Winning over the Cavaliers, beating the Warriors, beating the Thunder, and beating the Blazers twice, the Timberwolves took their third five-game winning streak of the season. With Towns taking the second-week best of the season, the Timberwolves' record has climbed to 37-29, gradually shrugging off the Clippers and Lakers behind them on the team leaderboard, settling for seventh place in the West and chasing the Nuggets in front.
Twelve years in charge of England, Germany and Belgium, two years in the G League, a ten-year NBA assistant coach, when 51-year-old Chris Finch took over the stormy Timberwolves from Toronto to Milwaukee last February, no one expected to get it, and in just one year, he could bring this team to where it is today: The former Raptors assistant coach took over a 7-24, league-bottom rotten team that looked unhurried, hopeless, and showing no signs of taking off.
Finch saw his old friend Juan Hernangomez at the Timberwolves, who had worked together in Denver. Under Mike Malone at the time, Hernangomez's optimistic and sunny personality impressed the team's assistant coach Finch, but when he saw the Spanish striker in Milwaukee, he was shocked by Hernangomes's demoralized and lack of confidence. After an investigation, he learned that Hernangomez was not alone in the team, which was supposed to be the time to achieve results, but in the most critical year, the two best players in the team, Towns and Russell, had been plagued by injuries, had almost never played together, and repeated defeats had made them lose the manager they had always loved. At the time, every Timberwolves player and staff member was frustrated, sensitive and vulnerable at the time.
At his first meeting with the assistant coaches, Finch quickly realized this, and after looking around Ryan Sanders' teaching assistant team, he closed his laptop and decided to chat openly and honestly with the teaching assistants first, rather than fast-forwarding to talking business. Later, he recalled that moment and was glad that he had made the right choice: "At that point in time, I don't think it was a good time to open the PPT. I feel like I need to first express to them who I am, what I want to do, and how I'm going to help them out of their predicament. ”
Timberwolves guard Jaylen Noel was breathtaking in his ability to communicate: "Chris knows how to talk to players in a different way. The way he spoke to Downs was completely different from the way he spoke to Russell, and the way he communicated with Russell was different from the way he communicated with Malik (Beasley). He knows exactly how to get every player to play at their best, which is not easy and has earned him the respect we have. ”
As the season progressed, Finch used this excellent communication ability to gradually build a relationship of trust with the rest of the team. The Timberwolves players saw his strengths little by little: he was a successful strategist who drew nourishment from his failures; he had countless ATO tactics in his brain that always helped the team stop the decline after a timeout; and he was a confident leader who made everyone willing to stick with him.
Since Russell's comeback, in the final 22 games of last season, Finch has played 11-11 with the coaching staff and lineup left by his predecessor, beating the league's giants including the Jazz, Warriors, Heat and Suns. Finch believes that the team is really on the right track from this stage: "It is not difficult to become a leader in the team you personally assemble, and the real leader can use his own way to make strangers gradually on his side." 」 ”
Now, 13 months have passed since he took over the Timberwolves. During these 13 months, the Timberwolves changed bosses and general managers, but Finch remained unmoved in the changes in management and became the coveted werewolf herder. Although he was widely questioned at the outset, he helped him win the ring room with his quick adaptability and good communication skills. What's more, the guy, who hadn't been an NBA head coach for a day before, reinvented the Timberwolves' team culture. He first brought the whole team together for himself, and then in the offseason, he pushed for a deal that was crucial for the Timberwolves this season: sending Jarrett Culver and Hernangomez to the Grizzlies and back to Patrick Beverley.
Throughout beverly's career, he has been an athlete who has been ignored, despised and hated by his opponents. No player will like to be in position with him, no fan will like his teeth and claws, black feet and garbage. Even if he comes from the Russian league, starts on the Rockets, and fights in the Clippers to the Western Conference Finals, it can be said that he has completed the class transition of the little man, but when people mention him, they often see him as the dirty and hard-working, dispensable blue-collar worker. There were some who complained about him, thinking that only people who really knew the ball could see his role, and when the Clippers needed to make a deal to save money, he was the first to be sacrificed in the eyes of one of the league's most ball-savvy management.
