Terrence Shannon Jr. may have spent the offseason thinking his path in Minnesota was opening up on the ball. Instead, the Timberwolves’ crowded backcourt could push him toward a different route to minutes: defense.
That shift matters because Shannon’s offensive comfort with the ball in his hands was part of the momentum he built late last season, and even head coach Chris Finch seemed to view that as the best direction for him. But the Wolves have loaded up on players who want touches, and that leaves Shannon needing to bring value somewhere else if he wants to stay in the rotation.
The clearest opening is on the defensive end, even if the numbers were rough last season. Minnesota’s defense was 13.9 points per 100 possessions worse with Shannon on the floor, and opposing players shot 51.4 percent on defended field goals when he was the primary defender. According to NBA.com tracking, opponents also shot 46.5 percent when Shannon was on the floor, a 4.9 percent boost for the offense when he was the main matchup.
Basketball Index’s grades painted a similarly uneven picture. Shannon earned a D+ in perimeter isolation defense, a D in ball screen navigation, a B- as an off-ball chaser, an F in pickpocket rating, and a D+ in passing lane defense. That off-ball chasing grade stands out as the one encouraging piece, because it lines up with the idea that his effort isn’t the issue.
Wolves podcaster Dane Moore pointed to one example that caught his attention from another team’s postseason prep. “There was a team preparing to play another team in the postseason and they were going through film of how to defend this team on the perimeter. And I know this scout from the team, and he sent it to me, and he said, ‘We actually were showing our group a lot of Terrence Shannon Jr. film,” Moore said
“Guarding on the perimeter, fighting through pin downs…it was basically [him] saying ‘He did a really good job and we wanted to show this to our players of going from navigating a screen, off ball, getting around it and engaging into ball containment. And it was good enough that they were literally showing clips to their group of Terrence Shannon Jr. and the way he was navigating.”
Moore still acknowledged the shortcomings, but he also said there’s something to work with. “I don’t think we’ve viewed him as a great defender, but there is a tenacity to Shannon as a defender,” Moore continued.
“He gets into you. …I don’t know exactly what they were showing there, but that’s kind of always stood in the back of my mind, because I’ve always sort of thought, like physically, I think Shannon could be a good defender.
I don’t see him being a passive guy.
“I think it’s some of the thinking stuff defensively, or overly speeding himself up defensively, that got him out of position. I mean, he doesn’t have good numbers, but I think if we isolate it a little bit, and I remember at that time, when the guy sent me the clips, and I was like ‘Oh, yeah.
You know, if I was just watching this I’d be like, yeah, that does look like how I should be defending on the perimeter there. So I hold out some optimism for Shannon just because I think he has some higher upside.”
That’s the crux of Shannon’s case. He has the size at 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds, and he can be sticky on the ball and chase shooters around screens. He also shot 45 percent from the floor and 40.8 percent from 3-point range last season, which gives him a better offensive baseline than Jaylen Clark, who shot 43.4 percent overall and 32.7 percent from deep.
Clark still has the defensive edge, but Shannon’s combination of size and shooting gives him a different kind of chance to carve out a role. Finch already called him out for the mental mistakes and over-aggressiveness that showed up after the Timberwolves’ Game 5 loss to the Denver Nuggets in the first round last April. Shannon answered with a strong two-way performance in Game 6, and repeating that kind of effort could be what separates him.
For Shannon, the road to more minutes may not come from taking more on offense. It may come from proving he can defend well enough to stay on the floor.
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