Texas Tech basketball alums: Jarrett Culver has big game for T-Wolves

Saturday, former Texas Tech basketball star Jarrett Culver had his best game yet for the Minnesota Timberwolves in a win over Washington.

To say that Jarrett Culver has had a slow start to his NBA career might be a bit of an understatement.  Prior to Saturday night, the former Texas Tech basketball star and 2018-19 Big 12 Player of the Year had averaged just three points and one assist in his first four games with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

But maybe what he did in the T-Wolves’ win over Washington will spark a bit of confidence in the No. 6 overall pick in this summer’s draft.  In his team’s 131-109 win over the Wizards, the Lubbock native had his best game yet with 20 points, five rebounds, an assist, and a steal in 29 minutes of action.

That’s more eight more points than he had had in his team’s first four games combined this year.  And perhaps more importantly, it marked the second-straight game in which the forward has had his best offensive showing of the year.  Wednesday, he put up six points in a loss at Philadelphia despite playing just 3:48.

Given that Minnesota’s star big man Karl-Anthony Townes was serving the first game of a two-game suspension following a fight in Wednesday night’s game, Culver’s offensive contribution was all the more necessary for his team.  Townes is off to the best start of his career with 27.3 points and 11.5 rebounds per game thus far meaning that his absence left a significant hole for his team to fill.

Culver joined Robert Covington as 20-point scorers while former Kansas Jayhawk Andrew Wiggins had a team-high 21 to help the T-Wolves move to 4-1 on the year.  Tech fans may also be interested to know that Rui Hachimura, who was a star for the Gonzaga team that the Red Raiders beat in March’s Elite 8, also appeared in this game scoring four points on 2-11 shooting.

As for Tech’s former star, he was efficient and confident, two traits that have been missing from his game thus far. Knocking down 8-17 shots, he set season-highs in virtually every offensive category.  Perhaps most important was the 4-9 he hit from 3-point range.

Outside shooting was the biggest weakness in Culver’s game last year and a concern of many as he went through the pre-draft process.  After hitting 38.2% from deep as a true freshman, he saw his shooting dip to just over 30% last season.

Thus far in the NBA, he’d hit just one of his nine looks from behind the arc.  However, he may be learning how to find his shot in the flow of an NBA offense, which is significantly different than the motion offense he ran under Chris Beard at Tech.  This was the second-straight game that he’s attempted four 3-pointers, a sign that he is feeling more confident in his ability to get shots.

Of course, it may also be a sign that teams are not fearing his ability to beat them from deep and are playing off of Culver to take away his driving lanes.  Whatever Washington did, it didn’t work.

As his team’s leading scorer off the bench in Washington, the rookie showed the type of form that people in Minnesota were expecting to see after the Wolves traded veteran Dario Saric and the No. 11 pick to the Phoenix Suns for Culver back in July.  The good news for the former Red Raider is that he’s not being asked to come in and save a dormant franchise right away as is often the case with other top 10 picks.  But he does have a role to play on Minnesota’s bench and after his strong showing on Saturday night, it looks like he’s starting to feel much more comfortable in that role.