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Welcome to Flavor and Howl's on Minnesota Timberwolves Lifestyle Podcast. Gang's all here. We got our guy Kyle. We got Judd, Pat Riley, Zolgad here with the Slickback 1995 New York Snig.
You got to put the suit on to do the full. Oh, are you kidding? The mid-90s. Yeah, I don't know if I put a suit on.
I do this and I didn't shower. Do you have a suit? You rent your suits, though. I rented my suits for Dex's wedding.
Yeah, it was great. Dude, I think a full. Kyle, if we could get Judd in like a full. By the way, a couple hours ago, it was still like wet.
Slickback too. It was very 1995, Pat Riley. I would like to start a movement that would just be a suit. Like athleisure should be the way to do it.
I know Dex's married. Coaches on our suits. Pat Riley will wear a suit now. If I got to put on layers and I'm not going outside to do like winter stuff, like what's the point?
I'm going to be uncomfortable. Let me just wear like stretchy pants. Can you imagine Chris Finch now forced to wear a suit every game, which by the way, pre-pandemic he would have been? Did we see, was he wearing suits like his first few months on the job?
He was post-pandemic, right? He was post-pandemic. I've never seen Chris Finch wear nice pants. Even when I got a beer with him, he's just in the same Timberwolves guard.
Nobody rocks a quarter zip better than Chris Finch. Like, bingo. You know, CJ Fleck, which is a little bit of a ballsy take there, but I think Chris Finch racks the quarter zip the best. Born five days apart in 1969, Finch and I are the same guy.
You guys are, man. You just enjoy the simple things. A good game, a good beverage, and some athleisure gear. Exactly right.
Some good food, exactly right. I'm guessing you're wearing athleisure gear at Parlor when you're going to Parlor and you're sticking your teeth into one of those. You know what? There's a point of going to Parlor bar, which is fantastic.
It's not for me to look nice. It's for me to get a great meal, and Parlor takes care of that. In fact, they are in the North Loop, so stop in before a Wolves game. Have a great time.
Try the famous Parlor burger, craft cocktail menu, or a sneaky one for you. The fried chicken sandwich is absolutely outstanding. Kitchen open until midnight on Friday and Saturday. Check them out again.
Parlor bar in the North Loop. Make it your pre- and post-game stop for when you go downtown to enjoy the Wolves and these days win games. And then maybe when you're done, you can stay at Element Hotel just down the street from Target Center. You could bring some friends and family for an upcoming Wolves game.
It's a Marriott Bonvoy Hotel for points purposes. Right on the light rail, super walkable to some of the aforementioned great Minneapolis restaurants and bars. Garage parking at the hotel is also cheaper than you'll find around the arena in the stadium over there, Target Field, too. City Views, bright natural lighting, Element Hotel in the North Loop.
Just a great spot if you're looking to either stay overnight or maybe it's a family friends weekend. Free breakfast, food breakfast tacos, avocado toast, sweet potato hash, talk dirty. 15% room rate discount at swarnoff.com slash element, swarnoff.com slash element. All right, Dex is going to guide us through the state of the Wolves here.
They just swept through the state of Texas over the last week, so let's rock and roll. I feel like we're alternating state of the Wolves weeks with, like, last week it was, we were all pissed off. We were off for that one. We were real upset.
Two weeks prior to that, it was, like, a successful little trip, and now we're on the high again here on the state of the Wolves. So here's a little snapshot overview. Currently the Wolves 17 and 14 on the season. They are eighth in the Western Conference.
They're a game back of the top six being out of the play-in. Offensively, they're 21st in rating. In defensive rating, they are sixth. So offensive rating is still kind of below average a bit, but the defensive rating, which also has shot significantly over the last few weeks, they're sixth overall with the topality of the season.
Again, deferring a different playoff odds from ESPN and basketball reference. So right now, ESPN has the Wolves as about a 51% chance to make the playoffs. They're looking at them as a coin flip team to make the NBA playoffs, where basketball reference has it as high as 77%. So basketball reference's formula says Wolves are more of a lock for the playoffs than ESPN.
According to Larry O'Brien's trophy odds, 0.1% from ESPN, 0.3% from basketball reference. So both of them agree that they are, right now, a long shot to be the NBA champions, haters. And if the playoffs started today, the Wolves would play the Nuggets in a play-in game, which would be an absolute blast. That could be a really, really fun game.
So that's your snapshot of where the Wolves stand. Let's start with a vibe check. Once we leave this off in the vibe check here, I'm done. Let's go, Kyle.
Let's get off with Kyle here. Those basketball reference, like, playoff odds are like a hot dog. No idea what's in them. But, I mean, I just consume them.
