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Chris Finch seemed taken aback by a question asked this week.

Entering the 2022-23 season, does the Timberwolves coach finally fully trust Jordan McLaughlin in any situation?

“J-Mac?” Finch asked incredulously. “Yeah. Absolutely. I trust him. Absolutely trust him.”

To be fair, Finch has been one of McLaughlin’s most ardent supporters in the NBA since taking over the reins of the Timberwolves. There was a point late last season when the coach said the 26-year-old point guard had been one of the team’s “best players.”

But Finch is the same guy who also left McLaughlin on the bench in two of the Timberwolves’ final seven games of last season — the play-in game against the Clippers and again in Game 3 of the first-round series against the Grizzlies.

It didn’t matter that after McLaughlin re-entered Minnesota’s rotation on Jan. 28 last season, he shot 40.4 percent from 3-point range, led the team in net rating — with the Timberwolves outscoring opponents by 9.8 points per 100 possessions with the guard on the court — was second on the squad in both defensive field goal percentage and defensive rating and led the team in steals percentage. In spite of all that, like most, Finch couldn’t quite seem to fully invest himself in the play of the 5-foot-11 point guard.

To the coach’s credit, he did ride with McLaughlin for the final five minutes of Minnesota’s Game 6 loss in the first round of last season’s Western Conference playoffs against Memphis in a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency type of move.

From the 4-minute, 53-second mark that night until the game was decided with 15 seconds to play, Minnesota had nine offensive possessions. McLaughlin touched the ball on four of those, leading to three scores. On the five possessions in which he wasn’t involved, the Timberwolves failed to produce.

He was, in every sense, the straw that stirred the team’s drink down the stretch of last season. And when he was not involved, the results were less than savory. And yet the following morning, the coach delivered an unintentional back-handed compliment.

“You know I’m a huge J-Mac fan,” Finch said. “He’s proven to us that he is a bonafide high-impact backup point guard for a really good team.”

… Backup point guard? For all of McLaughlin’s successes, onlookers are always eager to cap him. Sure, he’s done well for himself. It’s great that he’s cemented the Timberwolves’ backup point guard role. That’s his ceiling, right?

“I’m always underestimated,” McLaughlin said, “since Day 1.”

That dates back to high school. The California native and Etiwanda High School alum was arguably the top point guard in the region. He had designs on being named to and playing in all of the major high school all-star games.

The McDonald’s All-American game never made the call.

“It upset me a lot,” McLaughlin said. “But at the end of the day, it comes down to the same things it always does, and it’s the politics of basketball.”

Performance is often outweighed by other factors. Size — which the sub-6 foot point guard lacks — equals “potential” in the eyes of many. Pass-first players aren’t nearly as sexy as point scorers. That’s why someone with McLaughlin’s effectiveness gets dismissed again and again, whether that be for high school all-star games or the NBA draft.

But it never negatively affects him.

“I’ve never been one to feel defeated off of anything. So when something doesn’t go my way, it makes me work that much harder to get what I want to achieve,” McLaughlin said. “I have my goals and what I want to achieve in life and do and I set out to do everything I can to make that come true.”

It’s all part of his process, which he always believed would pay off in due time. McLaughlin has dedicated himself to the work more and more with every passing year.

The Timberwolves had an off day following a preseason game against the Clippers last week. The California native returned home that day to take on a regimen that included running hills early in the A.M. with Cameron Murray, his trainer at Prodigy Athletic Institute, before a basketball workout at his high school gym.

“The process didn’t always work in his favor, but he never stopped at that,” Murray said. “He never felt like anybody owed him anything.”

And still doesn’t. He’s more than comfortable simply taking what he deserves. He’s carved out an NBA rotation role simply by winning it. Etiwanda High School coach Dave Kleckner noted McLaughlin likely takes doubts as a “personal challenge.”

“Like, ‘Alright, I guess I’ll just have to show them. If they’re not believers, then give me a chance and I’ll go out there and show you what I can do,’ ” Kleckner said.

Those doubts don’t seem to change, even with performance. Despite McLaughlin’s shooting and defensive prowess down the stretch last season, he’s still viewed as deficient in both areas. Perception, he noted, is difficult to change.

But opinions of others will not shake the guard’s unwavering confidence.

