Minnesota Timberwolves: Kevin Martin To Start At SG On Monday Night

The Minnesota Timberwolves will start Kevin Martin at shooting guard Monday night.

Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Sam Mitchell announced on Sunday that, beginning on Monday night, Kevin Martin will assume the role of the starting shooting guard.

Mitchell had previously started Tayshaun Prince — a defensive-minded, championship-tested wing — at the small forward position for the first 13 games of the season.

The former NBA Coach of the Year had initially wanted to establish a defensive identity by tethering the adroit presence of Prince and Kevin Garnett, along with the team’s primary core of Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns and Ricky Rubio.

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Although their defense has fallen back down to earth over the last couple of weeks — however, it is important to note that playing three of the NBA’s top 10 offenses in the Golden State Warriors, Charlotte Hornets and Atlanta Hawks will assuredly have that effect on your defensive efficiency — the Wolves still remain within the top half of the association in points given up per 100 possessions; a far cry from the league-worst mark the team posted just a season ago.

But, the Timberwolves brass obviously feels the team sorely needs an injection of offense, as Minnesota has failed to crack 100 in offensive efficiency for each of their last two contests.

As such, in an effort to spearhead some resemblance of floor spacing, and to avoid the embarrassing designation of being the first team to fall to the winless Philadelphia 76ers this season — never mind earning their first home win of the young campaign — K-Mart was officially promoted as the starting 2-guard for your Minnesota Timberwolves going forward.

Starting Kevin Mart will most likely mean the Zach LaVine point guard experiment will continue. However, he’ll probably also see some spot minutes at the backup 2, hopefully alongside Ricky Rubio (*Fingers crossed*).

If Mitchell were truly committed to finally scrapping his “Zach at the point” developmental scheme, he would have decided to start LaVine and let Martin flourish in a more apropos sixth man role.

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To the dismay of the sizeable contingent of Timberwolves nation, it looks as if we are going to have to bear with the aforesaid eye sore for the time being.

Contrariwise, I would have much rather seen Mitchell start Shabazz Muhammad instead of K-Mart. In doing so, the Wolves can keep Wiggins at the 2 and open up material playing time for Bazzy, who is perhaps the most underappreciated and mistreated young pup on the team in this post-Flip Saunders regime.

In addition, Muhammad won’t hold the ball and stagnate the offense like Martin, and he can generate his offense without having a played called for him; thereby, keeping Wiggins and Towns as the central figures of Minnesota’s offensive scheme.

It will also be interesting to monitor how many minutes Prince will earn from here on out. While the former Kentucky Wildcat is undoubtedly an offensive liability at this point in his career, he has also served as the common theme in the majority of the Wolves’ most potent defensive lineups. In fact, Minnesota relents 7.9 fewer points per 100 possessions when Prince is on the floor.

Will Tayshaun be completely eradicated from the rotation? Will his playing time be transferred to the likes of Bazz and LaVine on the wings as a result? Or will he still consume over 20 minutes a game off the bench?

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I hope it’s somewhere in between — enjoying just enough playing time to make a significant difference on D, while giving Mitchell the opportunity to explore small-ball lineups, like the Rubio-LaVine-Wiggins-Muhammad-Towns alignment the team has been trotting out in the fourth quarter and waning minutes of games over the past week.