Timberwolves lack of effort is a PROBLEM, what Anthony Edwards & Chris Finch must do | NBA Reaction
Jason reacts to the Minnesota Timberwolves losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder, breaking down what Anthony Edwards must do and why making a coaching change is a possibility in a crowded NBA Western Conference.
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29 Comments
#First
I like the wolves but man that gobert trade was not worth it, were building something before it now it just seems like a team wide enigma
finch is just nowhere near the other top coaches in the league, his teams have been like this dating back to the memphis series in 2022
🥺
It's more XOs then it is about effort. Effort isn't always the solution if there's not a solid game plan. The Thunder started their big run in the 3rd when Finch played Rudy and Kyle Anderson together next to Ant, making it very easy for them to pick passes for easy points. They were literally triple teaming him and forcing KA and Rudy to beat them. Why would Coach Finch make Rudy and Finch one pass away from the double? TJ Shannon was the kryptonite to OKC last year bc one pass away from Ant to TSJ created huge driving lanes…It was all downhill from there once KA and Rudy logged heavy minutes together.
Finch has always had an issue with rotation, stagnant offenses and turnovers, no matter what players he's had to work with. Sooner or later people need to see (and many of us Wolves fan see) that XOs matter as much if not more than how much energy players are putting in. Finch just doesn't have an offensive identity other than Ant or Julius go iso.
The team just isn’t optimized as much as you’d like cause their front court has such inconsistent synergy
McDaniels is probably best at the 4 especially on defense, but you need Randle to help create some type of offense without Conley as well as rebounding.
But then you HAVE to play Gobert for rebounding and to cover Randle defensively. But then your offense is playing 4 on 5 80% of the time. I’d like Naz to play more at the 5 without Randle clogging the paint as well so Ant can play with the defense spread out but then the Wolves get killed on the glass.
ANT is great and my god has he been good at probing defenses with the clear spacing problems on this team. But they need him to be a bigger force on the glass if they want to run a front court with JMAC and Randle/Reid without Rudy
I've laughed at Finch haters all year, but they're finally right, haha. That guy has to go, and maybe sooner rather than later.
This is 100% a coaching issue. Bad line ups, no game management skills, no adjustments mid game. He needs to go.
Agreed. I blame Rudy Gobert. He lobbed a comment at Ant on after going 8-1 and a month before called out his teammates. If your looking for maturity you aren't going to find it from Rudy. That affects everything.
I'm convinced Finch is trying to land the wolves into the 4-5 seed. He knows which 3 teams he will match up against in the first round and the second round. The Timberwolves are a great end of season team except against teams they are likely to play in the first or second round because they go super vanilla on them (like they did vs OKC and LA Lakers). The magic and the clippers games were won by those teams despite wolves not being super vanilla on offense (those two teams played awesome games).
I'm not sure what this means for the Rockets games left on the wolves schedule, if the rockets lose twice to LA, Finch might see the value of beating the rockets twice to push them into the other side of the bracket.
The effort always follows whether the Timberwolves are calling a vanilla game or a more spicy game. Twolves can still beat mediocre teams with their vanilla games.
I’m no coach but the coach has no offense. It’s just iso ball.
No organized offense. ISO has prob takes them to WCF at most
Otherwise they need to run an offense. They have the tools
Antman needs to leave. Twolves organization failed to build around him.
The Timberwolves have been very frustrating. I hate to point ot Finch but he has to take some flack for the team having these same symptoms repeatedly for years. They so often seem unprepared and low basketball IQ.
Gobert is 💩. His defense no longer outweighs how terrible he is offensively. It’s literally 4 against 5. The man can’t even catch a simple entry pass. It’s ridiculous. Also Jaden McDaniels should no longer be considered untouchable. Great defensively but is always in foul trouble because he is guarding smaller shiftier players. NAW would guard smaller wings when he was with us. And McDaniels offense is so unpredictable to rely on.
Ant needs a coach that will challenge him to get to the next level. His next level is t a skill per se, I think it’s how he sees the game and how he can get his teammates to be better. Kobe and Jordan would have been calling out MF’rs by now. Instead takes all the blame even when it isn’t his fault. You’re not an NBA QB Ant. It’s time to start calling guys out and changing the expectations.
To me as a thunder fan, bro, I think and presses a lot in this big games. He tries to play one on one basketball and he needs to realize that he draws attention from defenders so he needs to kick it out and trust his teammates. I feel like he takes this game like a one on one matchup against SGA all the time when SGA does the opposite for all the games that’s why that makes him great.
Gobert needs to go.
Julius randall was shut down in every contest against them until the last game. This was his first game where he actually had success against them
edwards is playing hurt to be fair.. Respect, you can tell he's not using his explosiveness and he's being careful with his knee and ankle
I will say it can be pretty hard being a Wolves fan. Too many inconsistencies and struggles have been an issue for them all the time.
As a Thunder fan I will cheer if he gets an extension. That's why even if we lose games to the Wolves it's a win 😂😂
we just overrated their ceiling. because they've been to 2 straight WCF with largely the same core, we thought they could just right the ship and make a run again. they still have some time to turn it around, but it's not looking good. the last 2 seasons, they normally locked in and played good down the stretch. this season, it's the complete opposite.
Finch is the best coach in the NBA
He’s never lost a game that wasn’t the refs fault
"Cheat the process", I'm taking that lol.
Every time the wolves play bad we just gonna say they aren’t trying?
Die hard wolves fan here in Minneapolis.. I love Jason's takes, especially on the Wolves.. very fair by admitting we have just as good of a fastball as anyone in the league but are INSANELY inconsistent.. it's so frustrating to watch every night.. but i thought this was fair criticism and it's very concerning.. I think biggest problems are effort, mentally locking in, on and off the court (Like not even f**king reading the scouting report or taking it seriously) and Finch… I haven't jumped on the "Fire Finch" bwagon yet, but I'm getting close.
Great insight Jason as always! Keep grinding 🙏
As a Wolves fan thank you for posting this. It makes me not even want to watch them. Its so frustrating watching guys get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to play a game for a couple hours and they can't even bother to care let alone try.
I say its a coaching issue…Coach Finch ain't it man. Dont think he has their attention and they ain't playing hard for him
MIN team drive me nuts