This is the final portion of a four-part Q&A between Britt Robson and Minnesota Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch. You can read the first three parts here, here and here.
Today’s installment begins with a discussion of Donte DiVicenzo’s difficult adjustment to being traded to Minnesota right before training camp last season, then goes into depth on the prospective roles for many of the players who were not part of last year’s eight-player rotation. It closes with Finch explaining a comment he made at the end of last season about it not being an especially enjoyable experience.
I want to personally thank Chris Finch. For five seasons now, I have had the head coach of a team answer every question I’ve asked him, with honesty and erudition, never ducking a response, for an hour or more each time. It is a remarkably generous public service he provides to Timberwolves fans, and to me as his conduit.
Finch: I would say that there was probably a little too much internal competition between Nickeil (Alexander-Walker) and Donte last year. I think that was a natural dynamic to our team. This year we don’t have that. I think, obviously, there is a comfort level with Donte, Donte being here for a year-plus now.
MinnPost: Tough adjustment because he was “The Big Ragu” about to play with all his Villanova guys in New York.
Finch: Sure. Well, you could probably say that Julius (Randle) welcomed the change and Donte —
MP: Didn’t.
Finch: It was just harder for him. He was great about it, but it was a lot to work through in a very short period of time, right up against when the season started.
MP: But he can be a disruptive mucker, which is important.
Finch: Absolutely. I love it. He reminds me a lot of Jaden (McDaniels) in that way. He’s got that kind of (bad) blood mentality, and we need more of that. He rebounds really well; he gets 50-50 balls and his hands on a lot of loose balls, that type of stuff. Those are all winning plays that he brought us, and I think he did really well all year.
We had to learn each other offensively. You think when you bring — I’ve learned this multiple times in my career; I learned it with JJ Redick — you bring these high-level shooters in and they are all a little different in the rhythm in which they like to score. Some guys see themselves as more movement shooters, some see themselves as spot-up guys, some need to be involved in actions. Some want to handle and some don’t want to handle. And then every team kind of game-plans for them differently. So they are not all the same. It is not like, “oh, bring a shooter in.”
It is like any other player, but it affects the end result which is the shot-making part. We wanted to put Donte on the move a lot last year. That wasn’t something that he was overly comfortable with at first. I think he fought it; we talked about it, I kind of altered it a little bit. Then he found it again and he finished as a better movement shooter than spot-up shooter.
So that is all credit to him. He realized that this was a new way to play him and we needed him to do that.
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MP: He seems to prefer shooting from 28 feet away more than 24 feet away.
Finch: Well, it’s funny, just to my point, like, these guys, as soon as they get into a certain range, they are so tightly guarded, so they learn, “hey, I’m going to take the shot” (from longer range). So, he didn’t shoot great from that distance, but I do think he’ll shoot better. I do think he’ll make the shot at a higher level.
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Donte DiVincenzo (0) shoots over Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) during the first half in Game 5 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Los Angeles. Credit: Mark J. Terrill / AP
MP: We talked about Rob (Dillingham) quite a bit already, but of the other young guys, where do TJ Shannon and Jaylen Clark come in, in terms of the rotation? I mean, they are obviously in the 9, 10, 11 mix.
Finch: Yeah.
MP: But it did feel like in Summer League, TJ Shannon was the guy you wanted to have play in a way that opened people’s eyes, and he did play that way.
Finch: Yeah. TJ is solidly in the rotation as we speak. I don’t think there is any debate about that. We need everything he does, from running the floor, getting downhill, playing with force. Defensively, as we talked about earlier, there is definitely (the likelihood of) growth there: It just needs exposure to reps and situations. We need him to rebound better, at both ends.
I do believe he’s got some playmaking ability. There were moments last year with the third team, we didn’t have a playmaker for the third team and he just wound up playing it. He could find all the players on the floor.
MP: We saw that in Summer League, too.
Finch: Yeah. And he keeps things pretty simple. I would say the same thing about him and about Jaylen: They have already mastered the first part of player development, which is they know who they are as players and they know who they need to be when they step on the floor for us. That doesn’t mean they can’t add things to their game, develop, get more freedom, that type of stuff.
