Timberwolves’ point guard rotation strategy is known only to coach Chris Finch

LOS ANGELES – Whatever fans might have thought about the Timberwolves point guard situation, coach Chris Finch turned that on its head with his rotation Wednesday night in the team’s season-opening victory at Portland.

Conventional wisdom coming into the season was that Mike Conley would start and likely play around 20-25 minutes. Donte DiVincenzo would come off the bench and straddle between playing the one and two guard position while playing the same amount of minutes. Then second-year guard Rob Dillingham would enter the mix to earn some minutes off the bench.

None of that happened.

Instead, Finch opted to start DiVincenzo, bring Conley off the bench and not play Dillingham at all.

Before the game, Finch walked through his thinking on starting DiVincenzo over Conley and said, “It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a little while.”

“There’s a lot of things that went into it. I thought [DiVincenzo] had a really good preseason. Mostly it’s strategic around Mike. It’s a lot easier to manage Mike’s impact and minutes in the game over a 36-minute span than it is over a 48-minute span. It allows us to get to different lineup combinations and maybe maximize things around him and Rudy and other lineups.”

Conley played 13 minutes and went 1-for-5 for three points. DiVincenzo had a rougher night as he struggled with Portland’s physical defense and had seven points but six turnovers. But from the sounds of it, Finch was not making this move just for opening night.

DiVincenzo will likely be the starting point guard for the foreseeable future. He started 10 games at point guard — and played some of his most productive basketball last season — when he was starting over Conley before a turf toe injury sidelined him.

“Mike is obviously way more a classic point guard,” Finch said. “Donte can handle for sure. He creates pace. He does get out and run. He’ll push the ball on the outlets. He unto himself is kind of a pace setter for us where Mike isn’t quite as much. Obviously he’ll have to step in and handle at the one from time to time. We have confidence in him to do that.”

As for Dillingham, he didn’t play at all Wednesday as Finch went 10 deep into his bench. With DiVincenzo and Conley struggling to get a rhythm, Finch turned to Bones Hyland for fourth-quarter minutes because he thought Hyland’s size could help on the defensive end at a time the Wolves were having trouble containing Portland’s bruising drives. He finished with two points. Finch said Dillingham’s DNP-coach’s decision was not indicative that Dillingham had to do more in practice to crack the rotation.

“It’s early on still,” Finch said. “As you see, I’m gonna leave myself license to go anywhere I want with the guys. That includes who we might start, who we might finish with, who we play along the way. Everybody has to stay ready. Everyone’s going to contribute to winning here. We’re not singling out guys individually for reasons that they didn’t play.”

When the game entered crunch time, Finch opted to not go with a traditional point guard at all. Terrence Shannon Jr., who played 25 minutes and had 10 points, closed the game along with the starters instead. That’s a continuation of how Finch coached last season, where those who finished the game weren’t necessarily those who started it.