Rather than panic after a slow start, Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch has been the steadying force that's allowed them to be a threat in the Western Conference. (Carlos Gonzalez/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Chris Finch has turned the Team Nobody Wants to Watch into the Team Nobody Wants to Face.

On Jan. 20, 2025, the Timberwolves lost at Memphis. Their record was 22-21.

That night, Julius Randle went 2-for-13 from the field.

What would Finch do?

Bench Randle?

Bench Mike Conley?

Force-feed rookie point guard Rob Dillingham into the lineup?

Rescind the Karl-Anthony Towns trade?

Prove he’s a true Minnesotan by shrugging and muttering, “Minnesota sports; why do I even watch?”

Since Jan. 20, the Wolves are 11-0 when Randle is in the lineup. With their impressive victory in Denver on Wednesday night, they have won six straight overall.

Finch has managed around injuries to Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and Rudy Gobert — the three key players president of basketball operations Tim Connelly brought to Minnesota.

Instead of relying on the kinds of moves that might be popular with those outside the organization — benchings, punishments, rants — Finch stuck to the real work of coaching.

Skill development. Player development. Exercising patience when all around you are panicking. Emphasizing situational awareness.

The results:

Randle, who smothered the Wolves’ offensive flow early in the season with his incessant dribbling, is making better and quicker decisions. He’s giving the Wolves what they wanted — a second player, besides Anthony Edwards, who could create his own shot or break down a defense to create a shot for a teammate.
Jaden McDaniels has surged, and he is averaging career bests in points, rebounds, assists and steals. He’s learned how to assert himself in stretches while playing within the flow of the offense. He’s gone from being an excellent defender to being an excellent all-around player.
DiVincenzo, who looked and played like he was upset by the trade early in the season, has become a 94-foot force, defending, rebounding, running the offense, making hustle plays and shooting with range. Randle and DiVincenzo have helped the Wolves greatly improve their ball movement, one reason DiVincenzo is averaging a career-best 3.7 assists per game.
Early in the season, Edwards admitted he felt lost trying to decipher defenses. Now he’s consistently making the savvy play.

Finch’s patience and behind-the-scenes work led to this winning streak.

He also got lucky, in that the Wolves’ seemingly bad luck led to greater roster depth.

It was easy to call for more minutes for Terrence Shannon, Jr. because we saw him star for Illinois, and at a muscular 6-6, 215 pounds, he looks the part. He’s also 24, older than Edwards.

It was easy to call for more minutes for Dillingham because he is so spectacular on his good days.

The greatest surprise of the season is that Jaylen Clark, considered an offensively challenged defender, would play well enough because of others’ injuries that Finch can’t even think about taking him out of the rotation.

On a team featuring excellent defenders, none of them plays quite like Clark, whose combination of quick feet and upper body strength make him ideal for harassing offensive players.

Clark has been efficient offensively, too.

The Wolves’ recent surge has produced a different way to think about the stretch run.

They have 15 games remaining in the regular season. They entered Thursday in a virtual tie with Golden State for the sixth seed in the Western Conference.

Because the teams that finish seventh-through-10th have to participate in the play-in round, the popular notion has been that the Wolves desperately need to be at least the sixth seed.

But the Western Conference is remarkably balanced, and the Wolves have no reason to fear any of their potential opponents.

The Wolves might be lucky to match up with Denver, and Denver could wind up winning the second seed.

The NBA and NHL fool us into caring about the regular season, but an 82-game competition for seedings that might not matter isn’t the grand drama the leagues want you to believe it is.

Look at the Wolves today, and the seedings and opponents may not matter at all.

This version of the Wolves may be good enough to take down just about anyone.