But, you know, wasn't it like last week or two weeks ago you guys did that? I was like, Wolves have a 0.01% chance to make the playoffs. I was like, wait, they're like 500. Vibes are, I need a fun word.
Vibes are, I don't know, improving. One of those stats to throw on top of everything, Dexter said nine and four in the last 13. And all nine wins are against teams that are at or above 500. So not easy wins.
Gone are the days. And this is a new year's resolution for all of us. Just stop looking at the schedule. I don't know.
Easy teams coming to town, Wolves are probably going to lose those games. Easy teams coming to town, Wolves are probably actually going to try and win. So I'm over trying to be like, oh, the Blazers are coming to town. That's a win.
But I think they're improving. I think it took a little longer, Phil, than you maybe thought. I think we were both preaching patience. But about, you know, 35 games into this, now you're starting to see an identity on defense over pretty much the entire month of December.
Offense is still really bad. But they have discovered what I guess we're calling the bronze lineup now with Julius Randall and four bench guys. That's a real thing that's, like, really valuable you saw again last night. So yeah, I think Vibes overall as we end 2024 are improving for sure.
I would say that the Vibes are getting a clue. They seem to be getting a clue, including Fitch, too. So I mean, he does not get off the hook for the questionable start. He also gets credit for his work in this three-game win streak.
But it feels like they're beginning to get a clue about roles, about rotations, about the fact that if they do not work hard, if they do not play defense, they are inevitably going to lose. They won three consecutive games. But to go back to what Dex said, they also, when we did this segment last week, had just lost three consecutive games, including a loss to the Knicks, which was an inexcusable embarrassment at home. So I'm not going to give them a ton of credit yet.
I need to see far more stability. But it feels like they are all getting a clue about what needs to be done to win games. When it comes to how he's going to run his team, Chris Finch, I'm going to go in a different direction and say the Vibes are maddening right now, because every single game is the same. It's last week, you're so mad.
But even like the three games that they just won. And last night was a perfect example. This starting lineup does not work. It doesn't work.
And unless there is a vision for, hey, just give this like another 10 or 15 games, and you're going to see this thing click. Jaden's going to click. Mike Conley is going to go back to being the 35-year-old version of himself who doesn't look totally cooked. They start every game in a double-digit deficit.
And then the best bench in the league, in terms of chemistry and shooting and spacing, comes in, fixes it. They go from like down by 12 last night, boom, bench comes in, immediately cuts it to three or whatever it was. And the plus minuses are hilarious every single night, because you get like, oftentimes all three of the main bench guys are like a plus 23, plus 25. DiVincenzo was a plus 23 last night.
And there's plenty more to talk about with DiVincenzo's turnaround. But this starting lineup digs a hole every single first quarter. And then again, to start the second half, like, oh, here's a 13-point lead, down to nothing. And then now you're down by 10 again.
And then you have to change up the lineup again. So if they could just, it's not even like an overhaul of the starting lineup. If there's a tweak in there somewhere without completely upsetting your advantage with your second unit, it's time at this point to pull that lever. It's Rudy, you know, getting a lob or something.
It's pretty incredible. They played 380 minutes together on the season, the starting five. And they are exactly break-even for the year in terms of like net plus minus. It's been a lot worse lately.
I'm just saying it's kind of maddening. They're winning games despite this atrocious five-man combo that they run out there more often than any other five-man combo. But we at least all acknowledge the starting lineup has to change. Like, I think at this point, the easiest lever to pull is Mike Conley.
And then just say, like, hey, Mike, you're going to do some bench stuff. The other option would obviously be Jayden. Real talk, I don't know what happens mentally to him. You can say that he gets paid all this money.
Conley would be fine. I think Conley would like kind of love it, actually. You know what? And the Jayden shooting stuff is an Achilles heel for this team that will absolutely kill them.
He just hasn't found a consistent shot. Yesterday when the D'Angelo Russell news broke because he was free again. Surprise, surprise. I was thinking like, man, what if you just replaced Jayden with Dorian Finney-Smith, right?
Another 3 and D guy, but far more consistent. But I think they've at least gotten through to Jayden now that, hey, man, you're like 6'10. So if you're not going to hit threes, can you just like maybe do something else? And for the second time in like two weeks, he had 10 or more rebounds.
So that's 10 or more rebounds twice in seven games. The first 308 games of his career, he did it twice. So maybe he's onto something. But on the plus minus stuff, again, like if I hosted sports talk radio show from 11 PM to 2 AM and I had crazy numbers, like, oh my God, your rating's awesome.
I'm not going up against anyone, right? So like bench plus minus, I do want to at least throw the filter in there that they are going up against second units. Just this idea of like, oh, we just all the time in sports. Oh, the bench guys are awesome.
