Terrence Shannon Jr’s Summer League Debut Was CRAZY…

Terrence Shannon Jr’s Summer League Debut Was CRAZY…

welcome back to how and growls and the Minnesota Timberwolves just kicked off their summer league campaign and game one was all about teren Shannon Jr we didn’t see the best game for most of Minnesota’s stacked summer league Squad but Shannon was the standout performer on both ends of the floor summer league isn’t always a reliable indicator of future performance but he looked like a readymade contributor and that can only be a good thing going forward of course the 25 points on nine of 14 shooting stood out we know from his college Years that he’s a bat out of hell in transition and he proved that with a vicious poster early in the game and a couple of Fast Break finishes as the afternoon went on the Wolves need more transition athletes and he’s made a living feasting on Fast Break opportunities so that really does bode well the thing that really peaked my interest though was his ability to interrogate The Rim in the half court especially when he was attacking Closeouts in straight lines when the defense is tilted and this man is running at him you can see how smoothly he can turn that aggressive defense into an open Lane for himself with his speed and his power he might just be a menace when he prize open some space to burst into we really got a good glimpse of that that in this game even if you have to factor in the defensive drop off from the NBA level to the summer league level Shannon Jr really is great when he’s setting up his Defender to fail when he’s working off the catch when he catches the ball and plants this foot he’s forcing his man’s weight in the wrong direction and once he’s in this position he’s just too fast off the first step to get back in front of the keys for tsj going forward are going to be knocking down his catch and shoot looks reliably enough to force those Defenders to overcommit to him and then adding some more spice into his drives with spins Euro steps and changes of pace for now he’s a freight train but if he can blend that with some shooting and a bit of finesse you can see the blueprint of a really impactful Rim pressure player that’s going to be especially important when he does come up against NBA Defenders who are harder to take off the bounce and more alert at the rim for a first Summer League game though you couldn’t have asked Shannon to Showcase his most NBA ready skill any more than he did and still I thought his defense was the best part of his debut game he did some spectacular things that really caught the eye but it was the under the radar things that would have impressed Minnesota’s coaching staff so he’s checking Jordan Hawkins here here who’s a really great off ball mover and then running this Iverson set so Shannon’s first job is to get over this scen and deny the back cut and then when Hawkins reverses it he needs to get back through the same screener and make sure the shooter doesn’t get a good look so he eats up that space he forces the Pelicans offense to slow down and then he’s got to get through this ball screen that’s how you shut off the water of a movement shooter and in summer league a number one one offensive option and that kind of dirty work was a staple of his first unofficial game in Timberwolves colors his ability to navigate screens was really great all game he looked really strong when he was pushing through those bigger screeners but he was also hunting his man down after that screen and closing down any space they created to get great shot contests up if the base that he’s building upon is a strong slasher on offense and a rugged point of attack defender on the other end that feels like the kind of guy any team could use even if he’s a little older than you’d ideally like for a rookie I really like some of his off ball team defense as well which we know isn’t essential to trck Chris Finch’s rotation so he’s dropping in as the low man to tag the r man and take away the rim for the Pelicans then he’s rotating back with a really controlled close out and that’s the kind of thing that good Defenders do over and over again like its second nature and it’s what Minnesota did better than anybody last season again he’s alert and he’s rotating down to turn an easy dunk into a soft foul again this is the type of thing that the Timberwolves prided themsel on last season so it bodess well for his quest to steal some real rotation minutes this time it’s Rob dingham as the low man here and that’s going to put Shannon into the position where he’s checking these two guys and then he’s got to really Chase off the pin down and impact the shot attempt and that’s the kind of awareness and defensive IQ that I really love to see from an inexperienced player there’s plenty of time to go between now and the season and one Summer lead game certainly doesn’t set any players future in stone but it was really fun to watch teren Shannon Jr dominate a new level of competition and hopefully we see more of that going forward thanks again for watching how and grows 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Wolves got a steal.