When Towns was traded for Randle and DiVincenzo, the vision was to pair Randle’s playmaking with Edwards’ explosiveness. That vision lasted for roughly one round of the playoffs before the seams began to show. Forty-eight hours after elimination, Finch publicly acknowledged the pairing never worked.

“Yeah, I think I’d hope that it would be a little bit better,” Chris Finch said to reporters. “I don’t think there’s any basketball reason we shouldn’t be able to be a little better there. I think they kind of both play in the same rhythm, so I feel like it’s maybe your turn, my turn a bit, rather than having a two-man game such as Denver has with Murray and Jokic.” He readily accepted some of the responsibility personally. “Looking back, as a coaching staff, we didn’t do a good enough job of teasing it out in the ways that we could have.”

Randle went from averaging 21.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game in the regular season to just 12.8 points per game on 34.2 percent shooting in Minnesota’s second-round loss to San Antonio. Furthermore, across the 11 playoff games, he shot just 39 percent from the field and 24.4 percent from the 3-point line, a collapse that directly undermined the Wolves’ ability to generate consistent offense alongside Anthony Edwards.

With Randle and Rudy Gobert on the floor simultaneously, Minnesota regularly deployed two non-threatening perimeter shooters in the starting lineup. This led to a spacing problem that allowed opposing defenses to collapse into the paint and eliminate Edwards’ driving lanes before he could even initiate. The Spurs exploited it directly, and Randle’s response in those high-leverage moments was to retreat to tough mid-range jumpers rather than leverage his size on the block, a habit that Finch’s “your turn, my turn” framing captured precisely.

The ball dominance issue ran deeper than personnel fit. When the Towns trade forced Edwards into a de facto point guard role, the offense lost whatever natural rhythm it had. Edwards was now expending primary playmaker energy on top of his scoring load, and without a traditional floor general to manage the flow, Minnesota’s half-court sets devolved into isolation far too regularly. Two stars, both with the ball in their hands, neither one designed to defer.

The situation was made harder mid-season when Randle’s name circulated heavily in trade rumors around the deadline. It was a stretch that coaches and teammates directly connected to a dip in his performances. “Their efforts were well known throughout the league and in their own locker room,” Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic reported. “It did seem to have an adverse effect on the existing roster.” Despite locker room turbulence, Randle and Reid posted 107.4 defensive rating vs. Spurs. But the offensive limitations that Finch publicly acknowledged proved to be the ceiling that cost Minnesota.

The “big changes” that are already being planned

Chris Finch’s press conference candor arrived against a backdrop of confirmed organizational intent. BasketballTalk reported that the Timberwolves are expected to make “big changes” around the core of Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid, and Joan Beringer, a framing that placed Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert, and the supporting cast firmly on the table.

Randle is widely considered the most likely departure. His playoff struggles against top-end opponents in back-to-back years have made his role as a viable co-star for Edwards increasingly difficult to defend, and the Wolves’ financial commitment to Naz Reid’s five-year, $125 million deal has made carrying both expensive forwards increasingly untenable.

The most aggressive scenario being floated involves Minnesota leading the pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo from Milwaukee, a package that would likely center on Randle, DiVincenzo, and future draft capital. The other avenue is Kawhi Leonard, whose two-way profile as a wing who can defend, create, and shoot without dominating the ball would address the exact rhythm problem Finch described at his end-of-season presser.

Edwards averaged 21.6 points per game in these playoffs, a performance that confirmed his place among the league’s best players. What Chris Finch’s comments confirmed is that the organization knows exactly why that wasn’t enough, and it stood right next to him on the floor.