How do the Timberwolves build a defense around their stars?

The Minnesota Timberwolves have accomplished the difficult part of a rebuild: finding their cornerstones. But the duo of Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell shares a pretty big weakness on the defensive end.

Defense doesn’t “win championships” like the old adage says, but it’s still pretty important in the modern NBA. The Minnesota Timberwolves now have their two cornerstone stars in place, D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns, but neither has a great defensive reputation.

To be fair, we can’t just gloss over that first part. Getting Russell to pair with Towns was a bold move by Minnesota’s newly minted front office. Most new regimes take a year or so to evaluate what’s on the roster; Gerson Rossas and company dove right in, shipping out Andrew Wiggins and acquiring Russell, Malik Beasley and Juancho Hernangomez at the trade deadline.

Russell and Towns were good friends prior to the trade, and their personal chemistry should be an asset. The former is a skilled combo guard who can work on and off the ball; the latter can stretch the floor and create for himself and others like perhaps no other center in the modern NBA. Their offensive two-man game should be devastating, and they’re both good enough playmakers to get others involved too.

The other end is where the uncertainty lies. Russell has been an outright negative at every stop in his career. This is, in part, because of a lack of effort, which can be fixed, but mostly because of athletic and skill limitations, which will be much tougher to improve upon. Towns is poor for the opposite reason; he has the physical traits to be a plus defender at the 5, both in space and at the rim, yet it’s only translated to the NBA in glimpses.

So how does Minnesota’s front office go about building a supporting cast? They’ve got their foundation, which is a great start. But now comes the next stage: getting the right complements.

The Timberwolves have to build around Karl-Anthony Towns

First and foremost, Towns’ defense must improve for the Timberwolves to get anywhere. No team makes it deep into the playoffs without at least an average rim protector, something Towns is far from at the moment. A good chunk of his mishaps can be attributed to bad teammates, but at some point, he becomes the common denominator with poor defensive units.

There is hope though; his best frontcourt mate defensively was Robert Covington, and the two of them actually worked well together, posting a net rating of plus-2.9. If Towns has a defensive-minded partner at the 4, he may be more inclined to try and/or not be overworked on that end.

Assuming that James Johnson opts into his $16 million player option for next season, Minny won’t have much wiggle room to add anyone via free agency. It does, however, own the third slot in the 2020 Draft Lottery, which has a 52.1 percent chance of remaining in the top four.

There just so happens to be a highly touted defensive big man near the top of most draft boards. Onyeka Okongwu of Southern California is widely considered the best big in the draft, capable of defending across the positional spectrum and playing next to a center offensively. On paper, he’s a great fit next to Towns at the 4.

If they can’t snag Okongwu in the draft, trade options exist. Aaron Gordon, a very talented forward who has been miscast with the Orlando Magic, and could be a nice buy-low candidate. His contract declines in value each year, making him more attractive as he ages. Jerami Grant hasn’t popped as expected with the Denver Nuggets, but he’s a versatile defender with a passable 3-point stroke. With a $9 million player option for next season that he’s probably going to accept, Denver could pull the plug and get value for him.

The possibilities are not infinite, but they are feasible. Minnesota has an extra first-round pick in this year’s draft (as long as the Brooklyn Nets stay in the playoff bracket), though they might be cautious to use it since their 2021 first belongs to the Golden State Warriors.

The Timberwolves must develop the defensive talent they already have

As for in-house options, the future starts with retaining Malik Beasley. The two-way wing couldn’t find much time in a deep Nuggets rotation, but after the trade to Minnesota, he was excellent — averaging 20.7 points with a 3-point percentage of 42.6 and a true shooting percentage of 59.1.

The 14 games he accomplished that in are a small sample, but it’s enough for the Wolves to lock him up. He’s a restricted free agent this summer, which already works in the incumbent team’s favor, as the Wolves can match any offer another team makes. And with the uncertainty of the league’s finances going forward, teams will be very wary of breaking the bank for Beasley.

Another restricted free agent that the Wolves acquired was Juancho Hernangomez, who isn’t exactly a plus defender but is worth keeping past 2020. His shooting at the 4 will be welcome next to Towns, especially if the Wolves can get defenders in front of him.

Minnesota had two defensive-minded wings on the roster prior to acquiring Beasley too. Josh Okogie and Jarrett Culver have serious potential defensively, but their futures are a bit less clear. Okogie has the package to be a plus defender on the perimeter, and even handle some switches in the post as necessary. His problem is on the other end; he’s a dreadful shooter right now. To be good enough to even take those tough perimeter assignments from Russell, he has to be a starting-caliber offensive player. As of now, that’s tough to justify.

Culver has a little more work to do. He projected to be a versatile offensive player who could handle myriad roles, but he wasn’t particularly good in any of them in his rookie season. Few first-year players are pluses defensively, but Culver was much closer to average on that end, which is promising for his future.

The trio of Beasley, Culver and Okogie can cover a lot of ground for Russell and Towns defensively, so long as they can each fill some sort of role on offense.

The Timberwolves won’t have oodles of flexibility going forward; Towns and Russell will combine for nearly two-thirds of the cap until 2023. How the former develops on the other end, and how the organization assembles a defense around both him and the latter, will determine just how high their ceiling is.