Chris Finch, Joe Boylan and the Timberwolves necessity for player development

Chris Finch sat courtside in Las Vegas, watching youngsters such as Josh Minott, Wendell Moore and Leonard Miller go at it during summer-league play against the New Orleans Pelicans.

His Minnesota Timberwolves have a roster that is largely set for next season, with a starting five that will come back intact from last season’s playoff series and the bench tweaked by the additions of Shake Milton and Troy Brown in place of Taurean Prince and Jaylen Nowell. All three of the young players Finch was watching closely in Vegas will have their work cut out for them to get decent playing time in 2023-24, but that did not diminish the importance of the event for the organization. For the Timberwolves to build a sustainable winner, they need players like Moore, a late first-round pick in 2022, Minott, a second-round that same season, and Miller, a second-rounder this summer, to develop into rotation players.

The Timberwolves do not live in a destination city such as Los Angeles or Miami that is a magnet for free agents. With Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert on max contracts, they won’t have much money to spend on the open market anytime soon. After the trade for Gobert last summer, they don’t have much in the way of draft currency to dangle in future deals.

“Developing our own talent given our market, given our roster, given our cap situation, given our draft pick situation,” Finch said as he watched a group of draft picks, young players and journeymen trying to make an impression, “it’s paramount.”

Every team in the league will say developing young players into rotation-capable performers and turning rotation guys into starters is important. But for teams like the Timberwolves, there is little margin for error. Second-round picks can’t be just dartboard throws in Minnesota. If the core remains in place, Towns, Edwards and Gobert combined will make almost $132 million in 2024-25. Add a potential contract extension for Jaden McDaniels at $20 million or more and Naz Reid’s $14 million, and the luxury tax becomes inevitable.

The Wolves could always trade one of their high-priced players to alleviate some of the financial burden. But even then, winning rosters are generally built around two or three big-money guys and supported by more cost-efficient role players who fit around the shot makers. At least at this stage of the Timberwolves’ situation, it is hard to imagine veteran free agents taking less money to come to Minnesota over bigger offers from teams with more spending power.

Well before the Wolves made a deal with Utah for Gobert that sacrificed a large chunk of their draft capital for the foreseeable future, Finch set a goal of making player development a part of his identity as a coach in Minnesota. He had been an NBA assistant for 10 years, so he was well aware of the reputation and the pitfalls in the market that the team faced.

He hired Joe Boylan to be the director of player development and an assistant coach on his staff, tasking him with helping to shape the program geared toward the team’s younger players getting acclimated to NBA life and then raising their games to meet the needs of the roster. Finch calls Boylan the key to their approach, which emphasizes group workouts and competition to keep players’ attention and intensity high in the summer months. Finch and Boylan worked together in New Orleans, and Finch connected with Boylan’s cerebral approach, personality and tireless commitment to the job.

“Guys tend to be drawn to people with quirky personalities,” Finch said. “They’re just different. They’re trying to figure out, ‘Who is this crazy guy?’ He is different in his approach.”

On game nights, Boylan can occasionally be seen standing up from his seat behind the Wolves bench, hands on top of his head while a play unfolds in front of him. That passion resonates with players, but it’s the work he does with them all summer long, and the games he runs for rehabbing players and those out of the rotation during the season — dubbed the Stay In Shape League — that directly impact their performance.

Finch sees a direct connection between the work Boylan and other assistants, including Chris Hines and Max Lefevre with the NBA staff and Jeff Newton in Iowa, and the progress the Wolves have seen from Edwards, McDaniels and Reid. All three’s games are more well-rounded, all three have addressed weaknesses and all three have become even bigger parts of the team’s future. That is to be expected for Edwards, the 2020 No. 1 overall pick and a face of the franchise. But to get McDaniels, who was taken 28th overall, to develop into a two-way stud and Reid, an undrafted tweener, to turn into a real weapon off the bench is invaluable.

“From the very first day, Finchy’s walking orders were, ‘I want there to be daily competition,'” Boylan said. “We reverse engineered on that principle.”

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Players workout more in small groups than individually, competing against one another, guarding one another, learning from one another along the way. The coaches have found the format allows them to push players’ limits even further. If Reid is hitting a wall and looks over at McDaniels pushing through it, he is more likely to try to match that intensity and vice versa.

“The main reason people stop working on their games is oftentimes boredom,” Boylan said. “You get sick and tired of the work. Creating a competitive, fun atmosphere so guys want to come to the gym, they want to work on their games, they want to do things that are a little bit uncomfortable.”