But guys who don’t know who they are, or fight who they need to be for the team, those are the guys who struggle the most to gain consistent minutes because you can’t trust what you are going to get. And a lot of times that actually takes you away from what you actually do best.
You see this a lot with players who are trying to make the league, and maybe the one thing they don’t do well is shoot threes and they want to prove to the world they can shoot threes. So they shoot more threes and they look worse doing it. TJ and Jaylen, they don’t do that. (chuckles) That is a huge formula for success.
MP: When you say keep it simple, nobody does that better than Jaylen Clark.
Finch: I know. Defensive Player of the Year in college. And sometimes — well, I didn’t think he had a very good Summer League.
MP: He didn’t.
Finch: And why was that?
MP: Most of all, he couldn’t shoot.
Finch: He tried to do too much.
MP: Exactly.
Finch: Which is hurtful in two ways. One, it hurts you the player, it hurts your confidence, it hurts the way people perceive you. Then I would say, you are not going to play that way when you are playing with the main guys. You’re just not. So just keep it simple.
And we talked about that at various points during Summer League and I thought he finished much much better in his last couple of games. Lo and behold, he scored, and lo and behold you saw him do the things he can do.
MP: He’s not a creator.
Finch: No. Whether that be for himself or for others. He’s a creator by cutting, he’s a creator by screening and rolling. He is a good interior passer and a dunker. He is a lot of good things in that way and we need those things.
He makes winning plays, he can get his hands on the ball and certainly we know he can guard. But this is a classic example of what we were just talking about. When you deviate from who you need to be, you kind of get exposed.
MP: Going toward the bottom of the roster now, do you want first-round draft pick Joan Berenger here or do you want him in Iowa (playing in the G-league), or both?
Finch: I think largely here. Again, we are going to have to be intentional about it, but we are going to need to find minutes for him. I think he needs to be up here to see the NBA and experience it first-hand. We need him as a guy to go up against Rudy (Golbert) every single day. That is a good challenge. They will be part of each other’s player development, which I think is going to be good for both of them right now. So we see him here, more than down there.
MP: (President of basketball operations) Tim Connelly, who drafted him, has talked about the fact that he’s pure, with no bad habits. Keeping him close is insurance against bad habits.
Finch: (laugh) That’s a good way to look at it, yeah. But I would say the kid is pure in a lot of ways — he has a maturity and a professionalism. I don’t worry about him having bad habits.
MP: But they could befall him.
Finch: For sure. He could become NBA-ized in certain ways, but I don’t see that, at least initially. He is probably more ready than most people would think.
MP: But where are you going to find the minutes?
Finch: That’s why I said we have to be intentional about it.
MP: Or wait for injuries.
Finch: You just find ways to jam him in and see what he does, and go from there. But again, yes, it is at the expense of something. But if you are going to play 9 or 10, that tenth can be used differently every night. Maybe 9 is used differently. By then second-year players, or rookies, must be mature enough to understand you might not play two of every three nights.
MP: The wing you just signed, as well as the players on two-way contracts, are just development or insurance at this stage? And what about Leonard Miller?
Finch: Leonard has just had the unfortunate circumstance that he has come to a team that is loaded at the four position (power forward) and has been for a long time. With a guy like Jaden who can also move over to four. And before that Kyle (Anderson).
But we’ve seen steps. I think Leonard is finally figuring out who he needs to be. I would say his first year and a bit he didn’t know who he needed to be. When you talk about good comps out there, it is like (Pascal) Siakam, or Julius (Randle); these types of guys. A couple of years ago he probably would have given you guards (as comps).
But with the remaining guys on the roster, it is having not only protection but we’re looking for guys we can help develop. Rocco (Zikarsky) or Joan if he is down in Iowa, too.
MP: And the guy you just signed, where does he fit in?
Finch: Johnny Juzang? He’s a guy who has a great shooting profile, who should be a better defender — we think there is defensive growth for him. He has played NBA minutes for Utah. The challenge for him is going to be: can he connect? Can he make shots at a high-enough level during a game? We know he can make shots in practice and workouts. We feel like he has the profile and pedigree to do it.
