Minnesota assistant Micah Nori was sitting in his office last season as the Timberwolves were headed toward a 56-win season and an eventual trip to the Western Conference finals. During a conversation about his coaching background, Nori was asked what set head coach Chris Finch apart in this crazy business.
“On a scale of one to 10, he stays between four and six,” Nori said. “We win a game, it’s not like he’s chest bumping and he’s at a 10, then we lose and he’s all the way down to a one or two. So, it’s not an emotional roller coaster that these guys feel. He’s very, very consistent.”
For his first three full seasons on the job, that steadiness served Finch and the Timberwolves incredibly well. The Wolves were 11-15 on Dec. 10, 2021, but Finch did not panic and helped steer that team to the playoffs. The next season, the Wolves struggled mightily to acclimate to the trade that brought Rudy Gobert to Minnesota, stumbling to a 16-21 start and receiving a torrent of criticism when they lost in the first round of the playoffs. But Finch backed Gobert and remained committed to the two-big experiment with Karl-Anthony Towns, and the patience paid off with last season’s playoff run.
This season, Finch is leading a roster that has more expectations than arguably any Timberwolves team to come before it. And as the Wolves flail away, that trademark steadiness is being tested like never before. After their third demoralizing loss in a row, 117-104 in Atlanta on Monday night, the pressure is on Finch to find a solution to fix what ails an offense that has plummeted to 23rd in the NBA with a rating of 110.3 points per 100 possessions. That is nestled right in between 7-23 Toronto (110.4) and 7-21 Utah (110.1).
Finch has taken his usual approach as things have gone off the rails, staying largely with the same eight rotation players and the same starting lineup in the face of clunker after clunker. One game after scoring 15 points in the first 18:21 of a loss to the Golden State Warriors, the Wolves fell behind the Hawks by 19 points during a first quarter they managed to lose 35-19.
Minnesota shot 33 percent from the field, 27 percent from 3-point land and turned it over six times to dig itself another big hole. The starting lineup of Mike Conley, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert scored just seven points in their first shift together, missed six of their nine shots and turned the ball over four times to fall behind 15-7 when Nickeil Alexander-Walker was brought in to replace McDaniels after two quick fouls.
It just feels like something has to change. The Wolves (14-14) have lost three games in a row for the third time this season. Last season, they did not lose three straight until the West semifinals.
The body language of the team is concerning. Edwards, who was just 7 for 20 with five turnovers, is playing joyless basketball while he tries to find open driving lanes to the rim. Randle put up 19 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists, but he turned it over seven times. Gobert did not attempt a shot in the first quarter, scored only two points in the game and once again saw his defensive performance swoon when he was not involved as much in the offense.
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Conley is shooting 36.8 percent from 3 after a career-high mark of 44.2 last season, his floater game has been wholly unreliable and he even made a critical mental error in the fourth quarter when he fouled red-hot Garrison Mathews on a 3-point attempt. McDaniels was in foul trouble early and had just six points and two rebounds.
In the 13 minutes the starting five was out there in Atlanta, the Wolves were outscored by 17 points. The group managed just 18 points, an unconscionably low number for what is supposed to be the team’s most formidable lineup. Performances like that are becoming more common. Randle and Edwards seem to trip over each other more than play off of one another. The Conley-Gobert side pick-and-roll that was such a staple of the offense last season has all but vanished.
Randle is getting the bulk of the blame from Wolves fans while Towns lights it up in New York. His first shift on Monday was dreadful — 0-of-5 shooting with three turnovers in seven minutes. He played better in the final three quarters, showing a greater intensity on defense and some better shooting, but it still left a lot to be desired.
The obvious option available to Finch is to swap Naz Reid for Randle in the starting lineup. Reid had 23 points on Monday, but he is far from perfect. In the Wolves’ 19-point fourth quarter that flushed a three-point lead down the toilet, Reid managed just two points, missed two wide-open 3s and Minnesota was outscored by 17 points in his eight minutes.
So, maybe you pull McDaniels out for Nickeil Alexander-Walker, adding a little more shooting on the perimeter to go with great defense played by both players. But NAW was scoreless, missed both of his 3s and was a minus-11 in 6:19 of playing time in the fourth quarter.
It wasn’t just a starting lineup issue on Monday night, though. Finch only had one starter on the floor, Randle, with Alexander-Walker, Reid, Donte DiVincenzo and Josh Minott, as the Wolves started the final period with an 85-82 lead. That group went 1 of 5 from the field and lost its 2:33 by five points.
Finch was asked about possible changes to the starting lineup after the game, and he was unsurprisingly noncommittal.
“Everything’s always on the table, for sure,” Finch said. “But also we need to keep looking at lineup combinations as the game goes on, too.”
There are small signs that Finch is starting to consider significant changes to the rotation. When Gobert was beaten by Hawks center Clint Capela for an offensive rebound and putback to put Atlanta up seven midway through the fourth, Finch immediately called for Reid to replace the four-time Defensive Player of the Year, who finished the game on the bench. The strategy did not work, as the Hawks outscored the Wolves 16-10 down the stretch to pull away, but it did feel like he was sending a message in the moment.
Minott also got 13 minutes as a ninth man and played well with four points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals. The Wolves won those minutes by eight points, making Minott the only Wolves regular on the good side of the plus-minus besides Alexander-Walker, who was a plus-1.
While the public clamors for Finch to make changes, the coach has a rebuttal. Reid is shooting just 35.8 percent from 3-point range after hitting 41 percent of his trey balls last season. DiVincenzo was just 2 of 8 from the field against the Hawks. Putting McDaniels on the bench would come after he has answered Finch’s pleas to play more consistent defensively and increase his rebounding.
Maybe it should be Rob Dillingham, who has been erratic in his limited opportunities this season, or Terrence Shannon Jr., a raw but physical player who picks up the tempo when he steps onto the court.
There are no easy answers right now, but it feels like Finch has to do something to change things up, even if the change is imperfect. Everything is way too difficult right now for a team with this much talent. The Wolves had four days off before getting blown out by New York and another two days off before losing to Golden State. Plenty of time to get in the lab, and yet the offense only seems to be getting worse.
In moments like these, when the pressure mounts to vacate a position, Finch historically has dug in and found ways to turn seasons around. The stakes are higher this season, with fans expecting another deep playoff run after last year’s spirited surge to the doorstep of the NBA Finals.
Those days seem so long ago. It now feels like Finch has a decision to make. The Wolves are in a showcase game in Dallas on Christmas Day, and the schedule doesn’t get any easier after that, with games at Houston, at Oklahoma City and against Boston right around the corner. Maybe Finch looks at the jam-packed West and finds solace in the parity. The Wolves are in 10th place, but only 2.5 games out of the No. 5 seed. They are also only two games out of 12th.
Finch just signed a four-year contract extension in June and continues to enjoy widespread support within the organization and the locker room. They have seen him steer them through some storms in the past. Now, they need him to do it again.
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(Top photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