Boylan got his start in the NBA as a video coordinator on Doc Rivers’ staff in Boston. He worked in Golden State, Memphis, New Orleans and the G League before Finch brought him to Minnesota to lead the player development staff. His voice carries in a gym, and his energy is undeniable. He will run pick-and-roll with a player to work on decision-making. He will talk a little trash during a SISL game to stir the pot. But mostly, he encourages players to push themselves beyond a breaking point, applauding mistakes as much as progress.

“We try to be very accommodating to every player because it’s really about giving confidence to the player,” Boylan said. “That’s our No. 1 objective. Be able to play when the lights come on. Be confident and go out there and seize the moment. It’s not a one size fits all. It’s every individual player we do it differently.”

The Wolves’ goals for player development have two prongs. The coaches work with the players over the long haul to add skills to their games that they do not have when they walk in the door. Boylan worked on playmaking and perimeter shooting with McDaniels. Hines is working closely with Edwards on the lob throwing needed to pair with Gobert. Reid honed his ballhandling and decision-making so he could play power forward in addition to his more natural center position.

Secondly, they try to set short-term markers so the players can get on the floor in a game, earn some confidence from being given the opportunity and perhaps emerge from it hungrier to work and get more playing time.

“We’ve got to get them comfortable with the little parts of the system that we know they can go out there and do so we can put them in the game early,” Finch said. “That way they can feel the game and develop and learn through that.”

Moore and Minott played only sparingly as rookies last season. They have been near constant attendees at the team’s practice facility this summer, working on their games to try to force their way into the rotation. Moore has been working on his point guard skills and his shooting. Minott has focused on his perimeter defense and physicality. Miller, the promising second-round pick this season, needs so much refinement in his game. Luka Garza, who will be back for a second two-way contract, has been working a ton on his defense.

The staff’s ability to mold these players into helpful rotation pieces, and ideally more than that, will go a long way toward determining if the Wolves can graduate from a team that has been one-and-done in the playoffs the last two years to one that can become a threat in the postseason.

“When you have the roster that we have, we’ve got to be able to develop some of these young guys and turn them into real players,” Lefevre said. “It’s just huge.”

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The staff works to establish routines with young players who have yet to ingrain the habits and structure it takes to foster improvement. And when the players get to the gym, it is all about maximizing the time they have there.

“You have to understand how important that is. And once you get them in there, understanding how hard you have to work,” Lefevre said. “It’s a big difference from just being in the gym and actually getting something done.”

This hasn’t been a big summer only for the players. Boylan was chosen to participate in a Basketball Without Borders Americas event in Montreal. It’s a coveted spot that Boylan first became interested in when speaking to Finch and Wolves assistant Pablo Prigioni about their experiences in the program. He worked alongside other assistant coaches, including Golden State’s Bruce Fraser and Portland’s Rodney Billups, with young players from Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The program appealed to Boylan’s coaching background in player development. He worked with some of the best prospects under 18, boys and girls, from those areas and also got to talk shop with the NBA assistants and local coaches who were participating. Oklahoma City’s Lu Dort, Indiana’s Bennedict Mathurin and Toronto’s Chris Boucher were NBA players there as well.

“I was so eager to get involved in a program like this,” Boylan said. “I am curious. I do want to keep learning. I want to be around people that think differently.”

Boylan ran the players through drills in the mornings and coached in games in the afternoons. In the evenings, the coaches had dinners, swapped stories and compared notes on life in the business.

“A lot of them are very good players. What they really are looking for is confidence,” Boylan said. “It’s just the fact that I work in the NBA and I can tell them what a great job they’re doing and keep their head up. Just recognizing the talents they have can be really impactful.”

Joe Boylan (left) at the Basketball Without Borders event in Montreal, Canada. (Courtesy of the NBA)

Boylan found the chance to be part of one of the NBA’s most desired offseason programs for coaches an invigorating experience, something that served as a springboard for the rest of his work with the Timberwolves this summer as they prepare for a big season ahead.

“I do feel like it is extremely validating to the position that I’ve found myself in where I’ve been not only given the freedom by my head coach, but he’s insistent and encouraging me to take advantage of these opportunities,” he said. “That really makes me feel good.”

During a meeting in July with a prospective free agent, Finch said the veteran player looked at the Wolves roster and asked the coach if he was just prioritizing playing his young players in support of the vets Gobert, Towns and Mike Conley.

“We play the young guys because they’re good,” Finch said he told the vet. “We love our young guys. We love our old guys, but we love our young core. We’re not just throwing them out there to give them seasoning. They’re guys that help us win games.”

(Josh Minott dunks the ball during a game against the Hawks during the 2023 NBA Las Vegas Summer League: Bart Young/NBAE via Getty Images)

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