The Timberwolves Secret Weapon

The Timberwolves Secret Weapon

83 points. That was the point difference between the first two games of the Western Conference Finals and the third game of the Western Conference Finals. An 83 point difference with the Minnesota Timberwolves going from a team who looked incapable of stopping OKC or scoring against them on the other end to a team that gave OKC their biggest defeat of the season. And we can talk about Anthony Edwards going off for a hyperefficient 30 points, nine rebounds, and six assists and doing Anthony Edwards things. Edwards comes up with it wide open for the slam. But this wasn’t the Anthony Edwards game. Oh no. McDaniels comes in. And how about this ovation from Shannon Karen Shannon Jr. with the best minutes of his young NBA career. Yeah, you heard it from Mike Breen and every Minnesota Timberwolves fan in that building and everywhere around the world. Terrence Shannon Jr. just had the game of his life in game three against the OKC Thunder, going off for 15 points in just 13 minutes of game time, outscoring every starter on OKC. Yeah, we all know we’re taking TSJ over SGA. That’s just common knowledge. And it didn’t take long for Terrence Shannon Jr. to make an impact because after being subbed in at the start of the second quarter, the very first play, Connley finds Raid in the pick and roll. Williams slides over to help. And I love this here. Sure, it’s an open three, but he also has Jaylen Williams closing out on him, so he puts it on the floor, drives into his body, and gets the N1. The reason I love this play is, yes, open threes are always great, but it’s just the awareness. If Alex Caruso was flying at him, take the three ball instead of trying to take him off the dribble. But when you have a slowfooted center running at you, put the ball on the floor and make that play off the dribble. And that’s often the difference between being a guy who can make a difference in the playoffs and someone who can’t. It’s the ability to make those plays on the fly, the read and react ability, and the skill set to go along with it. And how about 20 seconds later? Exactly what I’m talking about. again. If OKC are going to leave Jaylen Williams to guard Terrence Shannon Jr., make him pay with that quick take off the catch and a smooth pull-up jumper. And a couple of minutes later, he showed us that yeah, I’m not a one-way player either. As he gets switched onto Caruso initially and then has the hands to poke the ball away from JDub and then in transition with Alex Caruso in front of him, he just glides to the rim. If you want to know why TSJ received a standing ovation, it’s because in the span of 4 minutes, he came in and scored seven points, picked up a steal, and helped push the Wolves lead beyond 20 points. And even late in the game, after OKC had emptied the bench, he didn’t slow down, knocking down this three before showing off that aggression and ability to attack the rim again. And I think it’s pretty obvious to see from the clips that none of this was a fluke. This wasn’t a guy who just hit a couple of random threes off the bench. No, this is who Terrence Shannon Jr. is. He’s athletic. He’s physical. He gets to the rim. And he has a skill set to match it. In other words, he’s a bucket. And we’ve seen it at every level. I mean, just look at what he did his last year in college, averaging 23 points a game. You don’t average 23 points a game if you’re not capable at scoring from all three levels. If you’re not capable at putting the ball on the floor or making a play for yourself and making a play for other people occasionally as well. And if you’re wondering what his numbers looked like in G-League because I always feel this is such a great indicator at how good a rookie or a young player is. Well, um Terrence Shannon Jr. averaged 40 points on 62% shooting. He’s two games in the G-League. Yes, small sample size, 40 points in those two games. If he wasn’t on an elite team with a lot of depth, he would have likely been one of the best performing rookies in the league. Even during this season, he didn’t get a ton of minutes, but he had some nice moments, including scoring double digits in every game in which he played at least 20 minutes, including a 17 and 10 game verse OKC in an overtime win, which Wolves fans would remember as the game in which Anthony Edwards sat out most of the fourth quarter and overtime in favor of Terrence Shannon Jr. because he was playing that well. And it was the same story in that game as well. Just relentlessly attacking the rim against OKC. Just look at him here getting the hand off from Clark and with Joe in front of him. Look at the snatchback dribble before then using his size, strength, and balance to attack Joe off the dribble and get to the rim. And this is also the advantage of getting readymade NBA players in the draft. One thing I haven’t mentioned is he is 24. He is a rookie, but he is 24 years old. And there are people who have conflicting opinions on that. On one hand, you are less likely to get someone with superstar upside, excluding guys like Jaylen Brunson, Damen Lillard, and a few rare examples. But on the other hand, we all know about the new CBA. I mean, it’s a bit confusing, but essentially, it has never been more difficult to pay and retain highlevel rosters than ever before. We saw it with Denver after they won the championship. A big reason Minnesota traded Cat was because of the contract he was on. We are going to see it with Boston next year. It has never been more difficult to maintain a high-end roster. There is one way to make it work. However, rookie contracts. Yeah, you heard me. Every team has them, whether they are tanking or competing for a championship. But there are no players more capable of outperforming their contracts than first and secondear players. And getting back to my point, this is the advantage of getting someone readym made because they might not have the upside of some other players, but when you are paying them only a couple of million dollars a year, you have the potential to have someone in their first, second, and third years who were contributing to not just solid teams, but teams looking to win a championship. It’s not just Terrence Shannon Jr. either. Jaylen Clark is another mature age rookie who could make an impact this series. There’s a reason he’s played some minutes already in this series because it was actually Clark who gave SGA the toughest matchup of any Wolve during the regular season. Just look at this play where Sheay gets the hand off from Chad. And look at Clark’s reaction to Sha’s movement. That is a move off the ball that would kill 99% of defenders. And I have seen Sheay kill 99% of defenders with that quick deceleration. But Clark’s ability to plant his feet and slide back into the frame before then using his body to absorb the contact from Shay and force him into a tough miss. That is special. And these are the kind of things that can change an entire series. Terrence Shannon Jr. had his moment this game and he’ll have another chance in game four which Chris Finch has already said. But there’s no reason Jaylen Clark couldn’t make that same kind of impact. Well, he’s less likely to do it in a scoring way because he’s not the scorer that Shannon Jr. is. But even if Clark can make an impact by grabbing a couple of loose balls, forcing a turnover or two, and making SGA work even harder for his buckets than he already has to, that makes a difference. I think we’ve become accustomed to teams not playing more than seven or eight players in crucial playoff games, but that’s mainly because they don’t have more than seven or eight playoff level players. There’s nothing wrong with playing more guys if the team is capable. And yes, it is more of a risk when those guys are rookies, but the upside, well, we saw the upside with Terren Shannon Jr. and the upside might be there for Jaylen Clark as well. Regardless of what happens, they have won game three in large part due to this impact from someone who they drafted just last year. And that well that is a win in itself.

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