Bad habits, injuries and developing leadership. Those are the main ingredients Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch has in mixing bowl as he attempts to bake up a winning formula.
Finch appeared on KFAN radio in the Twin Cities on Tuesday – the morning after the Wolves beat the Nuggets 124-111 – and delivered some interesting comments about his young team’s “immature habits” and Anthony Edwards growing into a role as the team’s bonafide leader.
“That’s been a habit of ours. We miss shots at the rim, we look for help from the referee, then we don’t get back with the same urgency that we would if we were going the other way on offense. These are immature habits and these are things that we’ve gotta stop,” said Finch.
Finch was talking specifically about a play when Edwards was slow to get back on defense because he threw up his arms in disgust after the refs didn’t call a foul on an unsuccessful drive to the basket.
Later, Finch stated the obvious about way too many fouls.
“Another one of our poor habits is we foul a lot. Again, that’s a sign of a younger team who thinks they have to make every play a heroic one,” he said. One guy who is often in foul trouble isn’t a young player. Rudy Gobert is 11 years into his career and he’s average 3.13 fouls per game.
Gobert is 20th in the NBA in fouls per game. Jaden McDaniels, Minnesota’s budding do-it-all forward, is fourth in the NBA with 3.54 fouls per game. In Gobert’s defense, Finch said he oftentimes gets a “tough whistle,” which is what he’d expect because “when you’re 17-12 you don’t get the rub you want.”
Meanwhile, Finch praised Edwards for growing into his role as the team leader.
“His leadership is growing amongst are group. It’s exactly what we want and need from him right now. He’s not always going to get it right. He’s still young, but he’s got some leadership DNA,” said Finch. “His teammates like him. They love him a lot actually and he’s a guy that roots for his teammates’ success. When you have a star player and a leader who has all that, you have a chance to have a special leader, not just a special player.”
Minnesota beat the Nuggets without D’Angelo Russell (illness). With Russell not on the injury report ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers, it’ll be interesting to see if Finch changes up the starting lineup like he threatened following Minnesota’s abysmal home loss to the NBA-worst Pistons on Saturday.
Russell was an unquestioned starter entering the season but after Finch employed Edwards, Kyle Anderson and Jaylen Nowell to serve as the point guard in the win over Denver, maybe he’ll be inclined to keep that as part of the plan against Portland and use Russell at shooting guard.
Related: KAT, Jordan McLaughlin not close to returning from injuries
