Midway through the third quarter of a game against the Orlando Magic last month, Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards was whistled for a foul on Paolo Banchero as he drove to the basket.

Edwards immediately hopped up and down and turned toward the Wolves’ bench while twirling his finger in the air. It is the universal sign for an assuredness that the referee missed the call, and Edwards jogged back toward the bench pleading with the coaching staff to challenge the play.

Seated in the second row with a laptop computer resting on his thighs and the entire coaching staff turning their necks and staring at him, a 33-year-old assistant coach who never played basketball after high school in Rhode Island stared at the screen. Jeff Newton is one of the youngest members of Chris Finch’s staff, but his voice carries as much importance as anyone’s during some of the most intense parts of a game. He is responsible for reviewing each play and determining if Finch should call a timeout to challenge a call or let it go.

In this case, the face of the franchise, a three-time All-Star who many believe could be the American hooper the NBA desperately needs to take the baton from LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant, was exerting pressure to challenge the call. The NBA allows coaches to challenge one call during a game. If they win that one, they get one more. So the decision Newton makes is a weighty one.

Newton looked at the replay on his computer, looked up at the lava of emotion erupting out of Mount Edwards and calmly shook his head. The replay video showed that Edwards did grab Banchero’s arm. This was a losing battle. As Edwards continued his lobbying efforts, Newton nonchalantly waved his hand, as if he were Obi-Wan Kenobi talking to a Stormtrooper.

This is not the challenge you’re looking for. Move along.

Edwards slumped his shoulders and headed back to play defense. Newton’s decision proved to be prescient. In the fourth quarter, as the Wolves were clinging to a 93-90 lead, Jaden McDaniels was whistled for what would have been his fifth foul. In real time, it looked like McDaniels reached in on a drive by Franz Wagner.

Finch was going to be forced to take out a player who was having a terrific game on both ends. But Newton quickly looked at the replay and told Finch to challenge the call. A closer look revealed that McDaniels got his hand on the ball and not Wagner’s arm. The challenge was successful and McDaniels remained in the game, hitting a big corner 3-pointer and getting a steal and a dunk to help the Wolves pull away down the stretch.

Had Newton acquiesced to Edwards’ request earlier in the game, the Wolves would not have had the challenge available to them in the fourth quarter. These are the kinds of snap judgments he has seconds to make perhaps a dozen times a game. It is a high-leverage, highly emotional position for the son of a financial consultant and a fitness instructor who has always had a fascination with the rules of the games we play. In the heat of the moment — and few moments in an NBA game are hotter than when the entire team is staring at you asking if an official’s call is correct — Newton keeps his cool.

“He’s a sociopath,” Finch said with a wry grin. “He has, like, zero emotion on these things. So I just trust him. As soon as they say challenge it, I just challenge it.”

As the Timberwolves prepare to play the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, that seat is only going to get hotter. The Wolves are the underdogs in the series, which starts with Game 1 in Los Angeles on Saturday, so the margin for error for them against James, Luka Dončić and the Lakers figures to be small. Games could swing on a call here or a review there.

Newton and his wingman, assistant coach Nate Bubes, will look at plays big and small, trying to find any little edge to be gained with a missed call that could help the Wolves. Bubes can be excitable, twirling his finger like a player does when he feels the officials have erred. Newton is more clinical.

“They make fun of me for my monotone delivery,” Newton said. “I’ll just say, ‘Challenge it.'”

In some ways, it feels like Newton was destined for this kind of role. He is the youngest of three boys, and the brothers would invent games in the driveway and backyard of their home in Barrington, R.I. Newton would devise extensive rules to govern the games and demand strict adherence. There was a soccer-style game with hockey-level contact allowed. When the weather was bad, the boys would retreat to the basement to play basketball on a Little Tikes toy hoop that included a restricted area where dunks were not allowed.

“We would always try to find ways to take advantage of the rules and use them to your advantage and a disadvantage for your opponent,” Newton said.

He was a big gamer as well, and there was something about the way he could dictate the outcome with a controller in his hand, making all of the decisions. There was a moment this season after he looked at his laptop screen and told Finch to challenge a play when he turned to assistant coach Max Lefevre.

“I was like, ‘This is pretty much our video game now,'” Newton said. “We sit in front of a computer and watch. That’s what steered me toward this basketball path.”

Newton went to UMass Amherst for college, where he served as manager of the basketball team, and applied online for an internship with the Charlotte Hornets. He got a little taste of everything, working with the equipment staff, rebounding for shooters after practice, and working in the video room, and later took another internship that included some scouting.

He was eventually hired by the Houston Rockets for an entry-level position in the front office. That is where he first met Finch, who was an assistant coach on Kevin McHale’s staff. Newton transitioned to coaching in 2013 shortly after graduating.

“They kept moving him back and forth because no one wanted to lose him,” Finch said.

Newton coached under McHale and J.B. Bickerstaff, a staff that was fired in 2016. He landed a video room position in Sacramento, building a rapport with head coach Dave Joerger in three years with the Kings, then came to the Timberwolves to coach on Ryan Saunders’ staff as a player development coach in 2019. Saunders was the first coach to put Newton in charge of replay reviews.

Saunders was fired midseason in 2021, with former Wolves lead executive Gersson Rosas hiring Finch from the Toronto Raptors to take over. That reunited Finch with Newton from their Houston days. In the harrowing early days of his arrival from outside the organization in the middle of the season, Finch leaned heavily on a familiar face. This was Finch’s first NBA head coaching job, and he inherited an assistant staff that had been picked by Saunders.

