit sending you know unless there’s a team that wants to take a flyer you know a non-playoff team that wants to take a fly and wi noore Jr

A former first round pick who’s never gotten an extended opportunity in the NBA um that’s a possibility like there’s data to suggest he could be a refid rotation player maybe more on a team that’s willing to give him minutes that’s a possibility maybe they move off

Of him for to free up a roster spot and get back a pick that’s also possible could they trade W Elmore Jr out get a second round pick or something back use that open roster spot to be a player in the buyout Market that’s probably the most likely scenario um I’d be surprised

If someone was excited to take on Shake Milton I think wend Elmore Jr is your best trade chip and I don’t think the Wolves should or will trade Josh Min not because I think he may have to fill the Kyle Anderson role next year now obviously he’s not the facilit

Facilitator that slow-mo is it won’t obviously all the intangible stuff that slowmo brings to the table but that type of role almost what the tan Prince role was last year of that kind of hybrid four that can play a little three that’s long and athletic um in my not’s case

Just you know obviously far far more athletic than Kylie l or even toian Prince I think but um all that to say I think there’s a a a role for Min not on next year’s wolves team I’d be surprised if they trade him I think when Elmore Jr

Is your most likely trade candidate followed by Shake attach a pick maybe get a couple picks back free out of spot for a buyout uh type deal but I don’t know that you’re going to find a rotation caliber player that’s going to crack the Wolves they only played eight

Guys against the Clippers on Sunday who’s going to crack that rotation who’s going to be your backup point guard you’re going to get minutes ahead of Kyle Anderson ahead of n Alexander Walker unless you’re trading for you’re not you’re not like you’re not getting tyus Jones we talked about that on

Wednesday show too I just don’t know where that person fits into the rotation you have to give something to get something and it’s it’s it’s a zero sum game there’s only so many minutes to go around over the course of a game a season your playoff rotation seven and a

Half guys usually right so I I just don’t know that you’re improving your top eight improving your top nine by making a deal at the deadline we’ll see we’ll talk about biomarket all that stuff we’ve got a few weeks to get to it uh we got a couple of breaks in here

With with a couple consecutive off days where we can do that here moving forward uh tomorrow show Wednesday show we’ll talk wolves Pistons matchup we’ll check in on Detroit obviously they’re having a very difficult season we’ll talk about that on Wednesday’s show and we’ll uh

Take a peek further ahead to the rest of the month as well a big thank you for making lockdown wolves your first listen every day of course this show is free and available um wherever you get podcasts you can also watch on YouTube and on the lockdown Sports Minnesota app

On both Roku and Amazon Fire TV and you can follow on x at lockon wolves and also at B Beacon with 2bs 2 e cken of course the lockon Wolves podcast is part of the lockon podcast Network remember the lockd network is your local experts on all the biggest stories once again

I’m Ben Beacon this is the lockd Wolves podcast and we’ll catch you next time

Even after an extremely difficult stretch in the schedule, the Minnesota Timberwolves still have the NBA’s top defensive unit — and it isn’t close. Ben Beecken (@bbeecken) breaks down just how dominant the defense has been in the context of the next-best teams on that end of the floor. Plus, a showdown with the Oklahoma City Thunder at the end of the week, and finally, OKC’s schedule is more difficult than Minnesota’s. Lastly, an early look at February’s NBA Trade Deadline and what the Wolves may — or may not — be able to do.

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