Q&A: Timberwolves’ Chris Finch on the joys — and challenges — of coaching Anthony Edwards

This is the third of a four-part Q&A between Britt Robson and Minnesota Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch. You can read the first two parts here and here.

In this segment, Finch’s in-depth assessment of his close relationships with top scorers Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle bracket an extensive discussion of potential rotations, involving at least nine and perhaps ten players.

The final part of the interview will appear on Friday. On Monday the Timberwolves begin their training camp in preparation for the 2025-26 season. 

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

MinnPost: This seems like a good time to talk directly about Anthony Edwards. You’ve had him for nearly 400 games now, counting the playoffs. He is entering his sixth season and he is 24 years old. That’s a crazy combination of chronologies. 

Chris Finch: [laughs] Yeah.

MP: Those numbers indicate “veteran” in some ways, but at the same time there is still so much growth potential yet to be fulfilled. He is so obviously the most important person in this entire franchise. If he is disgruntled, the whole organization goes into a spasm or crazy funk. So your priority is to get the most out of him while keeping him happy. How has that relationship evolved? He’s been great in some respects and recalcitrant in others, which is par for the course, I guess.

Finch: Yeah, all superstar players have that stubbornness to them. When they look at what they don’t do well, they want to double down on it to prove to you that they can do that, too. I’m fine with that mentality as long as you still lean into the things that you are really good at, and the other things need to be sprinkled in at the right measure. 

For me now, it is less and less about Ant adding to his game and really more about polishing it and rounding the edges; adding the cerebral part and the repetitive, boring stuff. Anthony has never had a problem with meeting the moment when it is a high moment. But dealing with the mundane parts of it all; I see him starting to do more of that now. 

Just even in his workouts with us this summer, his leadership with the team, consistency of effort in places where, in years gone by, you would see him just kind of take a break or take the play off. And this is just in our summer gym right now. This summer he has been intentional in his leadership. 

And it is still, I think, a great place to be with him, because he still has room to grow into all these things: Figuring out a go-to move in how to close out games. He used to try and make the home-run play all the time, and now it has shifted into more of his closing package, right? 

He’s learning how to make the simple plays. But I will say that he did make the right play a lot of time last year; we just didn’t make shots.

MP: And he got ripped for it, criticized for it, the way Kevin Garnett used to be criticized for a lack of “hero ball,” or the way Lebron was criticized early in his career.

Finch: But I don’t think — when it comes to Ant, that doesn’t bother him. He believes so much in himself and his ability to do whatever is needed in those moments that he doesn’t see anybody questioning him. 

MP: What are the two or three best things about coaching Ant and what are the one or two things that are always going to be tough?

Finch: I’ll start with the latter first. How do you work with the stubbornness that almost always comes with supreme talent? Ultimately, the other thing I would say is that as he gets older, you have to keep giving him more freedom, more rope, more scope. He needs that. This is true of all players, but you need to see if he can handle it. 

Can he be the alpha everyone thinks he can be? These are things he has to keep proving to you, and he has always done that so far, for sure. 

But the relationship evolves, too. How do you hold him accountable? He is definitely someone you can hold accountable. He likes that, he wants that and he knows how important that is for the rest of the team. But that changes over time. It becomes more mature in its own right. 

The joys of coaching him: First of all, you know when you have a player like him you have a chance to win at a high level every night. Watching him grow, fill out. His routine, his preparation, his mindset; all that stuff has been very fun to watch. I’ve always said this about him: He roots hard for his teammates and it is super genuine. He plays with a certain way that he sees himself as a player, but he still plays pretty agenda-free basketball. 

He believes in his talent, believes in his ability to deliver, and it’s infectious. That is why he is such a good leader, because people like him as a person and they realize that when he is on your team you have a chance to win at a high level.

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

MP: Let’s get into rotations a little bit. At Summer League you said there was no question that you would have to expand the rotation to bring in the youth. I imagine that was specifically for TJ Shannon and Rob Dillingham. Jaylen Clark also had a really good year for you last year.

