Draymond Green: Chris Finch has to stop worrying about star players' feelings

Green believes the Timberwolves need to go smaller against the Mavericks.

May 22, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch speaks in a press conference before the game against the Dallas Mavericks in game one of the western conference finals for the 2024 NBA playoffs at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports / Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

As the Timberwolves have quickly learned, the Dallas Mavericks are a matchup nightmare. Even for the best defense in the NBA.

Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving are elite guards and because Minnesota goes big with Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns, Dallas can manipulate the game by forcing the Timberwolves' best perimeter defenders – Jaden McDaniels, Anthony Edwards and Nickeil Alexander-Walker – into switches, which often times has resulted in Gobert or Towns trying to guard the quicker Dallas guards.

It's likely too late to make impactful changes considering no team has survived an NBA playoff series after falling behind three games to none, but Draymond Green, serving as a guest analyst on TNT's Inside the NBA, said Sunday that Minnesota head coach Chris Finch needs to go with a quicker lineup that would result in Gobert and Towns on the bench in favor of Naz Reid and Kyle Anderson.

"At some point Chris Finch gotta make an adjustment. You keep rolling the same guys out there with the same game plan each game and you've fallen behind 3-0. At what point are you going to make an adjustment, not worry about feelings?" Green said. "We can't worry about Karl-Anthony Towns' feelings, or Rudy Gobert's feelings. They need Naz Reid out there, they need Kyle Anderson out there. You gotta figure that out and [Finch] has not done a great job and he's blaming his guys and that's not good."

Charles Barkley agrees.

"The problem [the Timberwolves] got, Dallas don't have no big guys they gotta stop, so why are you playing two big guys? You gotta go small," Barkley said. "Draymond Green's] 100% correct. You gotta go with Naz Reid. He should've did it sooner. The game is about matchups."

Draymond: “At some point, Chris Finch has got to make an adjustment … We can’t worry about KAT or Rudy Gobert’s feelings. They need Naz Reid out there and they need Kyle Anderson out there.” pic.twitter.com/YEXkJb7vtQ

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 27, 2024

Are Reid and Anderson any more likely to stay in front of Doncic or Irving if Dallas forces Minnesota's defense into switches? That's debatable considering it's difficult for any player, big or small, to stay in front of those two superstar guards, but Reid and Anderson are quicker than Gobert and Towns.

According to NBA Stats, Jaden McDaniels has spent the most time guarding Doncic during the series and he is 10-of-15 shooting including 7-of-10 from 3-point range with McDaniels on him.

Doncic is 2-of-3 shooting with Anderson and Gobert as his primary defender, though the stats don't acknowledge that Gobert switched onto Doncic before Doncic burned him for the game-winning step-back 3 in Game 2. Doncic is 2-for-2 shooting with Towns as his matchup.

It's hard to say how accurate the league's matchup stats are considering it has only tracked Edwards on Irving for a grand total of 4 minutes, 48 seconds plus an additional 24 partial possessions where he was covering him.

Irving is 2-of-8 shooting when guarded by Mike Conley; 3-of-7 when guarded by McDaniels; 2-of-4 with Edwards on him; 2-of-3 against Nickeil Alexander-Walker; and 3-of-3 when matched up with Gobert.