Welcome to the second part of the 2019 Wolves wishlist. Let’s be clear: you’re not about to read another long list of things/goals to succeed. Once you get into a new year, in addition to reach more wins and fix what it didn’t work, you hope to maintain what it worked in the first half of the season.

This part two will be centered on the three encouraging improvements made by the Wolves to uphold throughout 2019.

ROSE SHOOTING EFFICIENCY

One of the most unexpected growth of this season. And what makes it even more special is that week after week we keep going to ask the same question: “is this sustainable?”.

It happened when he was shooting barely at 50 percent rate from 3 and Rose’s defenders were four-plus feet away from him on 77.8 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc (it was mid-November), it’s happening now when his shot’s volume from long range lowered to 2.5 attempts in December because NBA defenses start to respect him as a perimeter shooter.

Rose is about to finish this year on an elite level as a shooter. Per BBall Index talent grades, he’s in the 95th percentile in perimeter shooting category. His grade in this metric has risen from a career C to an A this season.

Hope to answer affirmatively before the ASG break (the great separator between a small sample and reasonable sample), watching Rose still above 40 percent clip from the 3 point line.

KAT PASSING SKILLS

We saw a lot Towns having troubles with double teams when he post-ups. Part of this because he was spending too much time establishing position between the mid-post and the low post, becoming a moving target. Later catches mean more time for diggers to bring secondary ball pressure.

But in the last 9 games, Towns is reading way better when he’s doubled. Compared to other skilled bigs, he’s more comfortable as a pre-dribble passer. HIs assist to turnover ratio is 1.71 over this stretch (0.67 before of it), he’s taking more care at the ball finding cutters much quicker with those over-the-head dimes.

Towns court vision can be enhanced even more if the Wolves ensured good low post entries for him on a regular basis.

TOP 10 DEFENSE

Despite the defensive decline in mid-December and the 123 points given up in the last loss to the Hawks, the Wolves still hold the NBA’s 11th best defense since the Butler’s trade, which is an impressive mark. Towns and Wiggins are understanding for real how to fill the gap/plugs to stop dribble drives, how to be effective as helpers: this is a fact.

One of the pivotal things to control in the next few weeks  will be opponents points off turnovers, which are already dangerously increasing after the 22 games played with Covington and Saric.