MP: Is Joe Ingles a great assistant coach and do you think he can still play meaningful minutes?
Finch: That’s interesting. There could be minutes for him, given our need for another handler/creator, if that doesn’t reveal itself through our young depth guys. But it is all going to come down to: how does Joe come in here in camp? We see him as a tremendous asset.
MP: What does he do in the locker room or on the sidelines that gives him value?
Finch: I think he has a couple of things going for him. First of all he is super-smart, one of those high-IQ guys. He has a great relationship with Rudy in that he can talk to Rudy in a way that some players can’t talk to Rudy. He can be demanding of Rudy and understanding of Rudy. He is helpful with Anthony (Edwards); just seeing situations and talking to him in real time, during games. Mike (Conley) has been great in that role, but just to have another person alongside.
He has such a high emotional IQ that he can actually enflame or disarm situations, according to what is needed. And he is not afraid to be truthful. He cuts right to it. Sometimes alarmingly so, but that’s a good point — he catches people’s attention.
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MP: That all sounds reminiscent of Kyle Anderson.
Finch: Yeah. He’s super salty at times and makes sure that everybody is on appropriate edge.
MP: The last thing: You had talked toward the end of the year about it not being the most pleasant year for you. Was that just because of the Karl-Anthony Towns trade?
Finch: No.
MP: Or because it is much harder and often less fun to sustain than it is to climb?
Finch: No doubt about that. And again this year will be another challenge for that.
I think what made last year so hard was that it just felt like at times we were dragging our way through it all and we had to keep pulling. And some of that was basketball related in trying to figure out the new pieces, and some of that was mindset related. We were back to losing games we shouldn’t have lost, playing poorly against teams we shouldn’t have played poorly against.
There wasn’t enough internal drive. And of course they were related: We didn’t know who we were as a team and we were up against the expectations of the year before. Which we knew was unfair, because we all of a sudden had a whole other dynamic.
At times maybe we thought it would be easier internally. I think we could have done a better job of defining what success looked like, you know? Internally and externally. And that left us in the loop: “Well, if you look at the numbers, with KAT out and Julius in and with Donte…” You can look at all the numbers you want, but there are still humans that we have to put together. And it has to click, has to work, and everyone has got to feel good about what we’re doing.
You can look at all the numbers you want, but there are still humans that we have to put together.
Chris Finch
We had a lot of things going on. We had a lot of contract situations. We had guys who had started at other points who wanted to start. It was probably just too much of that, really. And that kept us from finding a consistent rhythm until we were able to park all that.
I was hellbent on trying to make the eight (man rotation) work, because that was one way to manage all the personality and all the dynamics that were going on. And yeah, it came at the expense of the young depth at times, but ultimately we got where we needed to go, and our young depth helped us stay afloat through some of that.
Looking back we can take all the lessons. But it was hard. Finished well. Enjoyed the run. And I actually enjoyed every single player on the team, as I do still. But we just had a moodiness about us, which was not always a pleasant place to come to work everyday. Moodiness is a hard one, because if you are real moody, then you are worried more about the inside than the outside.
We’ve got to get beyond that.
MP: Well, now ownership is settled, Tim Connelly is here for at least the next two seasons, you’re here; Randle, Rudy, everyone is getting paid. There is no excuse for moodiness now.
Finch: The moodiness is just being too worried about yourself, right? I mean, the ownership stuff, both Glen (Taylor) and Alex (Rodriguez)/Marc (Lore), both parties, none of that affected us, so all credit to everybody there. Tim has always been great to work with, and still is. We’re on the same page and we see the same things.
It is just continuing to grow up. You think somebody has been in the league, four, five, six, seven years, whatever, of course they are maturing as a player, but the person is still at a young age. They are still going through the cycle of challenges that life presents itself, whether it be professional or personal life. You feel this pressure to get the big contract, then when you get it you feel pressure to justify it. It is just another level of the same pressure. You have a young family, you have all this stuff that is going on. That is largely why young teams don’t win at the highest level. But we have to be beyond that this year.
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