“Soft” has been a word frequenting Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch’s vocabulary of late when describing his team’s play.
After the team’s home loss to Milwaukee: “We just played soft. … Not a lot of resistance to anything that we did.”
After its win Tuesday in Sacramento where it surrendered 43 first-quarter points: “Sometimes we just get soft on the ball, and then we’re not in our gaps.”
After Minnesota’s loss to Sacramento in which the Wolves game up 44 first-quarter points: “Just too soft. We talked about it all day, and we just came out soft.”
Finch has never said his players are “soft,” and wanted to clarify Saturday that he doesn’t believe that to be the case.
“I don’t think it’s a question of (whether) we have soft players,” Finch said. “It’s just we are a little bit reluctant to come out with an aggressive approach at times to start the games.”
Why is that the case? Finch isn’t sure. Sometimes players can be concerned about getting into early foul trouble, but Finch has proven he won’t sit a player who collects two fouls early.
“We’re trying to encourage guys to be aggressive early in the game. I think it’s just a mindset, and it’s a habit-forming thing we’ve got to get into,” Finch said. “We’ve got to trust that we can be more aggressive on the ball and we’ll have help behind us. … If you don’t play teams in a good, physical manner, then they come out and just execute their stuff like there is nobody else on the floor.”
That’s why one of the things Finch wants to see from the Timberwolves down the stretch run of the season is to solidify their defense and show some consistent level of competence on that end of the floor.
“We show great stretches,” Finch said.
True, but they are few and far between. Since the all-star break, the Timberwolves have the worst defensive rating in the league, surrendering 117.9 points per 100 possessions.
“Overall, I’d like to see our physicality kind of increase,” he said.
That physicality has been present in games where the opponent is hyper-physical, such as in wins over the Knicks and Heat. But then Minnesota plays other games, like its last two in Sacramento, where “soft” is an apt description.
“We talked a lot going into the Miami game, we talked a lot about being physical, so they obviously carried that forward,” Finch said. “We didn’t necessarily talk about being physical against Sacramento, where maybe we should be talking about it all the time, just trying to build those habits. When you play the New Yorks of the world and the Miamis, the teams that hit you first, you’ve got to be ready to hit them.”
‘MOST UNIQUE SEASON’
With all the losses, yet the perceived promise of better things ahead, the 2020-21 Timberwolves would seem to closely mimic a few of the old Minnesota teams Ricky Rubio was a part of.
But Rubio declined to compare this group to any of those ones from his previous Timberwolves tenure.
“It’s been a minute. I don’t know. I don’t think I can compare it to any other season,” Rubio said. “This one has been super special. I think it’s been the most special season for everything that is going on. So it’s hard to compare it to other seasons. It’s just unique. I will call this season the most unique season I’ve ever played.”
NOWELL ACTIVE
Wolves guard Jaylen Nowell was available for Saturday’s game against Utah. Nowell missed eight of the team’s last 10 games with a bruised tibia.
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What does Chris Finch mean when he says the Timberwolves play ‘soft’? - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
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