Let them start. That's not how this works. So like the bench brigade, the four guys in Julius or whatever you want to call it, the eight starters, I love that part. I don't want to mess that up.
So that's why like the easiest lever to me is like, I mean, if Rob Dillingham had two healthy ankles, just put him in for Mike. But until then, I think you guys know this picture is going to be stubborn. I think you're going to see the same starting lineup all the way through January. I just do.
I don't know if that's the right answer, but I agree with you in terms of, it's not as easy as like, look at these bench guys that are dominating. You see what happens when a Jordan McLaughlin gets put into a bigger situation, like his productivity decreased over the last couple of years when he was a wolf. But I feel like with this version of DiVincenzo, there's more room for him either in the starting lineup or, and you saw, I mean, hell, the last couple of games last night, and I think the last two games in a row, he essentially comes in the middle of the first quarter and just plays all the way through halftime. And then did he not also play the last 18 minutes of the second half last night too?
So that tweak at the end where it's four of the starters minus Conley plus DiVincenzo and they're spacing, there's more energy on defense because it's a guy who's, DiVincenzo flies around. And I think he is the type of dude that if you were to put him in the starting lineup and give him five or six extra minutes per game on average like they've been, I think you're going to see much more productivity with the starters. But yeah, like I just don't know how you can continue with this starting five, digging a double digit deficit every single night and not make a change of some time. So what's the thing with Conley too, like, like, because to your point, Phil, he's at an age, he's declining clearly.
Like, I don't think it's some like huge indictment of Mike if Mike does not start. But like, what's the issue there? Does Finch feel a loyalty to Conley? Is Finch concerned that if he doesn't have Conley out there to run the point, that the replacement is not going to be sufficient because it clearly works when the bench is playing or it works okay.
But like what, what's like with Julius, when I suggested that Julius not start and not should, there clearly is a discussion of, you know, how you're regarded there and feelings being hurt and creating chemistry problems. I'm with you on Conley. I don't think it's like, oh my God, Mike, your bench, he still plays. And he clearly is, unfortunately, it looks like going off the cliff.
Well, just, I think this is where they're probably hung up. Di Vincenzo is not a true point guard. Anthony Edwards is not a true point guard. Conley and Dillingham are the two truest point guards on the roster.
And Conley, you know, for his, for his decrease in productivity, he can still organize and is still a mature adult on the court. So if you figure that he can stir the drink and get other guys engaged and you can say, I get the logic, you can save Di Vincenzo for that second unit. But I just think at some point, you can't keep doing this game after game after game. And I guess last night, dude, Conley was the first guy up off the bench every single time somebody made a bucket or did something big.
I don't, with Julius, there's an ego with, with, with, uh, Jaden, to Kyle's point, there's like emotional maturity issues there. You could wreck the chemistry and wreck those guys. I don't think you have to worry about that with Conley. That's probably the first lever that I would pull with the starting lineup.
Jim Pete told us once, Phil, that you just can't jerk guys around like in another starting lineup. And I do think, I mean, you guys have covered sports well, I do think it matters to some of these guys, like to start, it's a big thing, whatever. I think Finch has, I think there are politics and people don't want to hear that, but just like managing any other organization, I think there's stuff that goes on behind the scenes that he has to manage. And to get around that, back to this bronze lineup, which is essentially Julius Randall, Nikhil, Dante, Nas, and Josh Minot, he was like, okay, it's not working with Julius in the starting lineup, but what if I gave Julius like four wide receivers and I let him play quarterback one for like six minutes in each half?
Like that's really profitable. In the Rockets game, he closed Finch without Rudy Gobert. All small guys, you know, offensive minded, and they come back with a, they were like a 99.6% chance to lose that game. And they come back.
And then last night again, he just doesn't close with Mike. So I think he's trying to do other stuff that aren't the starting lineup thing, Phil, but I still think, I mean, with Mike, you can just say, Mike, it's almost the end for you, right? Like taking you out back at some point, but you can, we can manage your minutes a little better. And also too, like you're never going to start again because you're an older guy who has a huge, like a huge career and a great resume.
You don't start Jaden. Like what do you, what's the plan? Like you think it's just going to get better. And if it doesn't get better than like, have you just nuked your own trade asset?
So I just, a big energy for me today, as we move into the new year, is like, if you have problems with this team, I would like to know your solutions. I don't want to just hear what the problems are, right? Because like, I know everyone wants to fire Chris Finch every other day, but I would like to know, you know, I'll get into that. I will say on Jaden, and then we can get into favorite Wolves thing.
