Over recent years, the Timberwolves organization has been stellar on the draft clock; Zach LaVine, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Anthony Edwards are all current stars who started their NBA Journey in Minnesota. However, young talent alone isn’t enough; guiding it to succeed – whether from college or another team – is the real test, and Head Coach Chris Finch has thrived in doing so. The current roster is filled with youth, with eleven out of the seventeen players under the age of 26.
“We expect that there’s going to be good days and bad days.” Finch said in a recent interview with the Athletic. “The [younger players] have inconsistencies. If you play three games, you hope that you get one good, one not so good, and one maybe a stinker. And you got to turn that into two positives and maybe one negative. Once we get there, then things start to go.”
Although players such as Bones Hyland, Jaylen Clark, and Terrance Shannon Jr. all average under 15 Minutes Per Game, they maximize their opportunities, with Hyland shooting 45% from the field and Jaylen Clark near a steal per game. Hyland, in particular, has made a big impact, being a critical part of the rotation and using his handle to create plays for both himself and his teammates.
“I just try to stay ready and stretched. You’ll never know when you will go in, so you just have to go out there and produce in the time that is given, and in the clutch today I played really well. I try to get myself rolling because it helps the team but also taking what the game gives you, and everything else will follow after that,” Hyland said.
While the franchise is yet to win a championship, the team has seen immense progress. They currently stand at a 23-13 record and have made the playoffs in four consecutive seasons, including two Conference Finals appearances. In the seventeen years prior to this, they have reached the postseason just once, exiting in the first round. That dramatic turnaround has been led by the 24-year-old phenom Anthony Edwards.
Drafted first overall in the 2020 Draft, it is safe to say that Edwards has lived up to the hype. Developing under the Timberwolves organization, he has seen improvement in nearly every category each season. For example, his three-point percentage has grown by over seven percent and he has ten more points per game since his rookie season.
“[In the offseason] just working on stuff they say I couldn’t do; trying to improve in free throws, ball handling and being able to create my shots off the dribble. Once I start hitting shots, they start trapping me and I get my teammates involved. Or, they might start the game trapping me and when they do that I just get off the ball, they loosen the coverage and I go be aggressive,” Edwards said.
