It looked like Robert Covington was hunting.
With each dribble Chris Paul made base line, as the Rockets’ point guard drove past Derrick Rose, Covington took a step in closer on the weak side.
He was lurking, prowling — baiting?
Gorgui Dieng stepped up to stop Paul’s penetration leaving Houston center Clint Capela seemingly wide open by the bucket. Paul fed Capela, who went up for what seemed to be an easy dunk. Only it wasn’t.
By the time Capela left the ground, Covington was on his hip. He leaped up from behind the center and met Capela at the rim. With his left hand, Covington stopped Capela on his tracks, engulfing the ball in the process.
“You have to beat [Capela] before he jumps. That’s what I did,” Covington said. “I saw the rotation and the way Gorgui was going. He was going to try and switch it out. So I baited him. He had no idea where I was on the court.”
As the official called for a jump ball, Covington ripped possession away from Capela, successfully capturing his prey. If the defensive end is a jungle, Covington, a lion, is king.
“There’s things that a lot of people in this league can’t do from a physical standpoint or an IQ standpoint,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “He has that itch for the ball.”
Ask Timberwolves players for the reason for Minnesota’s defensive improvement since the trade that sent Jimmy Butler to Philadelphia, they’ll all point to Covington. He is the catalyst of Minnesota’s post-trade defensive revolution.
Jeff Teague spent the last year-plus playing alongside his friend Jimmy Butler — widely considered one of the NBA’s best defenders. He called Covington “special.”
“Him and Jimmy have very similar characteristics,” Teague said. “But this dude right here, man, he takes it to another level. They’re both really talented on the defensive end, but [Covington] takes pride in it like I’ve never seen before.”
ONE WAY UP
Philadelphia’s initial reasons for intrigue with Robert Covington were that he had the size and athleticism to be a power forward in a small-ball lineup, and he could shoot — the latter was more important for what, at that time, was the worst team in the league.
The 76ers were really bad and Covington was an undrafted player who had success in Summer League the D-League, but was an entirely unproven commodity at the NBA level. Unfortunately, there was a problem with being a shooter in Philadelphia.
“We didn’t have anyone that could get him shots,” recalled former 76ers assistant coach Lloyd Pierce, who was hired as Atlanta’s head coach this offseason.
So Pierce issued Covington a challenge.
“In order to stay in this league and be effective, you’ve got to be able to go down there and be able to stop somebody on the other end,” Covington recalled Pierce saying.
STUDY SESSIONS
Prior to a home game against Boston last month, Covington was asked how many opposing players he watches film on.
His answer: “Everyone.”
Part of that is because Covington can and will cover all five positions at any given time. But film study is the primary part of Covington’s preparation. He wants to know everyone’s primary moves, and their counters.
“You’ve got to be able to know what guys’ tendencies are,” Covington said. “That’s what has allowed me to take my level of intensity up on defense.”
Covington said he and Pierce went “overboard” with film study, watching film “two, three, four times a day.” On the road, Pierce and Covington would sit in the brunch room at the team hotel and either watch clips of Covington’s last game to “clean some stuff up” or look at the upcoming opponent’s tendencies or areas where Covington could “cheat the play a little bit” to gain an advantage.
“He liked having a game plan going into the games,” Pierce said. “It wasn’t about what we watched, but just the ability to grab him and give him the coach’s perspective.”
Covington is No. 2 in the NBA in steals per game (2.1) and is consistently near the top of the league in deflections. He has some of the league’s best hands, but knowing what an opponent is going to do in real time provides a major advantage.
“It gives him an edge,” Pierce said. “He’s able to anticipate, which allows him to get steals. He’s able to anticipate, which allows him to get deflections. … I think it helps him to prepare a little bit more to understand people’s tendencies or the sets just to be in position for himself to make plays.”
NO MAINTENANCE
Pierce puts players into three categories: high maintenance, low maintenance and no maintenance. Covington is in the latter.
In Pierce’s experience, most players insist on knowing why. If they’re watching film, they want to know what they’re watching, what the coach wants to watch that and what they’re looking at. Once they know the why, they’ll participate.
“Rob is the opposite,” Pierce said.
Pierce called Covington “the easiest guy to coach.”
If Pierce asked Covington to watch film, he’d say “OK.” If Pierce told Covington to get up shots after practice, he’d respond, “alright.”
“It may sound simple,” Pierce said, “but it’s definitely not the most common thing in today’s game.”
What impresses Jamal Richardson, Covington’s trainer, most is Covington’s ability not only to listen, but to absorb instruction, process it and translate it to his game.
“He spends a lot of time on attention to detail,” Richardson said. “He really focuses in and harnesses the little things that we emphasize.”
Richardson called Covington “easily one of the hardest-working players” he’s ever trained.
“That’s one guy you never have to worry about tracking down or hunting down to get into the gym,” Richardson said. “He’s calling you at 12 a.m., he’s calling you at 6 a.m., he’s calling you at 10 p.m. (to train). He’s hungry, he wants to find ways to get better and he definitely stays consistent in the gym, and it’s really paid big dividends for him.”
‘CAN ALWAYS GO HIGHER’
Those dividends are coming in various forms, from the four-year, $62 million extension he inked with Philadelphia in 2017 to the first-team All-NBA Defense honor he received for his efforts last season.
Covington has exceeded all expectations.
“We were surprised,” Pierce said. “We didn’t know how good of a defender he was or how good of a defender he could become.”
It was a couple years ago when Covington said things really started to click for him. He credits Pierce and the 76ers’ coaching staff with much of his evolution. But it wasn’t until last season when he started to be recognized as one of the game’s best defenders, despite the fact he was consistently putting up impressive defensive stat lines. He said the first-team defense honor he received was “very relieving.”
“Just to have that on your belt, there’s only a certain amount of guys that can say that each year,” he said. “To be on that front street with that unit that was first-team, it was just a testament to hard work, believing in yourself and not giving up.”
Richardson noted there’s a lot more Covington has in his game than defense and 3-point shooting, from putting the ball on the floor to creating for others. In Minnesota, Covington has a stage where he can display his full array of talents.
But the defense is still, and likely always will be, the staple of his game. Covington currently leads the entire NBA in ESPN’s Defensive Real Plus-Minus, a stat that measures a “player’s estimated on-court impact on team defensive performance.” Translation: no one is doing more for their team on that end than Covington. And now that he’s been a first-teamer, Covington is eyeing the final defensive accolade he’s yet to obtain.
“The only ceiling now is to continue to get that award, Defensive Player of the Year,” Covington said. “Can’t go no lower, but can always go higher.”