When asked about Rudy Gobert’s comments from the Timberwolves’ loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night, Feb. 6, at Target Center, the comments in which Gobert said it was about time for coach Chris Finch to start benching those who don’t give effort on defense, Wolves forward Jaden McDaniels smiled and turned into a politician.
“I don’t know nothing ‘bout it. I don’t even wanna talk about it, for real,” McDaniels said Saturday, Feb. 7. “I just try to do my job and do my job to the best of my ability.”
There wasn’t much those who spoke wanted to say publicly about Gobert’s comments, which were among the strongest the three-time All-Star center has delivered in his postgame tenure in his four seasons with the Wolves. Gobert said Finch should start benching players, regardless of stature on the team, if they don’t try on defense.
While he didn’t name names, his comments seemed to be pointed toward star offensive players such as Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle, whose effort can wax and wane on that end of the floor. Gobert was the last Wolves player or coach to speak after Friday’s loss to the Pelicans, so Saturday’s practice was the first time Finch and the team addressed what Gobert said. (Randle was requested for interviews but was unavailable, the team said.)
“Well aware of his comments,” Finch said. “I’ll say a couple things. One is anybody knows how we do things here knows there’s a high degree of accountability. Secondly, I handle all my conversations with ourselves in house. Disappointing that he felt the need to go outside. But nonetheless, that’s been addressed already today. There’s never been a team that’s won anything meaningful that has substituted their way there.”
Finch has been up front that the Wolves can be a “moody” team that wears its emotions on its sleeve. So when he goes back to look at the film from a game like New Orleans — when the Pelicans were beating the Wolves in transition and the Wolves were leaving open shooters on the perimeter — it was easy to see where the lapses in effort were.
But Finch added, “A lot of times in film, it doesn’t pick up the mood of the team.”
“I think a lot of our low-energy plays comes from a collective kind of foul mood,” he said. “So those are things that I try to identify. Transition defense is [the] most obvious one for us — bit of a litmus test for our mood and our willingness to make that play.”
