Chris Finch didn’t exactly launch a marketing campaign for the Timberwolves on Wednesday, but he may have done it anyway.
With Minnesota heading toward the 2026-27 season and a roster headlined by new point guard LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards, Finch addressed the league’s push to crack down on embellishment and flopping. His message lined up neatly with what plenty of fans already feel: the Wolves don’t play that way.
“Hopefully the league cleans up this crap because nobody wants to watch it,” Finch said via The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski. “That’s what they said was the feedback from the fans.
They’re tired of watching the flopping. And we know that it’s been rewarded at too high a level, so just stop rewarding the flopping.
“... We don’t teach flopping here.
We don’t teach embellishment. We never have.
It probably shows up in [Anthony Edwards’s] free throw rate at times that he doesn’t flop or embellish. But we don’t teach it here, and that’s not the way we play.”
That stance is part of what could make Minnesota one of the league’s easiest teams to root for. Finch even joked that maybe the Wolves should start teaching how to flop, but the larger point landed: this is a team that wants to be seen as playing straight-up basketball.
That matters in a league where the online conversation has repeatedly centered on teams and stars accused of selling contact. Oklahoma City and San Antonio have taken plenty of heat for it, and back-to-back MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has become a central figure in those debates. Finch was among the first coaches to publicly push back when Minnesota faced the Thunder in February 2025.
“It’s so frustrating to play this team because they foul a ton,” Finch said then. “...
They foul, they foul all the time. And then you can’t really touch Shai.”
Victor Wembanyama later stepped into that same conversation after talking about “ethical hoops” following a matchup with Oklahoma City in last year’s NBA Cup. But Wolves fans saw a different version of that idea when Minnesota met San Antonio in last May’s Western Conference semi-finals.
The trend also drew sharper criticism when Wembanyama flopped to draw a foul on New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson during the NBA finals, prompting The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson II to write that, “The issue is bigger than drawing fouls. It’s the aesthetic,” before adding that the game can turn into “legal proceedings.”
Minnesota’s own numbers don’t suggest a team that lives at the line through gimmicks. The Wolves ranked seventh with 25.3 free throws per game, while the Spurs were 13th at 24.6 and the Thunder 17th at 23.2. The distinction, though, is how those looks come.
And that’s where the Wolves start to separate themselves. They have the ingredients for a team casual fans can latch onto: Edwards as the centerpiece, Ball bringing a new wrinkle to the backcourt, Jaden McDaniels in line for a bigger offensive role, and the frontcourt pairing of Rudy Gobert and Jonathan Kuminga giving the roster another layer of intrigue.
Edwards remains the face of it all. Minnesota has been close before, reaching back-to-back Western Conference Finals in 2024 and 2025, then slipping a bit last season. Even so, the revised supporting cast and what Finch described as a step forward in leadership make Edwards one of the more compelling players to track this year.
There’s also the broader vibe of the thing. Compared with Oklahoma City and San Antonio, Minnesota can sell itself as something cleaner and less cynical.
The Nuggets already have a recent title. The Lakers’ hype machine is impossible to miss.
In the East, the Knicks have Karl-Anthony Towns, but he already has his ring after winning a title last year, while the Cavaliers are tied to James Harden alongside Donovan Mitchell and the Pistons have built a reputation for scrapping with everyone.
Minnesota had its own issues, of course. Julius Randle could disappear offensively at times, and Naz Reid described the moodiness before Randle was traded to the Charlotte Hornets this summer.
But compared with the rest of the league, the Wolves have a case as one of the NBA’s most likable teams. If the public is looking for a team to get behind this season, Finch may have just pointed them in the right direction.
In Other News...
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For the Timberwolves, the questions are less about flair than fit. Balls offensive gifts are obvious, but his durability has been a concern, and Minnesota needs to know he can stay available and hold up when the games turn more physical and the margins shrink. How he handles that challenge will go a long way toward defining whether this becomes a savvy addition or another frustrating what-if. [Read more 🡒]
Tim Connellys Wolves Vision Around Anthony Edwards Is Suddenly Clear
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Tim Connelly has been explicit about the logic behind the reset, framing the LaMelo Ball trade as a move that could address immediate needs while also stretching the teams competitive window. With almost everyone in the rotation cluster young enough to still be on the rise, Minnesotas plan is starting to look like a bet on continuity, development and a longer runway than the franchise has often had in the past. [Read more 🡒]
Hornets Fans Are Stuck On The Rob Dillingham Drama Off The Court
Rob Dillinghams brief stop with Charlotte became a talking point almost as soon as it began, with the Hornets moving on from him on Sept. 28 after bringing him in via trade. The decision was framed around roster and financial flexibility rather than anything tied to his play, which only added to the sense that this was more about business than basketball.
Still, the conversation around Dillingham has not stayed on the court. Unverified social media screenshots involving him and influencer Tatiana Chanel have been circulating, even though the exchange was said to have happened months before the waiver and has not been independently confirmed. For a player whose name had already entered Minnesotas orbit through the larger Dillingham conversation, it leaves one more layer of noise hanging around a situation that was already messy. [Read more 🡒]