Chris Finch reveals his goals for Timberwolves' lineups and rotations

The season is still new for the Minnesota Timberwolves, and yet we already know so much more about them than we did just 10 days ago. We have seen the Wolves figure some things out on the fly, while going through some of the growing pains of trying to incorporate a new player in the starting lineup and another heavy-minutes rotation player as well.

Really, Julius Randle has been about as good as you could have asked for from an individual standpoint. Minnesota's new starting power forward has played his role to a tee on offense, taking the right shots and doing it without sacrificing efficiency. It is fair to say the Timberwolves' staff is still figuring him out to a degree, but his high-level play has helped tremendously.

One of the bigger problems the team is still working to fix is their play in transition, particularly from the defensive side of things. Minnesota has been making what Anthony Edwards has described as "immature" mistakes, and it has led to them giving their opponents extra opportunities to score. These growing pains have resulted in a 2-2 record in the early going of the season.

It is fair to say that these Wolves do not look like the team we saw last season, and Chris Finch and the staff still have a tall task ahead of them in getting this team to produce on the same kind of 56-win level that last year's team did. This week at practice, Finch gave some insight on the team's lineups and rotations, and shared what his specific goals are.

Finch wants a "nine and a half" man rotation

"I'd like to try to get to a legit nine and a half guys," Finch said. "Right now, we’re playing eight and a half. So we’ve got some work to do there." The eight guys that he is referring to includes Mike Conley, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert, Donte DiVincenzo, Naz Reid and Nickeil-Alexander Walker. Joe Ingles is the only other player to have appeared in a regular season game to this point, and he has played just 5.5 minutes per game. Ingles would be the ninth player Finch is referring to.

If the Timberwolves are to incorporate one more player into a heavy minutes role, it would ideally be one of the new guys like Rob Dillingham or Terrence Shannon Jr., both of which have been hinted at playing real minutes in the regular season. Finch also noted that he is trying to get more guys' minutes up.

The player he is most likely referring to here is Donte DiVincenzo, who has played just 27.0 minutes on average through four games. He is already getting on the floor for more minutes per night than Reid, Conley and Alexander-Walker. The organization reportedly had big interest in him leading up to the trade, so it would make sense for Finch to want to get him as many minutes as possible.