Minnesota Timberwolves: Zach LaVine Thriving At His True Position

Zach LaVine is a shooting guard, and it’s high time the Minnesota Timberwolves ran with that fact.

At this point, “The Minnesota Timberwolves are a young team” is a phrase that’s been run so far into the ground it’s amazing we haven’t found China yet. Everyone knows the T-Wolves’ youth movement shows a ton of promise, even if their recent 2-8 stretch has been hard to stomach.

But chalking up Minnesota’s rebuilding struggles to them going through growing pains doesn’t quite do it justice. Interim head coach Sam Mitchell was thrust into his new role suddenly, and the versatility of his roster has done him no favors in setting a stable rotation, but it’s undeniable that there’s been a steep learning curve as far as which players should be playing where.

Andrew Wiggins, the team’s leading scorer at 21.3 points per game, has vacillated between the shooting guard and small forward spots, Karl-Anthony Towns has shown the promise of being able to log time as a stretch-4 or a stretch-5 and Shabazz Muhammad has been used as a small-ball 4 at times as well.

But after shaking off an early season slump, Wiggins has come around, Towns is a rookie who doesn’t need to be forced into either position just yet and Muhammad, simply put, hasn’t been getting enough playing time. In the case of Zach LaVine, however, Mitchell is only starting to realize that his role is FAR better suited for the shooting guard position.

When LaVine was drafted, he was taken by the Timberwolves as a bit of a project. His breathtaking speed and leaping ability gave him plenty of raw tools to work with, but Minnesota’s insistence on sculpting him into a point guard has been like repeatedly throwing a glob of clay into the wall and expecting it to become the Pietà. It doesn’t work like that.

Watch the Timberwolves play and it’s impossible to ignore how bad the team looks with LaVine trying to initiate the offense or cover craftier point guards on the other end. Conversely, it’s painfully obvious that LaVine is not the “bad” player he’s been made out to be when he logs minutes at the 2.

When playing off the ball, LaVine has the ability to put all that speed to good use without the added pressure of handling the ball, setting up other teammates or running an NBA offense at the tender age of 20. Instead, he can use his agility for cuts, get out in transition and just focus on trying to score off the bench. Lately, he’s done that pretty darn well.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

It’s not just the eye test or the highlight reel where LaVine excels when playing his proper position, however, since the numbers back up what our eyes tell us.

According to NBA.com, LaVine has thrived in lineups featuring Ricky Rubio or Andre Miller, who relegate him to the shooting guard spot. In lineups with Rubio and LaVine, the Wolves have outscored opponents by 17.2 points per 100 possessions in a total of 98 minutes together, while lineups with Miller and LaVine in them have outscored opponents by 4.6 points per 100 possessions in 65 minutes.

Of the 12 most commonly used five-man lineups with LaVine at point guard, the Wolves have posted a total point differential of -46 in 361 minutes. That may not seem like much, but compare a net negative — even one as marginal as this — to a massive net positive when playing beside a point guard and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where LaVine is most effective, especially since we saw the exact same thing last year.

According to 82games.com, LaVine had a total net rating of -54 at the shooting guard spot last year, which seems bad until you remember the Wolves were a 16-win team that was routinely outscored in their games. During his time at the 1, however, LaVine’s total net rating was an OH MY GOD, MY EYES-ian mark of -486.

LaVine played far more minutes at the point guard spot, but the Wolves had a win percentage of .440 with him at the 2, as opposed to .260 with him at the 1.

Luckily, Mitchell appears to be finally, mercifully, figuring out that he can play LaVine ample minutes at the 2 while moving Wiggins over to the 3. Lineups featuring Rubio, LaVine and Wiggins sharing the court together are +38 in 94 minutes together, marking the third highest positive margin among all three-man lineups the Wolves have played together this season.

Even better, LaVine’s recent success coming off the bench and playing his true position of shooting guard have reportedly made veteran Kevin Martin expendable.

Over the last five games, LaVine is averaging 17.4 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 24.4 minutes per game. He’s shot 44.3 percent from the floor and has scored at least 12 points in 19 of his last 21 games. Before last night’s eight-point dud against the Sacramento Kings, he had also scored 28, 20 and 19 over his preceding three games.

With LaVine showing serious signs of life, including that season-high 28 points against the Phoenix Suns, the Wolves are ready to move K-Mart and fully commit to the future.

Or at least, hopefully they are, since LaVine’s development at his proper position may depend on it sooner or later:

Earlier in the season when Rubio missed four games, LaVine started every one of them at point guard. He put up decent individual numbers during that span, averaging 21.0 points, 4.0 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game on superb .463/.450/.813 shooting splits.

But that didn’t stop the Wolves from going 0-4 during that stretch, from losing by an average margin of 8.5 points per game, or from LaVine posting 3.3 turnovers per game with a total plus/minus of -7.

This isn’t this hard, people. Zach LaVine is a shooting guard, and as much as it’d be nice for him to be able to log time as a backup point guard in the future, the way he’s thrived playing in his true position really should put this issue to bed.

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Let’s stop beating a dead horse, Sam. Because for all the crucial development minutes these youngsters are getting, it’s also important to put them in a position to succeed in the future.