They signed him to that extension thinking he was an ascending 22 year old player who was shot 38% from three wide open corner threes a couple years ago and thought, okay, we're signing a dude who is a lights out defender, who also at minimum on offense has emerged into a really good open three point shooter. And ever since he agreed to that contract, his shooting has declined. He's now shooting 30% on the season as he enters into his prime years. That's a red flag.
And maybe it's one the Wolves could have seen coming, but I'll give you one solution. The Timberwolves are 14 points per 100 possessions worse when Jaden is on the court versus off the court. So solution number one is less Jaden McDaniels. And if that means filling his minutes with more Nikhil or more DiVincenzo or more Josh Minot, who's just everywhere, not that he's a lights out shooter yet either, but I don't know if I need 30 minutes a night from Jaden McDaniels.
He can still start, but maybe you pull that 30 minutes down to 23 or 24 until he starts hitting more shots and you fill the other seven minutes, which may not sound like much, but it could be with more offense, more spacing. The problem is like part of this, the starting unit, like you're bogging down Anthony Edwards too. How can you unlock him and free him up with more spacing? So solution is a little less Jaden McDaniels and a little more of anyone else who can space the floor and make life easier for your, for your best player.
And I just want to say, I'm open to any of that stuff. Like I'm really open to anyone's being benched or whatever, but if you're going to replace Jaden with Nikhil, I need to know how you're going to rebound because right now Anthony doesn't want to do it in some games. Your 38 year old point guard has no physical ability to do it. Julius is out on the premier.
So are you just going to like hemorrhage rebounding then? I'm not sure I'm ready to crown Jaden in elite rebounder after, after the last two weeks. But if he's going to be a double digit rebounder, that's a different conversation. And again, I'm just saying, go back and watch these last couple of games against like Luka before he got hurt and stuff.
Nikhil and Jaden do not guard the same type of player. And I don't think Jaden should be on guards anyway, but I'm just saying every lever that Wolf Twitter wants to pull, like when you pull a lever, right? Something happens, you're a slot machine, like the lights go. If you pull the lever, there's a lot of stuff that could go wrong with that.
And that's where with Mike, what could go wrong? You're going to lose the guy that I think is contracted fully guaranteed after the summer. That one's not as much of a risk to try to fix. you risk losing jayden i mean like trade before you don't think you can shoot if internally you think that after 315 games now it's never gonna come around he's never gonna be dfs then you gotta trade before you're gonna try to demote him to the bench and make him lose his value all right so favorite wolfsing i think even uh we touched on a little bit about 10 minutes ago but is my favorite thing has been dante d vincenzo over the last week plus now i mean he looks like the law of averages are starting to catch up on the good side of him after you know shoot a bunch of shots not having them fall over the last seven games down he's shooting almost 50 from the floor 46 uh from three he's always like an initiator of offense like even when maybe the shot wasn't falling this year there were times where he was still getting the offense going now he's still coming off the bench he played a ton down the stretch obviously last night but my favorite thing and i'm guessing you guys have thoughts on it too is is this the version of dante that we can now expect i know he also talked about how he's not more comfortable i mean he had to move up up his life just like we talked about the trade where he's in new york and all of a sudden he's got to be on a plane and pack up all his belongings join a new team learn a new system learn a new city and now it feels like he's getting really really comfortable so i guess my vibe check and the favorite thing is is this dante inferno essentially is this is this the dante we can now expect going forward this is the guy that they traded for too this so even though playing like you should makes the cat trade make a whole lot more sense and phil and i called this because we were at the next game and that was that probably the last game in which the divin chinzo big pout existed like his body language sucked he looked like he was having zero fun zero joy and i don't know if if like he was pulled aside afterwards if it occurred to him there is a story that he talked to some guys about trades but you know this is going to sign with the knicks to be with his villanova guys and he clearly wanted to be there and i don't blame him the knicks are certainly flawed but they are a heritage franchise they play in the garden you know you're in the mecca of basketball right he's playing with his guys and you know training camp starts and it's done uh but this to me when we see the divin chinzo now that we are seeing this is what makes the cat trade make a lot more sense and i do believe this is the key player i don't think julius is i think this is the guy that you're going to have on a very reasonable contract long term and we are starting to see him play like he can play and that is a huge plus i think switching shoes helped i hated watching wear orange shoes on those courts whatever court they decided to install i don't know if you're their last name they decided to install that one what happened did they install the wrong court or something wrong with the late court no the late court something went wrong with it that was discovered during the spurs shoot around it was frozen oh my god well what i asked was because they've got that damn garden roof on top of target center that if you guys recall started to leak in the playoffs i think it leaked into the seats but it's so warm here now what i said is is the roof leaking onto the floor now i was concerned about that but evidently there was a flaw in the late court wasn't there at the time when like 10 years ago and disney on ice came and they couldn't get the court ready