Finch: Yes he did.

MP: So how do you finesse it? You’re not going to play 11 guys, are you?

Finch: No. I doubt it.

MP: So will you play nine with a toggle, or will you play 10? I know it is early.

Finch: I’d like to play 10. But that will be difficult, because when you have Rudy, Naz and Julius soaking up 36 minutes and they are a large part of your identity, those players and the way they play.

MP: And you were just talking about an expanded role for Jaden McDaniels. And there’s Ant.

Finch: Exactly. So now if you want to play Jaden more at the four, for whatever reason, it is really hard to get to 10 at times. 

It is certainly nine. For sure. And a situational 10. Maybe even the ninth guy is different. Some nights it might be more of a point guard need, another might be a defensive need. It could be more of a big on another night.

MP: Of the young players, the guy who is imagined to have the highest ceiling currently has the lowest floor — Rob Dillingham. His development is obviously important, if for no other reason than Mike Conley is not getting any younger. In Summer League, there was a lot of good but still some bad in his play. He still looked better playing off the ball, didn’t he?

Finch: Well, he is going to have to embrace being off the ball. Certainly when he is out there with Ant, and Julius, for that matter. 

The formula for Rob to make an impact for us is simple. He just has to create pace and he should be able to do that naturally. And it is something that we desperately need. Then he just has to break the paint; get in the paint whether you are in a pick and roll, or playing off the catch, or beating your guy on a crossover (dribble) and getting downhill. Get in the paint and then make plays for your teammates. 

The scoring piece is fine. We know he’ll make some pull-ups and floaters and get to the rim. Off the ball, be ready to make some spot-threes. That piece will come. I do feel like he has a passing profile that can unlock a lot for guys that he’s playing with — and we really need that. We really need that. And that’s not asking him for things that he can’t do, or that significantly alters his game in any way. 

As long as he’s doing that, and keeps fighting his tail off on defense, we’ll be happy and he’ll have a role.

MP: It was a very small sample size, but he and Ant had very good numbers playing together.

Finch: Uh-humm. 

MP: He does seem to be a little star-struck, but when you are a teenager playing with a superstar that can happen. Obviously everybody who plays with Ant gets the advantage of his presence, but do you see pairing them at times?

Finch: Oh yeah. No doubt, they are going to play together. I think there are moments — and I told Rob this last year as well — that “you’re naturally going to play off of Anthony. But don’t defer to him so much either. Create pace, push ahead, play pick-and-roll with Rudy, where you are really good for him. Create shots for everyone else rather than just for Ant.” 

I think that is a natural gain we get there (playing them together). And I think defensively Ant has the ability to guard whatever backcourt guy we need him to take in those moments. Which is all part of it, too.

MP: As Mike gets older, you already have defensive worries about the smaller point guard getting burned in isolation coverage in the low post. In this league of switching, you have to protect Rob quite a bit, don’t you?

Finch: Yeah. With Rob (in the game) you have to be really picky about the switches you do make, and have to be on-point on coverages; go to some old-school coverages where you are preserving matchups by not switching. Those are all things that we are looking at, have looked at all summer, just because I really believe he has to be multi-faceted there, to be able to cover.

And not just with Rob. I think right now (opposing) guards have just settled into attacking these coverages. So I think it is time to get more aggressive in a lot of ways. On the ball, when you have Rob, I think it forces us to do that.

MP: You have to punch first to minimize the weakness. 

Finch: Yeah. And if we’re going to have to do it when Rob is out there, why don’t we just be good at it, period?

MP: When I think of the best partners for Rob in that situation, well, Rudy obviously.

Finch: Yeah. Last year we always tried to play Rob with Rudy on the floor. 

MP: You also never matched him up with any large guards. He was far more likely to play if the opposing backup point guard was relatively small. 

Finch: Yeah. Well, what we’ve asked Rob to do is get good at chasing off-ball, the way we employ Mike. So that is something he is going to have to continue to get better at.

MP: Because Mike is really good on the chase.