But when he comes to Minnesota, you can still clearly feel his change in the team's performance and atmosphere. Joining Beverley in the starting list is 22-year-old striker Jared Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt is a tireless blue-collar player who, despite his average height and skill, is athletically strong, and most of these athletes are only available as substitutes in the team. But in Minnesota, Finch gave him more of a unique role, and he responded with aggressive defense and crazy rebounding competition. Under his influence, the Timberwolves have averaged third-highest offensive rebounds per game this season.
Today, the Timberwolves' defense ranks 12th in the league. Their aggressiveness on the defensive end is even more astonishing than defensive efficiency: they are 3rd in the league with blocks per game, 4th in steals per game, and 1st in the league for turnovers. Driven by Beverley and Vanderbilt, the Timberwolves are now a team that can play beautiful high-pressure defenses and play effective counter-attacks through defense. At the beginning of the season, the five-man team of Beverly, Russell, Edwards, Vanderbilt and Downs was at one point the league in terms of offensive and defensive efficiency.
More importantly than on the court, Beverley's arrival changed the Timberwolves' locker room. As a player with a lot of successful experience, he understands very well what a successful team needs, while at the same time being approachable enough not to hurt the self-esteem of young players. His strength, energy and leadership have made a huge difference to the team on the pitch and in the dressing room. When you see Towns no longer raising his hand to the referee for not getting a whistle, Russell no longer roaming freely on the defensive end, and Anthony Edwards gradually learning to read and understand the game, you'll also see Beverley bring them together and face them in the ear — even if he's in a suit and sitting on the sidelines.
Throughout the history of the NBA, there is often a question of discussion: Is it the good chemistry and team culture that brings good chemistry and team culture to win, or the good team culture and chemistry that make the team win?
This question, which is similar to "egg first or chicken first", has been arguing for many years and has never been able to come up with a convincing answer. But in the Timberwolves, we can see that it is indeed the chemistry that comes into play first. The addition of Finch established the core of the team, Russell was Downs's best friend, Edwards was an ace newcomer who was willing to accept the teachings of his predecessors, and Beverley's addition gave the team a big brother who could spur everyone on without looking like a father. On most nights, the Timberwolves appear hardworking, united and selfless. We often see Timberwolves players constantly cutting in, covering each other, and hitting shots, which is very different from the "Towns singles, others pull away and watch" offensive attacks that we often see on this team before.
After beating the Blazers the day before yesterday, Finch proudly said in an interview with the media: "I know, there are a lot of people who start to like to watch the Timberwolves play, they like the way we share the ball, they like the way we try our best on the court, Minnesota is a sports city, we want to give fans a reason to go out and watch us play." ”
We often say that it is difficult for a woman to cook without rice. When a team doesn't do well, we like to simply and crudely boil it down to a "dish" word. We often believe too much in hard power and overlook the role that team spirit and chemistry can do. When General Fan's Bible became popular all over the internet, everyone would skillfully say the phrase "XX has a reason to say..." when the coach was attacked, but the truth is that the arrival of Chris Finch changed the Timberwolves.
He only fine-tuned the coaching staff last summer, replacing Rubio with Beverly in the rotation. Without injury, he waited for the injured to return and pinched the team into a whole, which made the Timberwolves burst out of unprecedented combat power. This is something to reflect on: what exactly are we discussing when we discuss coaching levels?
Knicks coach Red Holzman once said, "Basketball games are not rocket technology. "A lot of fans feel that the best coach needs to be clever, clever, clever, but Finch is not that kind of coach, he doesn't need those things, and he can also get a team that is terminally ill on track. The coaching style that allows each athlete to participate comfortably and actively in the game may seem inconspicuous, but for many coaches of teams that are not doing well, it may be the small blessing they most want.