because disney on ice is like ice is still on the no it was the nchc is that what it was yeah it was the nchc and then a week of disney on ice and what happened was it got warm outside and the ice was below the floor and the condensation built up on the floor itself yeah they couldn't like power off fast enough yeah they had like i believe they have since then i believe they have taken out the ability to put ice in the building which is great because it is one of the worst hockey places i've ever been to so i'm glad it's gone thoughts with all the children that don't get to see disney on ice in the proper place the target center down so i'm such a meat shield for chris finch because i was like back in the day the best thing that happened at targets in december and january was mickey mouse skating around like things have gotten better so my god that's great i had no idea about it people ask me like all night what happened so shout out to judge like knowing but that was although it did work out if you're like a minnesota sports fan it was great to watch the vikings then vent line and then just kind of moonwalk your way over to watch the wolves i smelled a rat there i thought my first thought was hold on a second they moved that vikings game and now the wolves are going to start at what the original tip 705 i'm like i think i think they're doing this when they sent the email my first thought was oh yeah they're late to the party on this but yeah you should push the game back an hour let people settle in by the way real quick wemmy is ridiculous there's a million different plays but there was the one play where he was like he was back to the basket in the paint and anthony edwards was kind of guarding him and then somebody came over to help but he does like he kind of dribbles and does like a half spin move it's a play that you've seen a million times from lanky players in the paint and usually it's like a scoop layup or something and you're like did he did he dunk that it was a go-go gadget arms thing that i don't know i had uh the volume off when i was watching at the time but that was wild like he makes two or three plays every night where you're like i've never seen that from a basketball player in my life watching the nba i don't want to interrupt the momentum of the show i actually thought that was one of the three craziest basketball plays i've ever seen in my entire life it sounded like all of the air got let out of the stadium because it was when michael jordan is like trying to dunk it in space and they're all like attacking him and his arms keep going longer longer i'm telling you i have never in my life seen someone post up like that and it's like giving it to him too and he spins towards the middle rudy's there jane's there and all of a sudden the ball's just dunking you're like wait you're standing like next to the free throw line how did that happen and it was like kind of like zapping the plays great i think it's like it's really quiet in here and also like a three-point game you're like oh my god like we might with all these drones and stuff we might just not be able to beat aliens and in that moment this is over but he is i hate i think i hate him for how just perfect he's so good at playing basketball like saturday morning he gets up and just plays chess in central park like he is raining and he's on the spurs and he plays with chris paul i mean if that team gets into the playoffs man they're gonna get every whistle i they just flopped around for 40 minutes last night like a bunch of salmon out of the water and it was crazy to watch it they got so many calls dude the julius randles thing julius bullies him into the basket when he falls down looks up at the ref with like the biggest puppy dog eyes and then the ref was like oh my god i better call something it was like six seconds late it was crazy that that even happened it was funny is was that where they did the review right afterwards too yeah like oh actually we can't just because he's awesome we can't just give him every call and i actually thought looking at the review is like you know i feel like julius fouled him twice on that play because he stuck the shoulder in and moved him out of the way and then he comes clubbing down with his arm and they somehow overturn it but is it i guess my favorite current wolf thing is that dude played when he played 37 minutes he scored 34 points he hit a bunch of key clutch shots down the stretch grabbed rebounds block shots and i think the wolves played him perfectly on defense for most of that game the end sequence too where they got the ball out of his hand like julius was julius was on a mission last night i'm gonna make this dude's life miserable on offense and defense i thought they did 34 and 8 despite what the wolves were doing to him i thought they did a great job and he's just an alien freakazoid who's gonna dominate the league for the next 15 years how do you get that that julius more frequently like i like that's what i expected like he's got dog like he can he does not play defense at times because he'll let's not to but like how do you get that guy because like he's a grinder he's got talent um it feels like when julius randall is in the right headspace he can be a really valuable player unfortunately i don't feel like you see that frequently enough i think i said this last week when phil was out but i think in new york there was a i mean jill brunson's been awesome this year but in new york julius randall because he was there longer i think he probably thought like this is my team and then he and obviously brunson is brunson's team he's maybe one of the best point guys he's ever had then he comes to minnesota and i think and it's better than brunson but i don't know if julius was ready to be like i mean that was one thing in like carl's defense like carl did kind of accept like i am the second banana like this is your franchise i don't know if julius did that yet and i don't know if he was like i'm a dog also i'm like the only guy from the team that has a big contract situation coming up next summer i can't like take all these steps back and like lower my own value but to judge original question i think unlocking him on offense with this lineup now where it's like you play with four bench