Kyle Anderson
Minnesota Timberwolves

Player Facts

Height: 6'9"
Weight: 230lbs.

Wingspan: 7'2.75"

Date of Birth: Sep. 20, 1993
College Experience: UCLA (2 years)

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 3
Physical Strength: 8
Positional Size: 9
Positional Wingspan: 10
Paint Scoring: 7
Midrange Scoring: 6
Three-Point Scoring:5
Dribbling: 8
Passing: 8
Perimeter Defense: 8
Interior Defense: 6
Rebounding: 8

Embed from Getty Images

JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Slow and Steady

> Supplemental Scoring

> Flexible Facilitating

> Defensive Feel

> Guarding All

> Skirting Ball Screens

> Pickpocketing + Rebounding

> Scoring Holes

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

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*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

Kyle Anderson is an unorthodox wing player in numerous ways. The 6'9" UCLA product relies solely upon his craftiness rather than athleticism. "Slo Mo" almost throws defenders off with how deliberate and methodical most of his moves are.

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Slow and Steady

It's no secret that the former Bruin is not the most explosive NBA athlete. Fortunately, his plus length, size, and guile compensate for a lack of vertical pop as a finisher. The reality is, he still resides around the mid-60%'s at the iron. He's great at that "quicksand" deceleration finish.

Anderson's paint scoring value is propped up by great accuracy on in-between shots. He will Euro/decelerate from an already slow pace to line up a high-release-point floater. Combining a 6'9" frame with a 7'2.75" reach makes for a forward who seldom gets his shot blocker or altered.

Beyond just runners, his short-range jumpers are another weapon. Kyle stops and pops close to the basket for a more under-control style of shot. His skill diversity in this medium zone allows him to be such an efficient player inside of the arc.

From 2017-2018 to 2019-2020, Kyle shot a combined 124 of 271 on paint shots beyond the charge circle. This equated to a very solid 45.8% for these sorts of looks. 2021-2022 had him at a shade under 42%.

Supplemental Scoring

Given that he wasn't much of a perimeter shooter his first handful of NBA seasons, he grew comfortable in the midrange out of necessity. He can sink the odd catch-and-shoot look here or will pull up after using a ball screen. All told, he hit 48% of his midrangers in 2019-2020. He's since looked to exchange many of these for paint shots.

As for the deep ball, he finally became a serviceable 3pt shooter in 2019-2020. 2022-2023 had him at a nice clip from deep but on a very low attempt rate. Back in his early years though, he exhibited great instincts as a weakside cutter. Anderson's ever-present intuition as a cutter has allowed him to uphold off-ball value, jumper or no jumper.

Flexible Facilitating

Kyle's playmaking is a true differentiator for him on the wing. He's a capable scorer from two levels but the vision is a big-time value-add. The 6'9" forward's on and off-ball playmaking help grease the wheels of the half-court offense.

He is a sort of playmaking Swiss army knife. His unselfishness sets the foundation, but Kyle makes rudimentary passes, high-level reads, touch passes and live dribble passes.

One testament to his playmaking versatility is how he delivered 100+ passes to seven different Grizzlies in 2019-2020. Players of all positions were represented in this bunch, from Dillon Brooks and Brandon Clarke to Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jonas Valanciunas.

Star guard Ja Morant was by far Kyle's favorite recipient, with 353 passes to him on which he shot 49.5% from the field. Now, he feeds stars like Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns in Minnesota.

His 2.58 AST/TO ratio in 2021-2022 was more pristine than several point guards, namely Fred VanVleet and Damian Lillard. He notched 4.4 dimes per-36 that year.

Defensive Feel

Kyle can guard various positions for his coach within the half-court. He's active, smart, and knows his personnel. Years under Gregg Popovich in San Antonio helped develop the already natural feel for team defense that Kyle possessed.

Possession after possession, Anderson is in the right places as a defender. He knows when to cheat off his man to cut off a driver, or when to bring a straight hard double-team. He's even a difference-maker on the backline, an outlier shot-blocker at his position who refrains from fouling.

Guarding All

One-on-one, Anderson's superb size, and length bother smaller players. He can also check big men for short stretches in a pinch. Realistically, however, Kyle can comfortably guard 1 through 4. (and sometimes 5)

His bread-and-butter as a man-defender is his anticipation/footwork. He repeatedly guesses correctly as to where his man is going. Anderson will then beat them to that spot, forcing them to change course when they didn't want to.

2020-2021 and 2021-2022 were strong defensive seasons in Memphis. In each, he spent over 60% of his time at the four and nearly a third of his respective season's time at small-ball five. He spent loads of time guarding up and down the positional spectrum.

Skirting Ball Screens

Knowing his physical profile, one may not expect Anderson to be an expert screen-navigator. The opposite is true, using angles and that wingspan to muck up actions. 2018-2019 had him in the 73rd percentile checking pick-and-roll initiators, getting up to the 87th in 2019-2020.

Pickpocketing + Rebounding

Anderson plays passing lanes smartly but doesn't sell out. He controls himself and offers solid work rather than the all-too-common gamble approach. 2021-2022 had him at 1.9 swipes and 3.4 deflections per-36.

Kyle squeezes out some ancillary defensive value by getting on the glass. Since year 1, he's consistently pulled down 7+ rebounds per-36 minutes. Just like the rest of his game, Anderson uses positioning and angles to be effective here.

WEAKNESSES

Scoring Holes

His lack of burst, stand-out strength and bounce cause Kyle to have to stop short of the rim sometimes. Due to athletic shortcomings, he must settle for many 8-10-footer type shots. Anderson is efficient from here, but rim shots are still the far better look.

As a swingman, the consistent ability to knock down standstill threes is an expectation. Despite some real growth since his rookie days, Kyle is still short of being a high-level shooter. Mechanically his shot looks fine, but his release is very slow and opposing teams still prefer he takes the jumper than attack.

He should improve as a foul shooter too. Kyle also doesn't get to the line very often, which is a separate issue rooted in his subpar athleticism. As a non-big, he's simply had too many seasons below 72% at the stripe.

Kyle fades into an afterthought on offense a bit too frequently. He is a formidable ball-handler, passer, and in-between scorer, so he should up the aggression more often. A statistical capturing of this would be his low 2.8 drives per game in 2019-2020, congruent to the volume-shooting Robert Covington.

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bacon
Beacon Bacon

Kyle's near-7'3" wingspan was tied with Jerami Grant for fifth-longest at their Draft Combine, with only big men ahead of them