Entering the season, many expected the Minnesota Timberwolves’ second-year wing Terrence Shannon Jr. to be a core rotation contributor off the bench. Shannon battled injuries throughout last season. However, his flashes in spot minutes during the regular season and in the conference finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder showed he’s capable of being an impact player.
When the Timberwolves drafted Shannon 27th overall in the 2024 NBA Draft, many anticipated the 24-year-old out of Illinois to be an early contributor. That expectation only grew this summer when Nickeil Alexander-Walker, a core bench contributor, departed in free agency for the Atlanta Hawks.
Expectations for Shannon were reasonable. He looked like a scoring threat off the bench, offering a change of pace to the Timberwolves’ methodical offense through his athleticism. It was just a matter of whether he could turn his flashes of good play into consistent minutes throughout the season.
Through the first quarter of the season, Shannon still has a lot of room to grow before the Wolves can rely on him for core rotation minutes. He hasn’t been able to find enough consistency. Most importantly, he has been far too reliant on his preferred left hand to do everything on offense.
Shannon’s early struggles are a perfect encapsulation of why it is so vital to recognize tendencies with draft prospects. Because of his physical gifts, Shannon flourished at Texas Tech, and Illinois was able to hide his reliance on his left hand because he was more athletic than most opposing players. However, the advanced scouting reports, increased resistance on the perimeter, and rim protection in the NBA make Shannon’s tendencies a hindrance to his success as a downhill threat.
It’s normal for NBA talent to rely on their strong hand for ball handling and for directing their drives. However, when it becomes absolute, with minimal counters to the defensive shading their dominant hand, it becomes a genuine concern.
The biggest red flag with Shannon’s left-hand reliance is his finishing around the rim.
Again, NBA players typically rely on using their strong hand to finish in traffic or at awkward angles. However, Shannon has a habit of always falling back on his left hand, no matter the circumstances.
When Shannon can get to his left hand and use his quick burst off the dribble, he’s lethal as a change-of-pace Tasmanian devil for the Timberwolves. Although when his defender can slightly push him off his path or disrupt his momentum, Shannon is often out of control and turnover-prone. He’s either losing the ball on a rushed kickout, losing it on his gather, or completely missing his layup attempt.
There are opportunities for Shannon to get quick layups on the right side of the rim with a left-handed finish. However, when that’s the main tendency and not a situational finish, it becomes an issue.
If Shannon has a wide-open reverse layup with his right hand, he’s likely to try to contort his body to its limits to use his left hand. Ultimately, Shannon doesn’t trust his right hand for finishing around the rim.
Chris Finch has done a good job of getting Shannon touches to his left hand by running him on staggered handoffs out of the corner and utilizing a split-action ATO to get him downhill. Still, setting play design out of a timeout can only help Shannon so much. Shannon cannot thrive as a rotational option on a playoff team if he cannot score without the perfect circumstances.
It’s still early in Shannon’s NBA career. He has only played 455 rotational, non-garbage-time minutes, according to Cleaning the Glass. Ultimately, the Wolves need Shannon’s scoring punch off the bench and more from their recent draft picks, and he’s a 25-year-old prospect. All of that puts more of a spotlight on him.
Shannon has battled through multiple injuries and has not been able to find rotational consistency. However, his game has been far too volatile for Chris Finch to trust him in the rotation on a nightly basis. It is the core reason Shannon has seen just 12.9 minutes per game in his 15 games this season.