The Timberwolves Just Swapped Kyle Anderson For Joe Ingles…

The Timberwolves Just Swapped Kyle Anderson For Joe Ingles…

welcome back to hows and growls and while the draft is done and the Minnesota Timberwolves are not going to be big players in the free agency frenzy they did just lose Kyle Anderson to the Golden State Warriors and that is a move that is worth examining a little bit further Anderson didn’t have his greatest season in this one just gone and he isn’t considered a top seven guy in Minnesota’s rotation but he’s certainly a player who Chris Finch and his coaching staff have leaned on significantly throughout his two seasons in Minnesota Anderson was a coach’s favorite a vet in the locker room and a consistent fixture in this Timberwolves team in fact across those two seasons Anderson actually ranked fourth in total minutes played proving how big of a part he has been in these two winning seasons and ultimately a Western Conference Finals run for the Wolves so what are they going to be missing when slowmo heads to the Bay ultimately it’s going to be his defense that the Timberwolves feel the absence of the most despite his lack of athleticism Anderson was a multi-tool Defender who excels at defensive playmaking whether it was switching onto Star level guards and causing chaos with his long arms and fast hands defending those jumbo Creator bid wings that are so hard to stop in today’s NBA or even moving up positionally to take on the most Unstoppable bigs in the league Anderson always found ways to create turnovers get stops and inject a level of Versatility into Minnesota’s League best defense even in a Down Season Anderson was one of just 12 regular rotation players to rank in the 70th percentile or higher for both steel percentage and block percentage percentage proving that he is an elite Ball Hawk when a player can switch seamlessly through positions and still provide those numbers it really adds a helpful layer of Defense to a team like Minnesota who really prided itself on the defensive end of the floor even more than his ability to cause Havoc as a turnover Creator the real appeal to Kyle Anderson’s defense was his Skyhigh IQ and the way he reads the floor as a Defender on this possession you see him calling out defensive coverages because he’s already preempting that when Rudy Gober comes up here to rotate up to the r man that Alexander Walker needs to rotate down here to cover Go’s man and when Anthony Edwards is forced to rotate over to the wing that’s when Anderson Springs into action and makes his rotation up here perfectly he forces the shooter off the line runs him right into go at the rim and Minnesota get another stop and those are the things he just does consistently again on this next possession you see him move up into this channel to tag and hold plumbley so that goar can focus on Paul George coming downhill and when Anderson’s job is done he peels out of it and helps contest George’s shot to make life tough for him those are the things that Anderson does that won’t show up on the box score and they’re the things that the wolves are going to miss going forward they’re a defensive team and he was their Swiss army knife on that end and it’s hard to replace that but there were also massive flaws in Kyle Anderson’s game last season and in many games his biggest flaw the inability to make shots from Deep or space the floor whatsoever really became a problem for Minnesota Anderson shot just 22.9% from Deep last season on just 0.6 attempts per game and he was often found lingering in the corner with nobody around him which really hurt Minnesota’s spacing and offense as a whole and that’s why they chose Joe indles as slowmo replacement indles is a long way removed from being one of the League’s best role players in his Utah days but he’s immediately going to give Minnesota a jolt of shooting in Anderson’s role and while I’d say Anderson is a better all round player right now the trickle down effect of having a veteran sniper out there instead of Anderson might really pay dividends for Minnesota’s offense next season Engles is coming off a season where he shot 43.5% from Deep on about 2 and a half attempts per game in a bench roll in Orlando he’s always been a reliable shooter and even with his knee injury sapping the defensive aspect of his game from a few years back he’s still going to make shot when they come to him within the flow of the offense and that’s a bankable and important skill for this wolves team it’s more important for Minnesota’s downhill scorers though whether it’s Anthony Edwards Nar Reed Carl Anthony towns or now Rob Dillingham Minnesota needs space out there for those guys to operate despite all the great things that Anderson did as a Defender and a slow motion playmaker he just clogged up things for the offense with his unwillingness to shoot and inability to make those shots when he did shoot with Rudy go already out there for a big chunk of minutes Anderson just became untenable on offense a lot of the time you see when Edwards catches the ball here Anderson’s man is already sagging off him and he’s going to rotate even further in when Edwards drives the ball providing Rim protection help while completely ignoring Kyle Anderson that’s a problem again kma is happy to rotate over here as the low man and foil ants Rim attack without any fear of Anderson being a shooting Outlet now if the end goal is to provide Anthony Edwards with as much space to drive and finish as possible then having Anderson out there with him just isn’t the right way to reach that goal Minnesota’s timeline is all about maximizing ant offensively and even the bit part players like Anderson or angels start to really matter when that’s the case and when you compare it with Engles and his former young star in poo benero you can really see how much those marginal gains can matter for a downhill scorer when he drives Jaylen Brown isn’t overc committing all the way to stop him because Engles is still a threat to make that corner tray and when he’s in the post the topside double isn’t swarming him because Engles is the outlet pass right there ready to catch and fire that’s the subtle but important benefit right there of having another shooter on the floor and when the defense does throw caution to the wind to try and send bodies at banero and now Edwards Engles is going to be there to knock down those shots and ensure the defense has to think twice about leaving old manles alone he’s not going to be a high impact Defender like Anderson was but just as we saw the previous season with the Bucks and yanis Engles is a release valve shooter that takes pressure off those Rim pressuring Stars even if it is in a low usage low minute roll for the offensively challenged Timberwolves that could be a really underrated ad to their rotation next season so where the Wolves might have lost their defensive vet in Kyle Anderson they might have just gained their offensive vet in Engles to me that’s a trade-off that makes sense for this team thanks again for watching how and GRS hit that 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Did they get better or worse?