When The Minnesota Timberwolves edged the Sacramento Kings last week, coach Chris Finch was asked about his closing lineups and all the different options he seems to have at his disposal. It is a luxury, but one that he acknowledges will take some time for him to figure out. “We have a deep and flexible team,” Finch said.
“We want to give ourselves a chance to play situationally. Guys are just going to have to lean into that. Every night it could be different and every night I’m not going to get it right.
We’re all going to have to figure it out together.” Advertisement If there is a theme in the first three regular-season games, including the 112-101 home opening win over the Toronto Raptors on Saturday night, it is that the Wolves are searching for chemistry and cohesion that was such a big part of their run to the Western Conference finals last season. They made a huge trade just days before training camp started.
Even though there are legitimate reasons to believe they can be a better team this season after sending Karl-Anthony Towns to New York for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo , it also is easy to see that coaches and players have a lot to work on before everything clicks together. The opening night loss to the Los Angeles Lakers was bizarrely lifeless, but the energy and execution has ramped up in victories over the Kings and Raptors. The stretches of impressive play have been there to see, as have the lulls that come as Finch tests out different lineu.