Britt Robson with Chris Finch

[Monster]

Britt Robson has a 4 part question and answer conversation with Finch. There is a lot of content and it's interesting to hear what Finch has to say on a number of players and topics.


Part 1

https://www.minnpost.com/sports/2022/09/wolves-preview-chris-finch-shares-candid-thoughts-on-upcoming-season-that-comes-with-high-expectations/

Part 2

https://www.minnpost.com/sports/2022/09/looking-for-kat-and-rudy-to-provide-the-perfect-one-two-punch-from-the-4-5-positions/

Part 3

https://www.minnpost.com/sports/2022/09/how-will-the-revamped-timberwolves-meld-on-the-court/

Part 4

https://www.minnpost.com/sports/2022/09/setting-new-expectations-timberwolves-look-to-be-serious-contenders-in-the-west-nba/

[Coolbreeze44]

Thanks for posting. One thing that sticks out is that CF wants to Rudy to pound the offensive glass. I like that strategy. It's going to be interesting to see how much trouble our opponents have with our length. We need to maximize the effectiveness of our size. Of particular interest is Golden State. I didn't think they could handle KAT last year, how are they going to compete with the twin towers?

[AbeVigodaLive]

I know some teams had gone almost entirely away from offensive rebounding. I think back to older Celtics teams in particular. It was deemed more important to get back and set up on defense.

Anybody know if there's a leaguewide trend toward offensive rebounding again... or is it more of another you zig, we zag approach for the Wolves?

[Q-is-here]

Good set of articles, finally had a chance to read them. A few takeaways for those of you that don't want to read all of it:

- Finch seems much more confident in the offense than the defense, viewing Gobert as a much better screener and assist receptacle as compared to Vando. The one tweak may be spacing KAT out to the corners a bit more in DLO-Rudy PnR sets. But otherwise, he sees Rudy's fit as fairly seamless and a huge upgrade overall.

- Defensively he is definitely a lot more uncertain, as he isn't sure how KAT will do when "put in rotation" vs. always being the guy whose man is doing the screening. Now he may need to do more scrambling and close outs on the perimeter. He is also expecting better defense from DLO at the point of attack. Good luck with that.....

- Defense Part II - Finch not sure how well they can fuse drop coverage with playing up on screens in a more aggressive manner. He also makes it clear he is not a big fan of pure switching schemes. Overall, he doesn't want the team to lose its "scramble" mentality, even though two of the main protagonists of that approach are gone (PBev and Vando).

- Speaking of DLO, my vision of him being moved on from in favor of developing Ant into more of a lead-guard got blown to bits the second we landed Gobert and traded away PBev in the process. Finch made it very clear that DLO is the floor general and its his show to run on offense. He sees maximizing DLO and Gobert as a tandem and KAT and Ant as a tandem, so I suspect DLO and Gobert will go to the bench relatively early in halves.

- Given the aforementioned prominence of DLO and the likelihood that Gobert is going to get more looks than Vando almost by default, it's hard to see Ant taking any sort of really big leap in terms of his counting stats, like shots, points, assists, etc. We just have too many other offensive options and weapons on the team. Don't forget that Nowell is also a very capable ball handler, scorer, and play maker. So if Ant is going to take another leap, he's going to need to do it by a) being more efficient, and b) continuing to get better with his defense.

- The good news is that Ant has already approached Finch and asked that he be assigned the best perimeter player of opposing teams to guard. I love that mentality! He knows he won't be given the keys to the franchise offensively, so it appears he's really trying to become a legit two-way player.

- Finch re-iterated his love for Jordan McLaughlin. He is the unquestioned backup PG. That means Nowell, Rivers, and Forbes will be fighting for minutes as backup SG. I think the plan is to give Nowell first crack at that 6th/7th man role (with Anderson being the no-brainer first big off the bench.

Good stuff....there was lots more, but those are the areas that stuck with me.

[Lipoli390]

Good summary, Q. I read the whole interview. The following paragraph from your post captures my biggest concern and take-away from the interview:

- Defense Part II - Finch not sure how well they can fuse drop coverage with playing up on screens in a more aggressive manner. He also makes it clear he is not a big fan of pure switching schemes. Overall, he doesn't want the team to lose its "scramble" mentality, even though two of the main protagonists of that approach are gone (PBev and Vando).

I just don't see that scramble mentality/style on the defensive end working with both Pat Bev and Vando gone. I like Ant's stated enthusiasm about defense, but even if his actions live up to his enthusiastic words, I don't see this team playing the way it did last season defensively. The team might be as good or even better defensively with Gobert and Anderson, but I don't see the scramble style working for the Wolves this season.

[Monster]

Good summary, Q. I read the whole interview. The following paragraph from your post captures my biggest concern and take-away from the interview:

- Defense Part II - Finch not sure how well they can fuse drop coverage with playing up on screens in a more aggressive manner. He also makes it clear he is not a big fan of pure switching schemes. Overall, he doesn't want the team to lose its "scramble" mentality, even though two of the main protagonists of that approach are gone (PBev and Vando).

I just don't see that scramble mentality/style on the defensive end working with both Pat Bev and Vando gone. I like Ant's stated enthusiasm about defense, but even if his actions live up to his enthusiastic words, I don't see this team playing the way it did last season defensively. The team might be as good or even better defensively with Gobert and Anderson, but I don't see the scramble style working for the Wolves this season.