guys who all defer to you and i'll look for you late in the shot clock like when we get rebounds we give it to you to play i mean julius said i'm playing point forward with that group i think unlocking him offensively making him more comfortable is how i mean phil that point you brought up about that last possession it's not as pretty but my favorite moment from last season in the playoff run was when the wolves had this five guys and they all switched like crazy against the suns late i think maybe game four it's like one of the best defensive possessions ever every guy swings around and covers for their other teammates and then ankles and has that killer dunk watch that play last night like they all recover so well and rudy knows exactly to cut off when he's water and then dante guards two with his hand and force his own hand to throw up a green-headed just bomb at the basket like talk about having to redo the court but he threw that thing so hard at the backboard but it hit the other side the other side of the rim i've never seen someone miss in the slot where you go over the rim and hit don't hit any rim just hit the backboard but i think that's it i think they had to get julius more comfortable offensively for him to buy in defensively no okay before we get to any final takes here on the state of the wolves let's talk about north star realty here we got a new partner on the show flagrant house next helma yeah how about this even before i tell you about heather uh wolves fans if you'd like two free lower level tickets to the wolves calves game on january 18th all you have to do is go to wolvesrealtor.com register to win those tickets and everyone that doesn't register also gets a 2025 schedule so you get something out of it either you're gonna get wolves tickets to go see them play the calves we're one of the best teams this year and everyone that registers regardless does get a 2025 schedule nugget plus new year's starting if you're thinking about selling your home you're thinking about buying a home now the holidays are over go give our friend heather a call at wolvesrealtor.com and you can see her at all the people also shout out to bricksworth a couple blocks away from target center in the north loop perfect for pre-gaming before home games or post-game after home and away games too bunch of tvs some of the best dry rub wings you're gonna find in the twin cities a couple weeks ago group of wolves fans sent us a picture of them just plowing some detroit style pizza and the cool ranch doritos seasoned dry rub wings and the signature nazaree hazy ipa all of it at bricksworth in the north loop they have the og location in burnsville too in the south metro but uh yeah check them out before or after a game and you can even get some cheaper parking options down there too if you want to drive down park and then walk a couple blocks to the game bricksworth in the north loop that's the wrong button that's okay we're gonna find like a howling sound can we use we can use the we use the wolves howl will we get training for that if you can find it let's throw it on the button bar um any other final takes or thoughts from you guys off this last week of glorious wolves basketball i had something but i i'll just be honest i if you did what do you not like about the wolves right now what are the opposite of good vibes i'll keep it short but i just really don't like the way we talk about nba head coaches in general but really chris finch um it kind of reminds me of socks now to a lesser extent right people are like i have a buddy who checks his 401k balance like six times a day and it's like buddy you're 35 like you're not gonna tap into that for a while so like right but it's like you know like yeah it went down a nickel the last three days we gotta unload this stock it's like okay but it's up 400 since we acquired fnch back in 2021 and i'm not saying that the stock right now is performing well i think we just highlighted that the starting lineup is the biggest issue on the team you're kind of nuking yourself and setting yourself behind eight ball but we do have stats on the show we do love data and facts i'm just gonna put this one out here going back to 2010 i think there's been like instances of like 18 times where coaches were fired in season one of those teams want to play off series one for 18 and it was when david blatt was like gold and they were like 31 and 10 but again mike brown coach of the year extended this summer he's the problem well guess what the kings gave up 45 to the lakers in the first quarter after they put in doug christie from basketball wise so again back to my like if you haven't if you have issues i need to know who you're replacing with because i'll tell you right now i'm looking kind of back on this one internally they do christian just looked at 179 degree difference internally than he is on like externally on social media he's not going anywhere until this ownership thing gets figured out and then ownership thing hopefully gets solved early in january but i don't think he's having a great year i'm not always a fan of some of the stuff he does i think it's ridiculous when josh won't plays well and he doesn't get another stint but i just like what what proof do you have that firing your coach mid-season is the way to do like if you just fire judd tomorrow from purple daily like you think it's gonna be smooth sailing on tuesday when you start doing the pods like there's so much stuff that goes on behind the scenes that i don't think people realize and again chris finch call some timeouts you're not jackson don't give up 14 runs play the guys who deserve to be at the table but just this idea that mike is going to come in and just like yeah i'm tyloo like i don't know man i love how you talk at halftime but i just think firing coaches mid-season is really embarrassing and makes your organization look bad and the reason the wolves have been the same old wolves for 33 of the 35 years is because they do dumb stuff like firing coaches mid-season and having six gms over six years like i know you don't like it man this isn't 2k so continuity matters i feel like most of their coaches have been fired mid-season and how did that work like it is like flip tips yeah yeah rams did rams get too full oh