Sensational alley-oop baskets by Andrew Wiggins. Up-and-under reverse layups from Thaddeus Young or Anthony Bennett. Circus dunks from Zach LaVine. All orchestrated by Ricky Rubio.

These are the dream images associated with the buzz words the Timberwolves are using to promote the team’s future — “athletic,” “high-flying” and “up tempo” — after an extensive retool that included a three-team trade that sent three-time all-star Kevin Love to Cleveland last weekend.

The man in charge of making it happen, president of basketball operations and coach Flip Saunders, has a somewhat less-exciting buzz word for the 2014 Timberwolves: defense.

“I’m hoping that the biggest change is going to be defensively,” Saunders said. “Always a key in your ability to guard is your athleticism. The quicker you are, the longer you are, the better chance you have to be a good defensive team.”

Aficionados understand where Saunders is coming from. When healthy last season, the Wolves were often an exciting offensive team, averaging 106.9 points per game, third best in the NBA. But after giving up an average of 104.3 points — and blocking an NBA-low 3.6 shots a night — they finished 40-42 and missed the playoffs for the 10th straight season.

Improving the defense, Saunders said, will lead to the kind of prolific, acrobatic offense the team is promoting.

“The easiest way to score is in the open floor,” Saunders said. “You do that by forcing missed shots or forcing turnovers and taking live turnovers and turning them into points.”

SCORING PUNCH?

The Timberwolves don’t have a player to replace Love’s 26.1 points and 12.5 rebounds a game at power forward. But Saunders called Young, acquired from Philadelphia to take that spot in the starting lineup, a “borderline all-star, statistically” after averaging 17.9 points and six rebounds.

And after making eight three-pointers combined in the previous three seasons, Young made 90 last season, at a 31 percent clip.

In shooting guard Kevin Martin and center Nikola Pekovic, the Wolves return their second- and third-best scoring options. Martin’s 19.1 points per game came on 39 percent three-point shooting and a penchant for driving to the rim and drawing fouls.

But Pekovic’s career-high 17.5 points a game — and 54 percent field-goal shooting — no doubt were aided by Love’s ability to draw a big defender out of the lane with his three-point shooting ability.

Still, at the end of games, the ball went to Love, often from his groove spot on the left wing. While Love shot 46 percent from the field last season, he sank only 36 percent late in tight games, according to NBA.com stats.

So without Love, and when the pace inevitably slows, who provides the added scoring punch?

“You want to be a team that can use matchups,” Saunders said. “When you have a mismatch, you want to be able to attack it. We have to be able to keep the floor spread with player movement and ball movement and give players opportunities to create at the basket in the half-court.”

If that happens, Saunders said, Wiggins and LaVine can help fill the gap left by Love’s departure — and not just by slashing to the basket. Saunders said both 19-year-old rookies can shoot, too.

“We aren’t getting people that are just freaks athletically,” he said.

With the closer three-point line in college, LaVine shot 38 percent at UCLA, while Wiggins made 34 percent at Kansas.

Speaking of shooting, Rubio’s well-chronicled struggles (career 37 percent from the field) will be at a pivotal point in his fourth season.

‘DEFENSE EVERY DAY’

In a Sirius XM NBA Radio interview Tuesday, Wolves general manager Milt Newton was asked the biggest difference between former coach Rick Adelman and Saunders.

“We will spend time on defense every day,” Newton said.

Saunders said he will incorporate three-quarter-court and half-court traps and other zone defenses.

“We are going to do a lot of those things,” Saunders said. “Whatever you can do to control the tempo of the game defensively.”

That means the defense of Martin and Pekovic again will be under the microscope. Martin’s defense is consistently indifferent, and while Pekovic is a big body inside (6 feet 11, 285 pounds), his inability to block shots (0.4 per game) is glaring.

Young, who called Pekovic “one of the strongest guys I’ve ever played against,” won’t be much help there; he averaged 0.5 blocks per game with a bad Sixers team (19-63) last season.

But Young averaged 2.1 steals a game, adding to the Wolves’ penchant for creating turnovers. Rubio ranked second in the NBA with 2.3 steals a game last year, and sinewy swing man Corey Brewer was sixth at 1.9.

“I think this is going to be a scary situation for a lot of teams to come into,” Young said.

REST OF THE ROSTER

Lost in the hype is the fact that Minnesota still has last year’s first-round picks: center Gorgui Dieng and swingman Shabazz Muhammad.

Dieng was named NBA rookie of the month for March and maintained that level of play through April. He averaged 1.3 blocks over those final six weeks. This season, Dieng could slide over to power forward at times if opponents go big.

Muhammad, who like Dieng didn’t find a lot of playing time under Adelman, will get more of a chance under Saunders. After a stint in the NBA Development League, he averaged 3.6 points on 49 percent shooting in 37 games last year.

Muhammad has been going through “chameleon” training, high-intensity workouts for elite athletes.

“As I said to our staff, all of the (players) here, they better be ready because (Muhammad) is going to be coming into camp with a chip on his shoulder,” Saunders said. “He is going to come in with a focus on what he wants to accomplish.”

Veterans Young and guard Mo Williams, who signed as a free agent this offseason, will be counted on to mentor the young players, as will backup center Ronny Turiaf.

Saunders, who coached the Wolves to eight playoff appearances from 1997-2004, wants to take a page out of his previous tenure, when veterans Sam Mitchell and Terry Porter joined the team to mold Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury.

Young, 26, and Williams, 31, will fill those mentor roles this time.

“If you are going to bring in someone older, they still have to be able to play,” Saunders said. “They still have to get on the floor because they have to translate what they’re saying.”

Chase Budinger, who insists he is finally healthy after repeated knee issues, and Robbie Hummel, who returns on a one-year guaranteed contract. will be asked to hit three-pointers.

On the edge of the roster are J.J. Barea, the mercurial backup point guard now behind Williams on the depth chart, and Glenn Robinson III, the second-round pick from June who has not signed a rookie contract. He will come to October’s training camp to compete for a final spot.

Like Wiggins and LaVine, Robinson is an athlete, but it will take more than elite jumping ability to make this team successful.

Follow Andy Greder at twitter.com/twolvesnow.