Welcome to the latest edition of NBA PowerScore: Wolves of the Week.
A friendly reminder: these ratings are determined using the NBA PowerScore system and are based on advanced NBA statistics that the players produced during this four-game stretch. Here is the NBA PowerScore Ratings chart:
Super Star | > 80
Star player | 70-80
Top 2 player on a playoff team | 50-70
Great | 30-50
Good | 15-30
Solid | 5-15
Starter | 0-5
Should play on average team | > -20
NBA POWERSCORE: WOLVES OF THE WEEK (week 4)
1. Karl-Anthony Towns | PowerScore Rating: 57.9 | Classification: Top two player on a playoff team
KAT easily retained the number one spot on this list. Watch the games, look at the stats, or listen to the media. Nearly everyone knows he is the clear leader of the pack. Last week, he led the Wolves in almost every defensive advanced stat and despite the huge performances from Wiggins, KAT remained the slow and steady big keeping the Wolves in games.
2. Andrew Wiggins | PowerScore Rating: 44.7 | Classification: Great
Jim Peterson said on the broadcast Saturday night that Andrew Wiggins could be a potential future NBA scoring champ. Yes, he has struggled at times, but Wiggins has shown flashes of “unstoppability” (which, believe it or not, is a legitimate word). He led the Wolves in scoring the past week and even managed to post stat lines with more than just points. However, poor performances against the Grizzlies and Celtics brought his rating down from a 102.2 (elevating him to the level of “Super Star”) through the first two games of the week instead to a 44.7.
3. Zach LaVine | PowerScore Rating: 42.8 | Classification: Great
Zach LaVine has been phenomenal. Not only does he provide the flashy plays that fans want to see, but he makes the everyday contributions that the Wolves need to win games. Obviously, these wins have been few and far between in the early part of this season, but LaVine has done everything in his power to contribute on both ends of the court. He had the second best defensive rating this past week on the Wolves only behind KAT, and if you take out the third quarters of games where the Wolves seem to collapse, LaVine has the highest offensive rating on the Wolves. I am not trying to make excuses for LaVine by eliminating the third, but things have been completely out of whack for the Wolves in that quarter.
4. Kris Dunn | PowerScore Rating: 27.9 | Classification: Good
Moment of complete honesty: I am not sure how Kris Dunn was able to achieve this high of a rating on NBA PowerScore. He has been one of the most frustrating players to watch on the Wolves this year, whether due to high expectations or simply performance, and it appears to be more of a problem than just early-season jitters. Nonetheless, Dunn was able to do a lot of things well. Not great, not even good, but well. He has been a solid defensive player in the last four games, but his offense has been lackluster and often times just bad. If Dunn can figure out the offensive portion of his game, look for his rating to jump to “Great” in an instant.
5. Ricky Rubio | PowerScore Rating: 22.5 | Classification: Good
Ricky Rubio has struggled. Ricky Rubio has not shot well. Ricky Rubio has had perhaps the worst start to a season in his career. Yet, Ricky Rubio at his worst is still better than all of the Timberwolves bench. The shots may not be falling and he may not have been an offensive factor at all this past week, but Rubio continues to contribute in unseen ways that typically show up in the hustle stats portion of the game. If you take out the two games where he played hurt earlier in the season, Rubio is actually top five in the league in deflections and assists per game. His defensive numbers also continue to be strong despite his fading offensive presence – about the only thing keeping him in the top five right now.
Check back next Tuesday for the next version of NBA PowerScore: Wolves of the Week!
Follow Evan Hagen (The Wolf Den) on Twitter @Hagen_Wolves.
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