
When Chris Finch first arrived in Minnesota, he did so with a reputation for offensive creativity and innovation. He had spent the previous 10 seasons traversing the league as an assistant, establishing his reputation for offensive acumen by helping to make varied rosters hum.
He worked with Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins in New Orleans, a successful experience that would come into play years later in Minnesota. He was on the front end of the Nikola Jokić revolution in Denver. He cut his NBA teeth in the mad scientist-filled laboratory in Houston. All of that background led many to believe that putting him in charge of Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards and D’Angelo Russell would rocket the Wolves into a high-scoring stratosphere.
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One of the most interesting aspects of his tenure to date is that this offensive mastermind of a coach has done some of his best work on defense. The Wolves were the seventh-ranked offense in 2021-22, Finch’s first full season. But what propelled that team to a somewhat surprising playoff appearance was the fact that Finch and assistants Elston Turner and Kevin Hanson helped mold a terrible defense into an above-average one that finished the season 13th in defensive rating.
After the Wolves made the big trade for Rudy Gobert last year, they finished the season 10th in defensive rating. When Gobert was on the court, the Wolves posted a defensive rating of 111.1, which would have been fifth in the NBA, per Cleaning The Glass. The problem was that their offensive rating with him on the floor was 111.5, 26th in the league.
As the Wolves opened training camp over the weekend before heading to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for two preseason games with the Dallas Mavericks, there was plenty of focus on improving the offense. The emphasis has been on creating spacing around the Edwards-Towns-Gobert trio to breathe more energy into the unit.
But the emerging theme from the early days of camp has not been nearly as much about the offensive end as one might expect. If anything, the Timberwolves leadership is leaning into the defensive end even more to prepare for a grueling season in the Western Conference. Finch and president of basketball operations Tim Connelly have issued a simple, but direct, edict to the players: This is a defense-first operation.
“It has to be. It absolutely has to be,” Finch said. “I say that just because we have the personnel to do that and be that, on and off the ball and at the rim.”
It’s not just about Gobert, the three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, who expects to be a top-10 defense almost by himself. The Wolves have Jaden McDaniels, one of the best perimeter defenders in the league. Edwards has shown the ability to be a dominant on-ball defender. Nickeil Alexander-Walker has accepted a role as a tenacious defensive guard. And while Mike Conley Jr. is not the bulldog on that end that he was in Memphis days, his instincts and ability to slip screens remain top-notch.
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In a conference that includes the defending champion Denver Nuggets, a Phoenix Suns team now featuring Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, a healthy LeBron James and Anthony Davis with the Los Angeles Lakers, a healthy Kawhi Leonard and Paul George with the LA Clippers and a megawatt offensive talent all over the place, someone is going to have to be able to slow them down.
“You’ve got to be top 10 in defense to win a championship. That’s pretty consistent,” Connelly said. “And there’s a couple ways to do it. You can have a bunch of elite perimeter defenders. We have a couple of elite perimeter defenders. Certainly, the easy way to do it is to have rim protection.”
The Wolves do have all of those elements, but there are still plenty of questions to answer on that end. How will Towns manage a full season of playing so many minutes at power forward next to Gobert? The early results last season, before he went down with a calf injury that cost him 52 games, were spotty, especially in transition. KAT also missed all of training camp with an infection last season, so hitting the ground running this fall is paramount for him and the team.
“He’s healthy, he’s hungry and he’s giving his best every day,” Gobert said. “What I always tell him, it’s not always going to be perfect, but as long as we communicate, as long as we listen and as long as we give our best, good things will happen.”
Towns said his biggest adjustment last season was navigating more screens on the perimeter while covering 4s. He can also guard 5s if Finch wants Gobert to be more of a roamer on the defensive end. We saw that approach in Game 5 in the playoffs against Denver.
“Just doing whatever it takes to be effective for this team,” Towns said.
One of the team’s most important players off the bench, Naz Reid, also will have to show more defensive chops in two-big lineups. He signed a three-year, $42 million contract in the summer, a payday that will demand he plays not just as the backup center, but alongside Towns and Gobert in certain lineups.
