RoCo's leadership has shown the Timberwolves their potential on defense
In the 8 games since Robert Covington arrived in Minnesota, the Timberwolves have the second best defensive rating in the league.
Wait, what?
Actually, for a glorious 20 minutes after their 128-89 dismantling of the San Antonio Spurs - before the Oklahoma City Thunder completed a 100-83 trouncing of their own on Cleveland Cavaliers - the Wolves had the best two-week defensive rating of anyone.
Their defense, in fact, has been so stellar in that timeframe that their overall defensive rating for the season has gone from dead last to 16th. In just 8 games.
You can thank Robert Covington for that.
RoCo is a reigning First Team All-Defender, and it’s taken no time at all to show Minnesota why. Since suiting up for the Wolves, Covington leads the league in individual defensive rating (minutes/game > 20), already has two games with at least 2 steals and 2 blocks, is averaging 2.75 steals/game, and leads the league in deflections. Cov has been an absolute terror on the defensive end, providing the Wolves with a brand of team-oriented perimeter D they’ve never had before.
But more importantly, Covington is galvanizing a top-shelf level of defense from his teammates, who have been basement level awful in that department for two years. And none is being impacted more than the one who matters most: Karl-Anthony Towns.
In the 14 games this season before Covington arrived, Towns was 203rd in defensive rating (min 20 mins/gm). In the 8 games since, he’s 20th. A 183 rank difference that has happened basically overnight.
So why is Covington succeeding so wildly in mentoring KAT on the defensive end when Jimmy Butler and Tom Thibodeau - two legendary defensive savants - could not? It probably has something to do with the approach.
In psychology (or therapy, depending on your life path) they teach that there’s two broad, basic motivators for people. Some respond to harsh criticism, some respond to encouragement. Use the wrong one on the wrong person and you get nothing. My sister and I are this way, in fact. Being supportive to her just annoys her. When we were young, the only way to get her to do something she didn’t want to do was to yell. Whereas I need the support. Yell at me and I’m more likely to shut down as a defense mechanism.
That’s essentially the problem that stood between Towns and Butler on the court. Jimmy is a yeller. KAT needs support, not criticism. Butler and Thibs weren’t able to get through to KAT because they didn’t know how to approach him in a way that he’d be open to listening. Covington does.
In the short time RoCo has been here, he and KAT have bonded in a way KAT and Jimmy never did. Or ever could. Regular dinners after games, attending other sporting events together, sharing laughs in the locker room. Towns’ demeanor and, quite frankly, overall mental well-being - which was a source of extreme concern to start the season - has completely 180’d since Covington’s arrival, and that camaraderie and respect and trust -the all elusive ‘chemistry’ - has been paying dividend on the court as well.
Before the Spurs game, Covington ribbed KAT by asking him how much he had to get bailed out on defense:
But underneath the humor is a truth that the Wolves were missing with Jimmy Butler: bailing each other out is what good teammates do. They communicate. They cover for each other’s mistakes. They don’t hold it against each other, and they learn from it.
Covington has combined Defensive Player of the Year chops with a quiet, confident, ego-less leadership style that is turning Towns into the defensive anchor he was billed as, and that the Wolves need him to be.
