At just 22 years old, Minnesota Timberwolves star guard has grown as a team leader on and off the court as the Wolves sport the best record in the West.

Is Shake Milton the answer at back-up point guard and is Naz Reid getting enough minutes?

Whether on the hunt or enjoying the spoils, the repeatable process that produced the Wolves’ seven-game winning streak unfolded with efficiency and justice.

The Wolves have vanquished the Denver Nuggets on Nov. 1 and the Boston Celtics on Nov. 6 – two of the top three contenders to win the 2023-24 NBA Championship.

Proclaiming this team is mediocre until it proves itself otherwise seems like a mindset that is both smart and safe.

The plan of towering over opponents with Gobert, KAT, Naz and others will have its glitches and be an ongoing work in progress, but there is simply too much talent here for that to derail another playoff appearance.

Head Coach Chris Finch offers a spirited pushback on whether or not the Rudy Gobert trade was the best thing.

Can Kyle Anderson be as valuable as he was last season; consistency from Anthony Edwards on defense and the role Naz Reid.

In Part III of our one-on-one with Chris Finch we focus on the Wolves defense, honing in particularly on the pros and cons of playing Gobert up in coverage more often.

Wolves coach Chris Finch addresses the importance of maximizing the team’s budding superstar, Anthony Edwards, and also gets into initial plans for how the frontcourt combinations might unfold during the season.

In a sprawling interview that lasted more than an hour, Finch addresses the Gobert-KAT dynamic, the blossoming of Anthony Edwards into a charismatic All Star and how all the pieces might fit together during the 2023-24 Timberwolves season.

If KAT and Gobert again don’t mesh, their combined salaries of $94 million in 2023-24 and $101 million in 2025-26, will be a bloated inefficiency at precisely the time new contracts for Ant and McDaniels propel the franchise toward that dreaded “second apron.”

Bottom line, this was a disappointing season, made more so by a raising of the bar while the actual teamwork performance was lowered. But miraculously, the future isn’t mortgaged.

After 85 games, it is time to stop regarding moments of sunlight from a chronically inconsistent team as evidence of viable breakthroughs.

Timberwolves seem to gel as the season is down to the last five games.

For one night KAT and the Wolves had an answer to some of the questions that have increasingly been pockmarking our perception of this team, and his role on it.