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Can McDaniels reduce his fouling so he is available to guard the best players down the stretch?
But the biggest question they have to solve is how a team that was built to be bigger than almost everyone that it faced played so small on the glass. The Wolves ranked 27th in the league in rebound percentage last season. Only Dallas, Brooklyn and Indiana were worse.
“If we don’t rebound well, then it doesn’t matter how many stops you get,” Finch said.
Gobert ranked fourth in the NBA in total rebounds last season, but he didn’t get near enough help from his wings and guards to close possessions. McDaniels grew to almost 6 foot 11 this summer and will have to grab more than the 3.9 rebounds per game he averaged last season. Edwards will be counted on to get more than the 5.8 he did last season in what most assume will be another leap year for him. Towns’ career-low of 8.1 boards per game last season is nowhere near what the Wolves need from him.
Part of the struggles, especially in offensive rebounding, were strategic. The Wolves were beaten back down the floor early last season to such a degree that they essentially gave up on offensive rebounds to get back. Finch said that approach will change this season to better utilize the team’s size advantage.
From there, the Wolves can focus on assignment discipline, winning 50-50 balls and communicating at a higher level. One thing that will differ stylistically on the defensive end this season, Finch said, is that the team will streamline some of the game plan variance that they tried to deploy last season.
When Gobert was on the floor, the Wolves used a lot of drop coverage in the pick-and-roll. When he was off, they often tried to revert to bringing the big up level with the screener and then scrambling around the pick-and-roll, an approach that was successful for them in 2021-22. This season, Finch said he anticipates a lot more switching on screens and simplifying the game-to-game philosophy.
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“I think it’s understanding and starting to do the things that maybe are not as cool, things that people who watch games might not talk about like running back, boxing out, all of those things,” Gobert said. “Communication. Make that our habits. Then once we have that as our habits, we can focus on the rest.”
The goal is to create more offense from their defense. Finishing possessions with rebounds and creating turnovers can lead to easier offense in transition. Fewer halfcourt possessions also reduce the opportunities for Towns, Gobert and Edwards to trip over each other on offense as they work through their kinks and find a rhythm that eluded them in the small amount of time they all shared the court last season.
Edwards comes in motivated on the defensive end after Team USA was picked apart by Germany and Canada in the final rounds of the FIBA World Cup. He wants to be known as a two-way player and relishes the big assignments in big moments. Now it is about bringing as much focus to his off-ball defense in the second quarter as he does to guarding Luka Dončić in the closing moments.
“We’re big, man. We’ve got Jaden, 6-10, KAT’s 7 feet, Rudy’s 7 feet, so the paint should be hard to get to the rim and get a shot in,” Edwards said. “So you’re going to have to shoot the ball really, really good from the 3-point line, I feel like. I take pride in myself guarding my man. Jaden does also. Rudy doesn’t want to get scored on. So I think our starting five defensively, we should be really good.”
Ever since he arrived in Minnesota last year, Gobert has been harping on the little details that can make or break a defense. He had trouble adjusting to new teammates and a new system in the early going last season, but said that by the end, he was feeling more comfortable and trusting those around him more. That has to continue in Year 2, or this grand, two-big experiment is going to crash and burn.
“Really it’s the habits that we don’t have yet that is going to be the difference between us being a 45-40 win team and a 50-55 win team that can possibly play for something bigger,” Gobert said.
On Sunday, before departing for Abu Dhabi, Finch said there was already an increased emphasis on playing with more physicality and hustle on that end of the floor.
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“We’ve been a little passive,” he said.
Establishing a defensive identity could in some ways be an acknowledgment that they have to put Gobert in a position to influence games. He is 31 and his .659 field-goal percentage last season was far below the .713 he posted in his final season in Utah.
The clunky nature of the offense could improve this season with increased familiarity. But teams that want to win in the playoffs — and the Wolves count themselves in that group — have to be elite at something. With Gobert, McDaniels, Edwards, Conley and Alexander-Walker, they believe they have the horses to run that kind of race.
(Photo of Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
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