god rams had two games i think kirk rams is like the only dude that they didn't fire sam mitchell got sam mitchell was after i think the last game of the season that he coached after flips passing but he was like interim too yeah i'm trying to think about like i think you're right i think since i think since flip got fired the first time the majority have been then flip also took over halfway through then was it uh bill blair got fired yeah and that was that one was coming that one was coming but yeah the wolves with a poster child too for not doing this first of all the kings look like idiots like the kings the kings are a joke right now i mean mike brown's on his way to the airport to fly to los angeles to play at the lakers he's done media for the day and they call on his cell phone and say dude you're fired don't bother coming that's a complete joke but duane casey 500 you're out of here right how did that work the flip thing which was incredibly reactionary so yeah and look yes chris finch has not had a great season but unless you can paint a picture for me that says chris finch is the biggest problem i'm not going near that dude's job yeah i'll add on to this too that it's not just a timberwolves thing but in any discussion about sports or really anything we lose the ability to criticize and critique and then not have it go to the next step of fire someone or someone's an idiot it's such a black and white thing in all discussions like there's room to say chris finch is maybe the best coach in timberwolves history he's right there with lip saunders a lot of ways and also there's some things that he needs to be better at this year with lineup rotations and starting life and things like that so i think you can you can poke at something and not ultimately want like pj fleck is a great example pj fleck all right let's uh let's be better at not burning timeouts let's uh let's not punt on fourth and one from the opposing team's 41 yard line and there's probably three other things and he's the best go for football coach since murray warmath in like early 1960s absolutely should not be anywhere in your hot seat but you're uh but you're like you're a hater if you point out and criticize things so i just should be room for chris finch should not be anywhere in your hot seat and also there's pressure to get moving on some changes that uh that need to be made like there's a great area here that can be explored without firing someone's ass mid-season and if they lose in five games in the first round where they get bounced in the plan i'm totally i am telling you right now because i don't think people believe this i am open to a coaching trip like expectations come april time if you still haven't figured out over the full 82 game season but again like actually since 2010 i think it's been 29 coaches fired in season and one of them over the last 15 years has like taken his team somewhere in season and most of those guys that get replaced then they go get a brand new coach the next year if you fire a coach mid-season you're essentially saying we have no hope and it's just so bad that we're just we're just trying to like pop a zit this team has issues and flaws don't be wrong but if you're gonna pop that zip by just getting rid of the coach the guy who might be holding everything together behind the scenes while the parents fight with mark and alex and glenn like i i think you're opening up a can of worms and then you are back to the same old wolves and don't forget too on the eve of training camp and look the carl anthony towns trade will pay off financially but like you're gonna get yourself out of a lot of cap hell but you know if we're gonna have this conversation right now this also involves conley who by the way i'm not going here job i mean on the eve of training camp you traded a player that was a core guy for two players and said okay let's make this work like if you're chris finch privately if i'm sipping a beer in my joggers and my quarters if i'm saying yeah i'm saying hey gentlemen gentlemen look at what i'm asked to do here like he was asked like to expect that chris finch can magically can magically wave a wand at the beginning of training camp and say okay cast on julius who clearly is a strong personality of sorts and dante they're here i'm gonna make this work again egos uh there's a lot of things here so it's like if we wanted to have the real why are the wolves where they are discussion tim conley has to be looped in and i ain't firing tim so like this is a bigger discussion in my opinion than just a coach and also when you say why the wolves are where they are where they are is not as bad of a place as everyone's making it sound like where the where the where the kings are 13 and 19 just fired their coach like the wolves are right there in the thick of the the competition for the fifth seed in the western conference have they taken a slight step back from last year absolutely was that trade meant to be an immediate linear move up the ladder in 2024-25 without any sort of reset no like it was a trade made to unlock a three to five year period i know fans are sick of hearing that but even with their imperfections and even with a starting lineup that hasn't been able to figure it out and 60 percent of them can't make a shot right now they're beating some of the best teams in the nba and their three games over 500 and i think everyone needs to take a deep breath even if they lose a couple more games here like they are this franchise was in poverty for years and years and years and if this is like the worst of it we're all they might have to take a slight step back as they figure this thing out and get out of the second apron while there's an ownership situation lingering it could be worse one more thing for you guys i guess least favorite thing so the nba fined anthony don't do this don't do this i'm gonna find by hard you guys can pounce on me if you want to i know i know judd disagrees and kyle's gonna hammer me for this too so he's now been fined 175 thousand dollars if you want to be the face of the nba you don't need to drop an f-bomb every other word when you're on live post-game television calm down with the f-bombs you want to face the nba you don't need to every other word and unplug unplug you