After every game, Finch would meet with Newton and ask for an unabashed assessment of his performance. What did he think of the rotations? Play calls out of timeouts? Newton would send him breakdowns with detailed feedback.

“He’s never afraid to challenge me, tell me this is what I think or believe,” Finch said. “He always has done his homework and is able to back it up.”

Since he arrived in Minnesota, Newton has also spent time as the head coach of the G League affiliate in Iowa before rejoining the NBA staff last season. He never played in college or the pros, so he grew used to getting double-checked by security personnel both in the G League and when he came back up to the league.

“I walk into an arena and nobody thinks I work for the coaching staff,” he said with a smile. “I get stopped by security all the time like I did in the G League, and I always will. And it doesn’t bother me.”

Few things seem to get under Newton’s skin, an unflappability that serves him well when he is making the snap judgment on whether a call is worth being challenged. Newton tries to remove the emotion from the moment, looking at it through the stone-cold lens of probability. If a team were aggressive and never missed a challenge call, it could get a maximum of 164 opportunities per regular season. He generally believes there are six to 10 calls per game that could be challenged, and it is up to him to pick the right times.

“You can feel some of the pressure of the situation, you can feel some of the pressure from the bench,” Newton said. “You just have to be able to tell them no. You can’t fall victim to feeling like you need to owe them anything. I don’t really attach myself emotionally.”

Finch trusts Newton implicitly, but that doesn’t mean the two always see eye-to-eye. Finch generally prefers to hold his challenges until later in the game, putting more weight on late-game calls than something that happens in the first quarter. Newton is more of the mind that any reversed call, no matter when it occurs, can help swing the game to the Wolves.

“You want to win as many of the challenges as possible,” Newton said. “I’d rather go 50 for 100 than 30 for 40.”

The numbers reflect that philosophy. The Timberwolves are 18th in the league in success rate, getting 63 percent of their challenges to be ruled successful, according to data compiled by the league. But their 73 total challenges are the second-highest in the league, behind only Oklahoma City’s 78. Minnesota’s 46 total successful challenges are second in the league as well, behind Utah’s 48.

Newton and Finch have debates all season long about what calls to challenge and when to challenge them. Between those conversations and a seemingly endless battle over who is required to clean the office coffee maker — the last person to fill their cup or the next person who wants to use it — the discourse keeps things interesting around team headquarters.

“He thinks that when you use a Keurig, it’s the next person’s responsibility to remove the coffee,” Finch huffed. “I said if we follow that logic in the bathroom you wouldn’t be happy.”

The literal pot shots are tell-tale signs of a healthy chemistry within Finch’s staff, as was the prank that lead assistant Micah Nori pulled on Newton earlier this season. Newton’s ability to stay resolute in his decision-making and not get influenced by anyone on the court, or by a missed challenge here or there, has earned him respect within the team. He has stood up for himself enough times, and come through in enough big moments, that the mischievous Nori sneaked down to the parking garage to find Newton’s 2008 Toyota Camry and fastened an oversized pair of blue testicles to his rear bumper.

“If we miss a couple in a row, it can be normal for those guys to get gun-shy,” Finch said, saying that Nori will quote the movie “Top Gun” while on the bench.

Re-engage, Maverick! Re-engage!

“We have a lot of fun with it,” Finch said. “It’s a thankless job.”

Reputation plays a role in Newton’s decision-making. He said Edwards and Nickeil Alexander-Walker are two of his most reliable guys. If they say to challenge a play, it carries more weight with him because they’re usually right. But there are times, like that March game against Orlando, when they miss, too.

“He’s been doing great. We go back and forth,” Edwards said. “They show me the tape and tell me why they didn’t challenge it. I’m like great, good job. He trusts me a lot. I will tell him challenge that, and they challenge that and we’ll win it. I don’t want to mess up his percentages.”

Newton’s responsibilities on the staff extend far beyond replays. He is also in charge of compiling offensive clips during the first half that the staff will show to the team at halftime for instructional purposes. He writes the offensive game plans for each game, collaborating with Finch, Nori and Pablo Prigioni to occasionally present the video to the team before the game.

“He’s a really good basketball coach, really good basketball mind,” Finch said. “I could see Jeff being everything from a GM to a head coach to everything in between. So multitalented. He and Nate are very similar in that way. Very different personalities, but very similar.”

Newton harbors dreams of one day running his own team. He knows the pathway to a position like that for someone who did not play at a high level can be a winding one. But he does not let that deter him.

“Speople can try to hit the fast-forward button on their career,” he said. “I’ve learned a tremendous amount from Finchy and all the people here. And I have plenty of things I need to work on before I can (become a head coach).”

Right now, all of his focus is on the Lakers. Chances are there will be a call or two that could swing a game, or a series, in Minnesota’s favor. It could feel daunting, thinking about being in such an important role while the Wolves try to upset Dončić, James and one of the league’s glamour franchises. Newton welcomes it. The more borderline calls for him to examine in the chaos of a playoff game, the better.

“Just being a very small piece,” Newton said. “If I can generate one turnover from an out-of-bounds, then cool. That’s just trying to help the guys in any way I can.”

Down the stretch of a close game, chances are there will be a call that could go either way. In that moment, Finch will turn to Newton as the seconds tick away. If he sees Newton’s head nod affirmatively, Finch will pull the trigger. No questions asked.

“I trust him,” Finch said, “with everything.”