For the better part of two seasons now, the Minnesota Timberwolves have been a disaster on the defensive end of the court, ranking in the bottom 5 in opponents points, defensive rating, and a slew of individual defensive metrics.

This is especially worrisome because the coach of the Timberwolves is Tom Thibodeau, who was known as a defensive savant during his tenure with the Chicago Bulls. Stellar defense was the payoff for enduring his generic offense, minutes and injuries issues, as what is, quite frankly, a fairly joyless approach to the game of basketball. That was the tradeoff that made all the frustrations worth it.

But for two seasons now, Thibs' vaunted defense has been a no-show, leaving only the frustrations. It's been an especially vexing problem this season - Jimmy Butler and Taj Gibson, who were two-thirds of the Thibs' Bulls exceptional defense in Chicago, are on board now. Yet the defensive rating has remained in the basement.

There's a lot of factors that play into this. NBA defense is an incredibly complex mix of planning, communication, chemistry, physicality, and effort. But one area that has been a major problem defensively - and is extremely troublesome both in how simple it is and who is ultimately responsible - is that the Wolves are simply guarding the wrong places on the floor.

The two best places to shoot from on the floor are at the rim (layups and dunks) and corner threes. Point blank is obvious because it's hard to miss. Teams shoot an average of 60% at the rim; nowhere else on the court is the average FG% over even 50%. And the corners are the shortest distance three point shots. Mathematically, you can shoot a significantly lower percentage on threes versus twos and still score the same number of points, and the corner three has the highest FG% of anywhere on the arc. The points being scored from these locations are far higher than anywhere else on the floor.