“He’s never had that ‘I can’t’ mentality. He has an ‘I can’ mentality,” Murray said. “The way he carries himself, you think ‘This dude must’ve been a first-round pick’ because he has that confidence to him.”

Different players had random big games for Etiwanda. Kleckner knew why.

“Because Jordan was on the floor with you,” Kleckner said, “and he has the ability to make you look good.”

The pace, creativity and selflessness adds up to a rare breed in today’s game. You can count the number of quality “true” point guards on one hand.

Kleckner noted McLaughlin wins on defense with anticipation and on offense with deception. That’s been true dating back to high school, when he would make plays and display vision not seen at that level. The 26-year-old possesses unrivaled instincts that help him run an offense and be an effective defender.

The former is an attribute that’s rarely discussed in today’s game. McLaughlin possesses it in spades. It was evident last season, when since-traded knockdown shooter Malik Beasley struggled to shoot the ball without McLaughlin but flourished with him on the floor.

“I’ve always wanted him as my point guard,” Beasley said.

Because McLaughlin makes life easier for everyone.

“Even for me, he comes in the game and he just helps me. I’m not really worried,”  young star guard Anthony Edwards said this week. “I know he’s going to get us into stuff and the ball is going to get swung to the second side. He’s just a great point guard, man.”

McLaughlin, Murray said, is the guy always passing up a good shot for a better one. He’s the player who’s making sure everyone else is feeling involved.

“When he gets on the court, the ball moves,” he said. “People are touching it. People are in a flow, they get a rhythm, and now everybody is starting to take shots and hit shots. … When you have two or three other potential all-stars on the court at the same time, you need a J-Mac.”

For reference, when McLaughlin shared the floor with Towns and Edwards last season, Minnesota outscored opponents by 12.4 points per 100 possessions.

An opposing coach once approached Kleckner and said, “That guy is the best player on the floor. How do you get him to be so unselfish?”

It’s wired into McLaughlin’s DNA, and is why he’s beloved by so many. Nobody was more thrilled with McLaughlin’s breakout, 16-point performance in Game 4 of last season’s playoffs than Edwards.

“He’s kind of like me. He wants to see everybody shine. He’s not selfish,” Edwards said. “Like I love seeing guys shine who’s not selfish. It’s lovely for me.”

Whether he’s scoring five points or 20 is irrelevant to McLaughlin. He wants to win, and understands impact extends far beyond the box score.

“When you talk about a player, it’s always the obvious stuff that you go to — the measurables,” Kleckner said. “But with Jordan, it’s the intangibles that are very difficult to measure. … It’s the intangibles that make him really different and really unique.”

In high school, Murray said McLaughlin would go to AAU or top player showcase events, watch the likes of Tyus Jones and take mental notes on where he himself needed to develop.

At USC, Trojans coach Andy Enfield noted McLaughlin truly learned how to be a floor general, mastering lobs, pocket passes and just about everything else a point guard needs in his bag.

In the NBA, he has worked relentlessly to improve his jump shot and defend bigger opponents, becoming proficient at both.

In a preseason game against Miami, McLaughlin made three steals within his first two minutes of action. If Patrick Beverley is a pest, Murray said, McLaughlin is “kind of like a mosquito” — coming out of nowhere to bite you.

“Where I lack in size on the defensive end, I like to use my headiness and my quickness to try to get steals and just be feisty and make up for it in ways that I can,” he said.

Improvement has been a constant. McLaughlin has finally secured a full-time spot in an NBA rotation after going undrafted and spending time first in the G-League and then buried on an NBA bench. But the work does not stop now.

“I don’t think he’s ever gotten to a point yet where he’s reached his ceiling,” Murray said. “To me, he hasn’t reached his ceiling, because he always knows that he has a little bit left in the tank to do what he needs to do to go a little bit higher.”

“I know there’s still a couple of steps I can climb,” McLaughlin said.

He has personal goals, such as to play 10 years in the league. The logical next step for him would be to eventually assume a starting point guard position.

Many will doubt that’s an attainable feat for the guard.

The assumption is always that the guard won’t be able to achieve at the next highest level. It’s usually wrong. Exhibit A: Finch was asked after McLaughlin’s Game 4 explosion in the Grizzlies series why he didn’t play McLaughlin in Game 3.

The response: “Sometimes you do stupid things.”

“I’m used to proving people wrong,” McLaughlin said, “and making them eat their words.”

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