Q&A: Timberwolves’ Chris Finch on how continuity will be key to team’s success

This is the first of a four-part Q&A between Britt Robson and Minnesota Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch.

With training camp for the Minnesota Timberwolves less than a week away, it is high time for what has become my favorite tradition on the Wolves beat: An in-depth conversation with head coach Chris Finch on how he plans to reinforce the strengths and remedy the weaknesses of a team he has led since taking over for Ryan Saunders in the middle of a pandemic-shortened 2020-21 NBA season. 

Under Finch, the Wolves have never been stronger. He has taken the team to the playoffs in all four of his full seasons on the sidelines, the last two extending into the Western Conference Finals. 

This has occurred despite a pair of blockbuster trades that significantly disrupted the continuity of the roster during his tenure: The acquisition of center Rudy Gobert for five players and four first-round draft picks in July 2022, and sending franchise cornerstone Karl-Anthony Towns (KAT) to the New York Knicks for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a first-round pick less than a week before training camp last season.

Related: The Minnesota Timberwolves were almost called the ‘Polars’

In the first installment of our 75-minute conversation that will run every day for the rest of this week, Finch talks about leaning into the hard-earned continuity that was belatedly established last season as a priority in training camp, along with needing to shore up the defense when Gobert isn’t on the court, and improving the efficiency of the team’s offense in the clutch. 

The following transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

MinnPost: As usual, I’ll begin by asking you what your priorities are for training camp, which opens next Monday for the 2025-26 season.  

Chris Finch: We have to lean in on continuity. We kind of know who we need to be; we saw what that looks like at the end of (last) season. I wouldn’t expect us to spend (or need) a lot of time trying to figure out what that looks like. But continuity is a priority.

Second-unit defense is a priority for us — mostly (defined) as defense when Rudy is off the floor. And then how we respond in clutch games. 

MP: Let’s take them one at a time. “Continuity” is a process you’ve done twice now. The integration of Rudy in with KAT a few years ago, and the integration of Randle and Donte DiVincenzo with Rudy and suddenly without KAT on the roster. Both were slow, halting progress in the beginning, and then very successful. How much was the process the same and how much was it different?

Finch: It’s certainly different every time, just based on the factors and individual players. With the Julius-Donte integration, a lot of it had to do with figuring out the best way to use Julius. So I think we’ve seen what that looks like now, but I do think there is still growth left there. His chemistry with Rudy can still improve. I think there are still ways we can feature Julius a little bit more, for who he is as a player.

Last year we were like, “Okay, we need you to score — wait a minute, we need you to pass.” And in those switches of what we wanted him to do, I don’t think we put him in the best position offensively sometimes. I think that revealed itself in the Oklahoma City series (the Western Conference Finals), where we weren’t able to weaponize him enough, as a scorer, which is what we needed him to be there. 

So (the integration) was going to be a little different than with KAT and Rudy, based on who those guys are. With KAT and Rudy, KAT was coming back from an injury (during the first year Rudy was on the team), but going into training camp (the second year) we did have a sample size of what we saw in the playoffs of things we liked and didn’t like with them together. 

And I do think there is some of that, too, (with Julius and Donte); lessons that we learned in the Oklahoma City series that we need to kind of start the season with. Just new tricks and ways to help Ant (Anthony Edwards) and ways to help Julius, ways to help Rudy. That’s what is great about these series; they reveal those things to you.

MP: The casual fan or the national pundit who doesn’t closely follow the franchise will look at this team and say, ‘They didn’t add anybody significant and they lost Nickeil Alexander-Walker.’ But you are banking on the synergy that comes with added continuity. 

Finch: Yeah, but continuity is multi-level. It is obviously leaning on corporate knowledge, right? But it is also relying on internal growth, which is huge. 

