In March, the Timberwolves entered Madison Square Garden without Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards available in the middle of a playoff race.
Without their two best offensive players, the Wolves ended up having one of their best offensive games of the season. They shot 61% from the floor, 58% from three-point range, led by current Lakers forward Taurean Prince, who made all eight of his three-point attempts.
That game was an artful example of the kind of free-flowing, hard-to-defend brand of offense coach Chris Finch brought to Minnesota.
When asked how many set plays the Wolves ran in that game, point guard Mike Conley said, "maybe three."
But the offense didn't always function like that when Edwards and Towns were on the floor. The Wolves finished last season with the 23rd best offensive efficiency, and that has caused the coaching staff to consider shaking up how the offense runs. The Wolves would still prefer to play a more free-flowing style, but Finch will be incorporating more structure and play calls to help jump start the offense.
That will be on display for the first time as the Wolves open the preseason Thursday morning at 11 a.m. against Dallas in Abu Dhabi.
"[Structure] might slow you down a little bit, but we're not the world's fastest team to begin with," Finch said. "It might take away some creativity, but nothing's going to be overly elaborate. Just set a starting structure. We get in trouble when we don't have good structure to start an offense."
Some fans might wonder why Finch didn't try this sooner, especially when there were times the Wolves were struggling. But incorporating this kind of offensive philosophy comes with trade offs. The free-flowing, read and react kind of offense carries with it an unpredictability that is harder to defend. Opponents will scout their plays and those who are astute defenders on the floor will know what's coming. It can slow an offense down in transition.
"We do want to play fast and get out and run, but the other thing we say is you don't want to run to your death," assistant Micah Nori said. "It's almost like a structured-type running where it's, 'Here's your spots and here's what we do.' It's kind of weird. It's almost like parameters with freedom. … It's trying to find that happy medium where we just don't want to be an all-out, run, run, run, and you don't want to be a slow-it-down team."
That's because it becomes harder to score when the game grinds into a halfcourt kind of offense that also allows the defense to get set and get the matchups it wants.
But to help get the Wolves organized, especially in late-game situations, the Wolves are trying to find that balance between playing with freedom and those parameters they are putting in place.
"Structure can be a crutch sometimes, but it's necessary in certain scenarios," Conley said. "If guys have tendencies where they get wild with the ball, get a little loose with the ball, it's good to have some structure to say, 'Hey, one or two guys, you do this."
It will be on Conley to help guide that transition by make calls at the spur of the moment so the Wolves don't slow down more checking back at Finch to relay a set.
I've been on teams where we looked to the sideline for every play," Conley said. "You'd be running down to the opposite end, and you'd be looking back at Coach to see what to get in. When you have a good floor general, you don't need that. It's, 'Look at me, make eye contact with me.' Me and Finchy can talk afterwards about making a mistake."
The Wolves are hopeful they can find the right mixture on offense as the season goes along.
"We got to be able to give them the blueprint," Finch said. "And that is 'These basic structures are going to help us.' And maybe through muscle memory they will just gravitate to the right spots."
