Bill Simmons compares Timberwolves to defense of all-time Pistons teams
The Minnesota Timberwolves are the darling of the NBA playoffs through the first third of games thanks to the sheer star power of guard Anthony Edwards and the team’s tenacious defense which is drawing lofty comparisons to the best Detroit Pistons’ teams ever already.
Minnesota leads the defending champion Denver Nuggets, 2-0, in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs. The Timberwolves are a perfect 6-0 in the playoffs so far after sweeping the Phoenix Suns in the first round, holding teams to an average of 98.7 points per game so far in the postseason. They are coming off their most impressive defensive display in Game 2 against Denver, holding the Nuggets offense, led by presumed MVP Nikola Jokic, to 80 points and 34.9% shooting.
The impressive performance has led to bold proclamations about how good the Wolves are on defense. Longtime basketball talking head Bill Simmons, founder of The Ringer website founder and author of “The Book of Basketball,’ said on his self-titled podcast released Wednesday that the Wolves defense reminds him of two of the best defenses of the modern NBA era, both belonging to the Pistons.
Simmons said Minnesota is his title favorite because of how good their defense is and said it rivals the 1989 Pistons and the 2004 Pistons, two of Detroit’s three NBA title-winning squads. He said those two Detroit defenses were the best of the modern era, while also giving some flowers to teams prior to the 1976 NBA-ABA merger, and labeled the “Goin’ to Work” bunch as the best.
“They just ripped through the playoffs, and we still didn’t totally believe, they were 5-to-1 underdogs in the NBA Finals, which was ridiculous, and they ended Kobe and Shaq,” Simmons said. “It was done. They finished them.”
Simmons detailed the versatility of Detroit’s starting five that year, calling Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace the two best defensive bigs in the league at the time, Tayshaun Prince a lockdown wing stopper and the Richard Hamilton-Chauncey Billups backcourt duo a plus defensively. After listing it out, he said Minnesota is showing some similarities.
“I think about the ‘04 Pistons and it’s not just how unbelievable it was to watch them — very similar to basically what we’re watching in this MinnesotaDenver and what we watched with some of the Minnesota-Phoenix stuff,” Simmons said. “It just feels like (Detroit) had eight guys but it’s only five. They can protect everything. They’re able to change the flow of a game and the pace and teams are on their heels.”
He listed the ‘89 Pistons at two, calling Dennis Rodman one of the best defenders ever and saying the rest of the roster was a “Swiss Army knife” that could match any team to shut them down while playing more physically than the opponent.
He then listed the 1991 Chicago Bulls, the team that dethroned the Pistons as two-time champs, as the third-best defensive team, but said Minnesota could leap them depending on how their run goes. He also listed other great teams like the ‘96 Bulls and the ‘99 San Antonio
Spurs in that company.
“I’d put the Minnesota Timberwolves pretty close to that third tier,” Simmons said.
Minnesota has the fourth-best playoff defensive rating so far by six points at 105.5, trailing Oklahoma City (94.8), eliminated Orlando (100.0) and Boston (100.9), and is holding teams to nearly 16 fewer points per game than the NBA average for the 2023-24 regular season, 114.2. The Wolves are third in points against in the playoffs of active teams remaining, trailing Oklahoma City (90.6) and Boston (92.7).
Part of the argument in Minnesota’s favor is the opponent. Denver won the 2023 title on the back of one of the best offenses in NBA history powered by Jokic. But the Nuggets have been neutralized through two games so far. Minnesota also played the Suns in the first round, who have Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal but still promptly swept them.
The 2004 Pistons had a playoff defensive rating of 90.3 and allowed just 80.7 points per game in their postseason run, which lasted 23 games over four rounds. However, the league average for points in a game that season was 93.4 points, meaning the Pistons held teams to 13 points below the league average throughout the postseason.
The Timberwolves clear that mark, but still have a ways to go. But if Minnesota can win 10 more games over three more rounds to win a championship while maintaining the defensive pace — a tall task still — the historic Pistons teams could potentially have more company in the proverbial all-time ranks.