I'm not sure the scramble style worked because Vanderbilt and Beverly were a fit with that scheme. I think Beverly is a good defender regardless of scheme and Vanderbilt would be awesome in a switching scheme and quite frankly so would Beverly. One of the reasons why the scramble scheme was effective was it made/allowed guys to be aggressive on defense and kept them engaged. Sure some of the engagement came from Beverly being on the roster but as I said in another thread Finch and his staff deserve some credit for getting more out of the roster on that end than any of us were hoping for. I like that Finch wants guys to stay aggressive. I think that's going to help the guys that need to stay locked in an and it makes some sense with Gobert on the roster. I'm not sure the scramble aggressive style actually is good for McDaniels but it's more about the other guys than getting the most out of him. Maybe as important as anything that scheme fit Towns. Britt questions how quickly Towns will be able to make necessary rotations as a PF next to a big. I think that's a fair question. It will be interesting to see what Towns looks like physically and sole pics I have seen he is looking more like a PF than a center. That might help him in a number of ways. We will see. Being aggressive on D means you are actively physically trying to take something away. That's different than the solid is enough scheme we saw previously. Playing smart solid D based on various schemes can be highly effective but I'm not sure how well that works with young players and Towns hasn't shown he is good at that.

Finch also admitted at one point that they will probably switch more this season and also is somewhat counting on this team to not be a young roster. Some of that probably is because in some ways it isn't as young of a roster as it was last year and that goes beyond players having another year of experience. Basically the entire bench last year other than Prince (Layman barely played) was young guys. This year there is Prince, Anderson, Rivers and Forbes. Heck one of their 2 way players is Paschal who is going into his 4th NBA season. That doesn't make him a wiley vet but he has played a lot of NBA basketball for someone at the end of the roster.

[Q-is-here]

Yeah, Finch sent a lot of mixed messages on the defensive scheme, which tells me that he just isn't sure about it yet.

If you are starting a front line that basically averages 7-foot (McDaniels grew 2 inches again, right!? LOL), then to me you tilt toward more of a Milwaukee Bucks-style of defense that prioritizes protecting the paint first and foremost and dominating the defensive glass. That means drop coverage and trying to funnel the ball to the weakest perimeter shooter on the floor with soft close outs. That is not a scramble-style defense.

[Lipoli390]

Monster - I don't think there's much doubt that the scramble style of defense worked largely because of Beverley and Vando, along with Ant buying in and emulating Beverley. I agree you and Q that Finch sent some mixed messages. And I think Q is right about the defensive style that would likely work best with the players we'll have this season.

[Monster]

Monster - I don't think there's much doubt that the scramble style of defense worked largely because of Beverley and Vando, along with Ant buying in and emulating Beverley. I agree you and Q that Finch sent some mixed messages. And I think Q is right about the defensive style that would likely work best with the players we'll have this season.

One of the issues last year was the Wolves basically only had one way to play defense. Finch recognized then and he does now. He doesn't want to play one type of defense. I agree with Q and Britt who say they don't think Finch has it figured out yet. It seems clear to me Finch is going to try and also be open to doing various things including switching on defense. What seems VERY clear to me is Finch very much wants to stay aggressive on defense. They aren't gonna just sink back and just protect the paint. I do think Q makes a good point that they may like the Bucks be willing to give up some 3's at times on the perimeter. McDaniels is the best perimeter defender on the roster it doesn't make much sense to not have him guarding a high level player a chunk of his minutes. He is also a good team defender and help guy. Honestly he is a good all around defender even though he still needs some work on that end and he probably doesn't get enough credit for the success the Wolves had on that end last year.

Let's remember as good as Beverly was he played fewer minutes than people remember. To put it in perspective he only played about 250 more minutes than Naz last year because of missing games and playing somewhat limited minutes.

I think the most interesting player on the defensive end is Russell. What will he do? What will the scheme or players around him do to utilize his relative strengths on that end? Will what the Wolves do on defense make him worse than he was last year? Obviously he is the weakest link on that end of the starters. I think if Edwards becomes high level 2-way player that is going to make the Wolves a really damn good team. It seems Finch isn't expecting Edwards to become the offensive star of the league but a more gradual progression that also means Edwards will have energy to defend too.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

I've mentioned this in past threads, but the defensive scheme Minnesota plays will likely be tethered to the personnel on the floor. Rather, as a team, I think they'll cycle through drop coverage, hedge-and-recover, and even zone. That's a good thing as it makes them more versatile defensively and gives them more options to throw at opposing teams, especially in the postseason.

For instance, when Rudy Gobert shares the floor with Karl-Anthony Towns, which we expect to be a significant amount especially late in games, I think we'll predominantly see drop coverage and zone. Gobert on the court without Towns will likely be drop coverage heavy with principles that resemble what Milwaukee plays -- protect the paint and the corners. Towns on the court without Gobert should probably be the more aggressive hedge-and-recover or "high wall" concept given that Towns never grasped drop coverage well, isn't a great rim protector, and is overall better when he's asked to play up.

I also think people are fairly expecting Chris Finch to force D'Angelo Russell to play more at the point of the attack because Patrick Beverley is no longer on the team. I don't think it will play out that way. I think Finch will realize early on that he's better off-ball as a roamer/chaser, communicating what he sees, and playing the passing lanes. That's where Russell can be a clearly positive defender. I'm expecting Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels to step up and take on the more difficult backcourt assignments. We've already seen that a little bit with both of them -- specifically, Edwards taking on Ja Morant and Devin Booker and McDaniels taking on everyone from Luka Doncic to Chris Paul. Those two will prove to be keys defensively, I feel.