The Minnesota Timberwolves spent the offseason reshuffling the deck. Naz Reid got shipped out in a package for LaMelo Ball. Julius Randle went to Brooklyn. And suddenly the power forward spot looks thin on paper. So naturally, the assumption has been that Jaden McDaniels slides into that role next season.
Not so fast, says Chris Finch.
The Timberwolves head coach spoke with Chris Hine of the Star Tribune and made it pretty clear: he isn’t ready to just slot McDaniels at the four and call it a day. At least not right away.
“I don’t immediately envision Jaden just moving over and playing the four,” Finch said. “While I can see at times he’ll play there and maybe play a good number of minutes there, I don’t see that right off the bat, and I don’t necessarily, in my mind’s eye, see that as a starting lineup with him there.”
What the Lineup Actually Looks Like
Finch went back to how the staff used to shift things around when Karl-Anthony Towns was at power forward. They’d change the lineup based on who they were playing. One night a shooting four. Another night a rugged four. An attacking four. Whatever the matchup needed.
“We had settled into like almost a profile of like, ‘Okay, tonight is a shooting four, tonight is a rugged four, tonight’s an attacking four … and then we were able to get a comfort level of what KAT needed to do,” Finch explained. “There’s always tactics. They leave you with choices and things to give up to be able to game plan around.”
It sounds like Finch plans to take a similar approach next season. Maybe McDaniels shifts between positions depending on the opponent. Maybe the starting five looks different than fans expect.
Right now the assumed starting lineup is Ball, Anthony Edwards, Ayo Dosunmu, McDaniels, and Rudy Gobert. But if Finch isn’t sold on McDaniels at the four from the jump, maybe Dosunmu comes off the bench as a sixth man. Or maybe the Wolves make another move before the season starts. The team hasn’t confirmed anything yet.
There’s also been some wild speculation online about a potential LeBron James signing. That feels like a long shot, but after the moves Minnesota already made, who knows.
What’s clear: Finch isn’t locking anything in. He’s keeping his options open. And for a roster that still has plenty of questions, that flexibility might be exactly what they need.
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