Can Jaden (McDaniels) take another step forward? What does the depth of our young players prove to be? How consistent can they be at a high level? The chemistry between Julius and Rudy. Ant taking another step, particularly when it comes to closing games. That is — what — four or five things I just mentioned? If we hit 75% of those things, I think we are a much better team. 

MP: Second-unit defense obviously will involve as many as six players who aren’t starters. It is probably too early to know who those players are going to be, especially at the lower end of the rotation, in the nine-through-eleven range. 

Finch: It is probably too early to point to exact combinations. But let’s just assume it is defense when Rudy is off and call all of that “the second-unit defense” at the moment. 

Those defensive numbers (when Rudy was on the bench) were not good in a number of areas, like ball contain, rim protection, keeping the ball out of the paint, not fouling, and being able to rebound better. We’re just going to have to figure out how to shrink the paint and just be more collectively guarding the rim.

MP: You went into last season thinking that Naz Reid might play some small forward.

Finch: Yeah.

MP: And then in the wake of the KAT trade he suddenly wound up playing, at least in the beginning, quite a bit of center. Do you have a more stable idea of what you want from him in terms of position, or do you want to be able to toggle where he plays?

Finch: I think we have a more stable idea of what we want to do. But I do like the idea of playing around and moving him to the three (small forward) finally.

Those are things you can do when you do have continuity. Last year, with the changes that we made, that move was a luxury that we were not able to get to, when we were struggling. We did it at times but it was more reactionary. 

MP: And it is tough to mess around with that early in the season. Both Randle and Rudy are prideful players who wondered if they were going to be ruffled by the rotation changes. 

Finch: (laughs). Yeah. I certainly think that is another area of growth for us. We can all be focused on the greater good. A lot of contracts were given out (during this offseason) here, and hopefully that eases those concerns. 

It is really like, we now have so much more depth at the one, two and three (point guard, shooting guard and small forward) on the perimeter. So now you are squeezing those players out. If you put Naz at the three consistently, who are you dropping from the rotation? Because you can’t play everybody.

MP: A year ago (planning the season before KAT was traded) it was the need to play KAT at both center and power forward that created a potential logjam. Whereas now, how much and where you play Naz will affect where the bumping occurs.

Finch: Yeah. When we thought we were going to have KAT going for us the whole season, this was a way to get Naz more minutes, at the three. Now we can still try to do that, but the reality is you’ve got young players ready to play and they are going to cannibalize those minutes, too. 

MP: I don’t know how accurate this is, and I know you didn’t put a tremendous amount of stock in this over the last couple of years, but Naz and Rudy together defensively have had great numbers.

Finch: Yeah, really good.

MP: The lowest points allowed per possession of any Wolves duo on the court together at least 900 minutes, two seasons in a row now.

Finch: Right.

MP: Does that dynamic change a lot if Naz is at the three instead of the four?

Finch: (pause). It is interesting. There is not enough of a sample size to have studied that. So, my guess is in that scenario that it is matchup dependent. In searching for the ideal matchup you might leave Naz on the four and have Julius guard the three, or something.

We’ve looked at those numbers (with Rudy and Naz in the frontcourt together) and they are real. We are not 100% sure what drives them all the time.

MP: (laughs) Right.

Finch: There are obviously other players on the floor, too, in that situation.

MP: You think some of it might be that Naz is a quick decision-maker and Rudy is a person that likes and reacts well to certainty?

Finch: Yes. I think there is definitely some truth in that; that Rudy can read and react to what is happening. 

MP: Getting back to defensive alignments without Rudy, the obvious frontcourt would be Randle and Naz, although Jaden McDaniels could bump and replace either one of those two.

Finch: Yeah.

MP: But further down the rotation, you’ve also got TJ Shannon, Rob Dillingham and Jaylen Clark — the “young depth” you referred to — who have a wide spectrum of skills on defense and offense. 

