After the "sweet period" of butler's trade, the Timberwolves have had a bit of trouble in the past week, they have lost to the Blazers, Warriors and Kings three teams in a row, considering the strength and road games, these three losses are slightly understandable, but today, after a full three days of rest, facing the "thriving" Suns in the West, the Timberwolves actually did not win - this loss not only gave the Suns their first consecutive win of the season, but also brought the Wolves record to 13 wins and 16 losses, after a wave of 4 consecutive losses, Today, Wolves have become the "deputy squad leader of the west" second only to the Suns.
The team's record is not good, naturally need someone to come out to back the pot, but this time, the two Champions Downs and Wiggins really have nothing to criticize, the two can average 24.3 points, 11.0 rebounds and 19.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game during this wave of four consecutive losses, which is a normal level; Saric and Covington have also played well, they were originally only 3D players, and they are still new; Rose, needless to say, since the 50-point war, The Only real downturn for the Roses is probably the one game against the Rockets, and the rest of the game can have a stable output of 20 points or so — so that the pot is thrown to Thibodeau, which is probably the starting point guard Jeff Teag.
Teague has played this season and is really not good.
Fast forward to last offseason, when former Eastern Conference All-Star Point Guard Jeff Teague signed a three-year, $57 million contract with the Timberwolves. To be honest, there were many people at the time who were not optimistic about the signing, because Teague was a guard who needed the ball in hand to play a role, not to mention that this role was not so efficient in the first place, at that time the Timberwolves already had Butler, Wiggins and Downs three ball carriers, and four ball carriers on one team were obviously inappropriate.
Fortunately, Teague's play last year was really not bad, after Wiggins and Towns were cut, his holding time did not reduce too much compared to the previous year, and Teague was able to hand over data that did not disappoint, averaging 14.2 points, 3.0 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game, shooting rate and three-point shooting rate were 44.6% and 36.8% respectively - in the context of the Timberwolves last year, Butler and The Twins were the protagonists of the fans' discussions, and Teague only had people praise when they played well. The kind that plays poorly but no one cares. Of course, as we said, his overall performance last season was not bad.
As a result, this season, Rose is playing better and better, and Teague has lost himself a bit. So far this season, Teague has missed six games due to injury, and in the 23 games he has played, he has averaged only 11.6 points, 2.3 rebounds and 8.3 assists per game, points and rebounds are career lows since 2011, and the shooting rate is even more unbearable, shooting only 38.4% from the field and dropping to 31.1% from three-point range. In espn's real plus-minus ranking, Teague ranks 35th of all point guards in the league with -0.52, and his victory contribution value on both offensive and defensive ends has reached the lowest in recent years.
Some people say that Teague still has bright spots, after all, just looking at the data, he can average 8.3 assists per game, and in the past 5 games, the average assists per game has reached 11.6. Against the Hornets, although he only scored 3 points, 18 assists set a career high.
This number is indeed not false, but Teague's assist data really has a lot of moisture.
As the team's starting point guard, Teague controls the ball most of the time on the court, he should have the responsibility to sort out the team's offensive tactics, but most of the time, he always dribbles the ball alone, to the front court first rub a 5, 6 seconds, and when the opponent's defense has completely fallen, he has not been able to find the opportunity to play, helplessly, Teague can only continue to dribble, and finally when there are 3 or 4 seconds left, either choose to force - this season his basket shooting rate is only 53.7%, or choose to throw the pot teammates - The scene against the Warriors has become a joke for fans, and Teague threw the ball to Wiggins at the last minute after 23 seconds of dribbling, who was happy to add a piece of iron.
In other words, Teague is a real sticky ball.
This is not the case in the Timberwolves, as early as the 2016-17 season when joining the Pacers, there were George fans who thought that Teague held the ball for too long, but unfortunately, because the Pacers' attention is not high, not many fans will discuss Teague. This season, butler's focus has been almost entirely on Butler and Downs, and now that Butler has left and the Timberwolves have started a wave of losing streaks, Teague's problems have finally been unearthed, and fans have even called him "Dribbling Mamba" and "Human Sticky Ball Essence", which is enough to see Teague holding the ball too long on the offensive end.
The data also proves this, Teague has dribbled an average of 5.3 times per touch this season, ranking fifth in the league, and in the case of high ball holding, the high assist is naturally not surprising. However, the quality of such assists obviously does not explain Teague's organizational ability, but sets off his shortcomings in organizational offense - there are also advantages, at least he will not force decisions after realizing that the timing is not right, but the disadvantage is that time will always run out, and many times such a situation can only show that his reading of the game is really not ideal.
Finally, we still have to affirm the merits of Teague, his defense is very positive in the entire Wolves team, healthy he not only has a breakthrough but also a good three-pointer, but unfortunately the injury has affected Teague this season to a certain extent - there is a fact that since entering the league in 2009, Teague has never missed a playoff in his career, and his ability is still worth affirming, otherwise he would not have been favored by many coaches. Just from this year's performance, it is clear that Teague needs to get back to form early, after all, he is also a player worth nearly 20 million.