Nikola Mirotic could be answer off the bench for Minnesota Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves have played an incredible stretch of basketball as Jimmy Butler has asserted himself as the leader of the team. Even with Butler putting up big numbers, the front office needs to recognize that he will need help come April.
The Minnesota Timberwolves have one of the worst bench units in the NBA when it comes to scoring. They need to add a scorer, but preferably someone who won’t kill them on defense since this player will be playing with Jamal Crawford, and possibly Nemana Bjelica. There aren’t a ton of athletic wings on the market, but the T-Wolves can find shooting.
Minnesota did business with the Chicago Bulls when they traded the seventh pick in the 2017 NBA Draft (Lauri Markkanen), Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn for Jimmy Butler and the No. 16 pick (Justin Patton).
The Timberwolves can do an “add-on” of sorts to that trade with this move, which has obvious benefits for Chicago as well. NBA Trade Machine season is upon us!
Chicago actually gets “younger and more athletic”
Everyone — especially fans in Chicago — remember Bulls general manager Gar Forman’s prophetic words that came before he went against his own words by acquiring Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo.
Part of the reason many initially assessed the trade as a loss for the Bulls was solely because they gave up the No. 16 pick in the deal where they gave up the best player involved. That stung even more once they later sold their second round pick, used on the uber-athletic defensive marvel Jordan Bell. The Bulls had two chances to land an athletic 5, and passed on them. This deal allows a bit of a re-do for Chicago.
Justin Patton is 20 years old. He is averaging 1.3 blocks in 17.5 minutes per game in the G League. Much like Karl-Anthony Towns, he runs the floor like a gazelle, and has shown the necessary touch (84.6 percent from free throw line in G League) to one day become a decent outside shooter. For salary cap purposes, the trade would be:
Patton is too talented to be playing in the G League. But Thibodeau has no time for rookies who need to learn proper defensive rotations. In Chicago, however, Patton could get minutes right away as Robin Lopez serves no real long-term purpose for a Bulls team in full-rebuild mode.
Minnesota’s new combo-forward
The Timberwolves can flat-out score. It is impressive that they score 112.8 points per 100 possessions. In a league where you need 3-point shooting to survive, Minnesota has went the opposite direction. It is 28th in the league in 3-point attempts. The Wolves generate a lot of free throw attempts and have players who can knock down a heavy volume of mid-range shots. The offense is likely sustainable because of the players in the system. But what happens in a playoff series when the referees are a little tighter with foul calls?
Nikola Mirotic instantly becomes the best 3-point shooter on the Minnesota roster (besides KAT). Thibodeau likes to run a decent amount of offense through horns sets, where having Mirotic and Towns at the 4 and 5 would open up a ton of options.
Jimmy Butler is scoring 1.05 points per possession (PPP) off handoff plays. Wiggins scored 0.93 points per possessions on handoffs, and then Crawford at 1.10 PPP, just above the 80th percentile among NBA players in handoff scoring efficiency. You could expect those already robust numbers to improve with Mirotic and his career-high 47.5 percent 3-point initiating a chunk of those handoffs.
By no means is Mirotic going to solve the Timberwolves’ defensive issues, and it is unfair to expect any one person to change the defense.
Next: 2018 NBA Mock Draft: End of 2017 edition
But with Minnesota succeeding on offense with sub-optimal floor-spacing, Mirotic could make a difference for a low-powered second unit.