have to subscribe and then you can swear up a storm okay sure so he's done with fan duel i want and unplug i will subscribe i will subscribe but um he's anticlaus okay we're promoting him as a face for the nba for kids drink your f-bombs right phil drink your f-bombs right he's dropping f-bombs every other word and i think i think the nba is saying listen we love your personality you don't need to swear every third word let's calm down just a little bit there is no better person to answer that question than me because i love a good swear word and i'm telling you right now i would have been okay with those fines if every social page that the nba runs didn't run all of those videos promoting that okay that's a little bit hypocritical okay so i'm just telling you right now because this is a real thing this is a real thing going on behind the scenes he is getting frustrated doing media because he was so excited after that rockets win that's him so i mean again i'm not even getting the whole swearing thing but you are asking him to not be his original self and if you want more nicole yokich is doing media okay we're not even getting the ratings thing i i hate to be this guy because i don't have kids but if you're listening to have kids your kids are probably going to drink and maybe even swear and maybe even smoke a cigarette when they get older so seeing the f-word on tv man at least he moves and shows his true self and is enthusiastic if i need to see nicole yokich or luka donchis just avoid media like the whole time this league has a problem right now they don't have a guy to step into the step in lebron void right the ratings are so high those guys are probably done and if you can't embrace him i just i don't know man swearing like if swearing is the big thing i get that he should try to reel it back but he's gonna reel it back to just getting media and just been in the locker room he's just gonna sit media but then that says something about is it that hard of an ask dude you mentioned steph curry lebron go back to kobe mj hey it's live tv at the press conference i'm the face of the nba i'm the face of my franchise you know i tone it down i tone the language down a little bit because i'm playing to a mass audience if the if the nba decides you know what uh we're not cool that language and maybe we'll stop promoting you as a face of the league if you can't clean it up a little bit i wouldn't blame them you guys are trying to drag down america kyle and judd don't do the videos don't do 114 million followers but we bitchin moment guys aren't themselves but then now now we want to sanitize him himself wait so you're saying it is impossible to give an opinion or take without saying the f-bomb four times i'm saying from my athletes i want it's unreasonable i do not want them to think about what they're saying i do not want them to have to think about it i want as unfiltered as possible and by the way when you go to school the f-bomb was being dropped when i was in sixth grade at st jrees so like if you think that your kids are hearing ants say the f-word you know what daddy says it too so is daddy gonna have to pay a hundred thousand dollar fine i don't think so you don't want your kid swearing or you want to protect your kid don't let him suck over the for you page on social media right now because every third post is pornography okay and in that quote by the way he gave a real basketball quote like he was like we were trying to run this set he was giving like real nerdy basketball stuff and then he swore because he's so excited you know what's gonna happen next time leah b or katie storm and i'm with phil a little bit like can't you bring in a little bit but to judge's point i want the most authentic anthony i want him ordering mcdonald's post-game zoom that's the stuff you remember he's getting pissed off and he's gonna just start saying i'm not doing it i'm not doing it how about this how about this on fan duel okay team partner you mean the gambling app yes do the interview post-game clean it up and then air it it doesn't like like bleep you know when they come back from break hey we talk to you know what i bleep and love this game i bleep and love you guys it's all bleep another option would be if we as society just decided that words are only words and we can let's just take these six fcc censored swear words or whatever i've never opened them up for for casualties no maybe i'm just being a prude steph curry doesn't swear on tnt and uh bay area valley sports yeah but he also thinks about what he says and it doesn't that makes him so valuable in our world i don't think i'm gonna win this argument but i think i think he's on the i love this guy and i think he is the face of the franchise and maybe the nba at some point i also think it's fair to say that he's on the immature side of 23 compared to other star players that have come before i think that's a fair criticism and this is a great area i'm talking about i feel like i can say that and not be a hater or want him traded or whatever like i think there's room for some criticism and also he is unbelievable and is one of the 10 best players in the world like hey listen as we reflect back on a big year for all of us and this show and other things uh still not super amped that i got on here and shed tears uh after a post but that's who i am so i think people enjoyed that for the most part i don't want anything that words to change and if you want him to be more jason tatum and both teams play hard and go back and watch that netflix thing jason tatum was about as exciting as a boss of vanilla waivers so i know it's a thin line you're live and stuff but there's a lot worse things going on in pro sports and in the world and if people are hundred thousand dollar fine man is pretty tough like you challenge the integrity of the league and you do the money sign you say this was rigged i think fred van vlick got 75 000 it's like okay so i said the f word i'm getting 100 like i want consistency oh they're being consistent they're gonna consistently keep fighting this year the fines are just going up oh man there's your state of the wolves here flagrant howls happy new year to everybody and uh drop as many f-boms as you like in 2025 this is a team rules lifestyle podcast