Finch: Mike is elite. [laughs] And we tried to pair him with Rudy as much as we possibly could. But it is really hard, because some people have to play with those other people, too.

MP: You need Rudy to protect Mike and Rob, and you can’t really play them together. Not in the same backcourt.

Finch: Probably not. Exactly. These things sometimes can be mutually exclusive and you have to pick the one that you benefit from the most.

MP: Just spitballing here, but what if you moved Jaden McDaniels up into the frontcourt when Rob is on the floor? He could protect him.

Finch: Sure. We do have the ability to put out a lot of different defensive players around him. Play Jaden at the four, or Jaden at the three. You could play TJ, who I think has a ton of defensive growth in him this season. Of course Jaylen. Ant. There are definitely some interchangeable pieces there. And Rob just has to continue to give us everything he’s got. 

MP: You have the capability of going with a really fast lineup or a pretty slow lineup; a really big lineup and a fairly small lineup. How much of that realistically can be realized? Are you going to have to make some decisions and can all of it be on the table?

Finch: A lot of that will come down to our maturity. Can the guys see the long-term vision of how they can help us, and when it needs to help us? I think that was one of OKC’s strengths last year. They were able to have so many different types of lineups, whether it was two bigs or no bigs. And they all bought in. And from an outsider’s perspective, anyway, nobody seemed really bothered. They have a super-young core and have been together for a while. 

We have more of a mixed blend. But go back to when we were talking about internal growth. Can we mature past these trappings of kind-of-young players, unproven players, journeyman players. All these things where, this mindset creeps in about selfishness, for lack of a better term, that affects your ability to do these things to help us. 

Related: A big question for Timberwolves’ Chris Finch: who will get point guard minutes?

MP: You got phenomenal improvement on the defensive end from Randle last year. 

Finch: Uh-humm.

MP: And it was a commitment that was not common to his entire career before then. Do you bank on that this year?

Finch: I do. Go back to what we said initially: We know who we are now and what we need to be and how we need to play coming into this season. Julius showed that he could do that and so that needs to be the baseline, for him and for everyone. 

Above and beyond that, Julius has a high “care” factor. He really does. I think he is one of the most misunderstood players in the league. As a person, for sure, he cares and is emotional. At times he wears it on his sleeve a little too much and at times it affects his next-play ability. But he has reached a point — when you talk to him, or he has become very proactive at coming to talk to you about what the team needs and wants from him. He is ahead of the curve on that a lot of the time. 

I think he is in a place where he is embraced, protected and valued. All that stuff. Whether it is from Tim (Connelly), ET (defensive coach Elston Turner), or myself, or Anthony. All these people that are around him. Letting him know that it is okay to make mistakes. It’s not New York; you’re not going to be criticized for everything. 

We love him and we want him here. And we have proved that to him. As a result, he was willing to do whatever we needed him to do. Now maybe — all these paths are not always easy. But we got there. 

MP: And you were a very purposeful advocate for him on Day One.

Finch: Yup.

MP: Against people like me, criticizing him.

Finch: [Satisfied laugh]

MP: You knew from the jump that you wanted to make this thing work when it seemed dubious that he was going to be here more than a year, if that long.

Finch: Yeah. I would say this: I get the counter arguments and understand. I approached it in that I had worked with Julius and had known him in New Orleans, and that was a fairly tumultuous year. He was playing for a new contract. Anthony Davis asked out (demanded a trade). He’s competing for minutes with (Nikola) Mirotic. There were a lot of similarities. 

I had some understanding of Julius as a person and I also knew that if we pulled the rip cord on (his role on the team), we were not going to get some idealized version of a player, where we convinced him to be Sixth Man of the Year. The guy is a two-time All NBA player. Sixth Man of the Year is not something he wanted.

It was literally about how do we get the best version of Julius? Because we needed that version for us to be good. So that is what I stayed focused on. And to be honest, he saw what this team could be if he was that version. And I think he led that initially, then got hurt, then watched these other guys step forward, and realized that, hey, these guys can really help. We can really help each other.

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