Finch: Right. And I think when you are looking at filling the void left by Nickeil, you have three guys who all give you a different part of what he did. In terms of being a good point-of-attack defender, you obviously have Jaylen. As a ball handler, you have Rob. And then for additional scoring, you have TJ, who is going to find ways to put the ball in the basket. 

It has always been my philosophy that whenever you lose somebody, it is really hard to replace it exactly, so you just have to figure out how to do it differently. 

Just the utility of Nickeil had such intrinsic value. And you do lose that, you know? But to your point, I think Jaden can take on more of a utility role too. Whether it be as a secondary handler, or as a guy who swings to the five — whatever it is you need him to do. It might look different. 

MP: I asked him near the end of last year if he had to pick just one role, would it be the wing stopper on defense or more of a Swiss Army knife role that you are talking about. He chose the latter. 

Finch: So he sees himself as more of a Swiss Army knife?

MP: I don’t know if that is how he sees himself, but under the scenario I presented, where he was forced to choose one or the other, he chose Swiss Army knife.

Finch: I think I would agree with that. I think he is a veritable Swiss Army knife and I feel like — we definitely went into last season wanting to grow his role, but that was all kind of parked …

MP: By the KAT trade.

Finch: The KAT trade not only hijacked that, but then when we kind of were sputtering a little bit; it just wasn’t a priority.

MP: Yeah, it turned his role into being mostly a catch-and-shoot three-point shooter in that new starting lineup, which was not a good match for his skill set. 

Finch: Exactly, yeah. But with Nickeil gone, there are other lineup combinations that will need some secondary playmaking.

MP: And Jaden might well be tapped to do that?

Finch: Yeah.

MP: Because I remember you talking about this last year at this time, having him turn corners with the ball on pick-and-roll or even running pin-downs with him having the ball.

Finch: No doubt. I think he is a good natural partner for Rudy and we have got to get back to finding ways to maximize Rudy offensively. We didn’t do a great job of that last year. At times we found him, but it wasn’t consistent enough. And I think we’ve got to do a much better job.

MP: The third priority you mentioned for training camp was improving end-of-game performance. Obviously the stats were ugly in games that were very close late in the game.

Finch: Yeah.

MP: And that was a crucial failing.

Finch: No doubt. 

MP: You’ve had a summer to think about it. What areas are able to be addressed effectively, do you think?

Finch: A couple of them. One is we have got to get Anthony to different spots on the floor, where he feels comfortable with a go-to move. Hopefully that leads into part two, which is drawing fouls. And then finally, what we did find coming down the season last year, is that we need to vary our end-of-game. We don’t just rely on Ant so much. I think using Julius, for sure, and the Mike (Conley)-Rudy combination is good. I actually think the Donte-Julius combination could be a good one too. Just spreading it around and not having so much emphasis on Ant carrying it all the time, was helpful for us. 

MP: Do you think your point guard situation has an impact on your difficulty scoring efficiently in the clutch? That there isn’t a Big Brain operating at his peak controlling the flow out there.

Finch: Well, I mean… (pauses) I would say “of course” in that we don’t have that dynamic point guard in his prime to break a defense down all by himself and make plays off of it. 

MP: As good as Mike Conley is, he is not able to enforce his will on the court, as much as he can help instructionally. 

Finch: Sure. But what I said last year about our clutch situations is what I believe and hope to be the case: If nothing else, we have an entire body of work to evaluate and help Anthony get better. The reality is the ball is going to be in his hands a ton and he’s got to continue to get better at these situations, regardless of whether or not we have a great point guard next to him.

I think there are things we can do. Putting the ball in other people’s hands in different situations will still end up helping him, because he’ll get the benefit of being off the ball.

MP: If that was something he embraced, the gravity of his movements would affect opposing defenses and not allow them to load up on the ball-handler.

Finch: Exactly. And if you have situations where they put two on the ball, you can pass it from there. 

Tomorrow in part two: Sorting out the point guard position and improving the offense with better cutting and more accurate finishing at the rim.  

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