Timberwolves

Chris Finch's Wolves are Going to Be Fun to Watch

Photo Credit: Stephen Lew (USA TODAY Sports)

The Minnesota Timberwolves are back in action after a nice All-Star break and ready to give fans some hope during the back-half of the season. Newly appointed head coach Chris Finch has had a few days to catch his breath after being hired on the fly and truly implement some of his offensive schemes.

Finch, 51, has a decorated coaching history. He started overseas, coaching in England, Germany, and Belgium for six seasons before he was an assistant on four different NBA teams. The Pennsylvania-raised former D3 swingman has seen a lot over his 23 years as a coach.

Since the break, Minnesota has looked like a more polished and revitalized team, but what has changed? Considering that it takes a while for a new head coach to really implement what he wants to do, I decided to look into some trends of Finch’s previous teams to see where the Wolves may be headed on both sides of the ball.

In each of the three seasons that Finch was an associate HC with the New Orleans Pelicans (2017-20), they were top five in four key areas that could foreshadow Minnesota’s playing style for years to come:

Assists

In order to be among one of the league-leaders in assists, there are multiple offensive variables that are required. The team:

  • Can’t have a star player who is an iso/ball-dominant player.
  • Has to understand how to move without the basketball and where teammates will be throughout the offensive sequence (otherwise known as chemistry).
  • Needs to have good shooters, catch-and-shoot players more specifically.
  • Will have a high pace and create as many offensive possessions as possible.

Minnesota’s current roster currently checks roughly three of those four boxes. With Malik Beasley and D’Angelo Russell out for the next three weeks, the Wolves will rely on Ricky Rubio to move the ball and Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards to score.

As head coach of the D-League Rio Grande Valley Vipers in 2009, Finch’s team led the league in assists, resulting in a championship in his first year coaching the team!

When healthy, Minnesota’s only true weak spot as it relates to the points above is chemistry. They are still very young and inexperienced. Simply playing with one another on a consistent basis and developing a true rotation will do wonders for Finch’s youthful squad.

Field Goal Attempts

Finch clearly believes that the more opportunities you give yourself at putting the ball in the hoop, the better off you’ll be. I believe it was Michael Scott who once said, “You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take.”

If there’s any time or season to give the green light to every player, it’s the back half of this year. Minnesota doesn’t have much to lose. The T-Wolves currently sit last in the league’s standings and need to find out what they have in the young players on the squad — which is basically the entire roster.

Shot selection has been a problem for Minnesota in recent years. Analytically, one of the worst shots you can take in the NBA is a long 2-point field goal. Former head coach Ryan Saunders and his staff emphasized this point so much that in practice, they would count a long 2-point attempt as 1.7 or 1.8 points.

The league has shifted to 3-point-dominant offenses in the last decade. Finch witnessed it first-hand with the Rockets and, based on his coaching history, will most likely implement a modern offense in Minnesota. In his championship season with the Vipers in 2009, Finch’s team shot the second-most threes in the G-League.

Whether you agree that shooting the basketball a ton is a good or bad idea, one thing is for sure — it’s an entertaining style of play. Minnesota will have a fast pace and seldom will let the shot clock dwindle down, forcing a rushed shot attempt.

Points Per Game

The only way to get an assist is to make a shot. And considering Finch’s teams don’t hesitate to let the pumpkin fly, they put up a lot of points.

While Finch was with the Pelicans from 2017-20, they averaged 114.3 PPG. Sure, they shot a lot, but the ~91 attempts in each game were quality attempts. New Orleans ranked second, sixth, and 13th respectively in field goal percentage.

I would be shocked if this trend didn’t continue in Minnesota with the amount of firepower that they have. Towns, Beasley, Russell, Edwards, and even role players like Jaden McDaniels and Jaylen Nowell possess a lot of offensive talent.

The real challenge Finch’s staff has on their hands is pushing the young players to take the right shots. It’s one thing to chuck up 90-plus shots a game, it’s a whole different ball game being efficient on offense and maximizing each possession.

Opponent’s Points Per Game

Soooo I kinda-sorta fibbed a little bit. When Finch was with the Pelicans, they were top five in this category, just not the top part that you want to be in. While Finch is an offensive mastermind, his teams don’t seem to put a large emphasis on the defensive side of the ball. In Finch’s three seasons in New Orleans, those teams appeared to be competing for the Worst Defense in the League award.

Now obviously if you’re scoring a lot, it can somewhat compensate for the fact that the team is pretty much incompetent on defense. But in order to actually win consistently and make a playoff push, you need to have at least a middle-of-the-road defense.

Finch’s Vipers could score at will, but they also were not bottom five in opponent’s PPG. Defense is going to be a massive challenge for Minnesota considering the best defensive teams in recent years are usually have more experienced players. Teams like the Toronto Raptors, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers, and Utah Jazz. Luckily for Minnesota, their defense can’t get much worse. And the older the team gets, the better they should be on the defensive end.

Regardless of wins or losses, one thing is a guarantee with a Chris Finch-led team: They will be fun to watch on offense. Considering that Minnesota has a 40% chance to retain their draft pick, losing games doesn’t necessarily hurt the team’s future. It looks like we’ll find out sooner rather than later what type of playing style Minnesota has, but one thing is for sure, some of the small changes Finch made during the break are already working.

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