Timberwolves coach Chris Finch came into the locker room after Minnesota’s loss to Denver on Monday and challenged a handful of players as to what they bring to the team’s defense.

Publicly, he called out Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert.

“We need more from our All-Defensive guys to set the tone,” Finch said. “Jaden’s gotta be better at the point of attack, into his guy a little bit more. Rudy’s gotta challenge more stuff at the rim.”

Because, as of now, it’s not enough.

Minnesota was in control Monday night at Target Center, leading Denver by eight at the break. Then came the fateful third frame.

Denver exploded for 45 points, 23 of which came from Jamal Murray. The Nuggets shot 67% from the field in the quarter, including 63% from distance, all while not committing a turnover.

“No defense. Nothing at the rim. Kept turning corners on us, getting downhill,” Finch said. “We didn’t break off, we didn’t challenge. Too comfortable in the paint and the heart of the defense.”

Just another day in Minnesota.

What was the most ferocious defense in the NBA is now awfully tame. For proof, look no further than Murray, who was frustrated by Minnesota’s defensive tenacity to the point of throwing objects onto the court during Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals in 2024.

On Monday, he was able to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. As was Nikola Jokic. Their dominance was eerily reminiscent to that of Luka Doncic against the Wolves in Los Angeles just three days prior.

Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert (27), center Naz Reid (11), guard Anthony Edwards (5), guard Rob Dillingham (4) and guard Mike Conley (10) watch play during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota doesn’t have anything defensively for the game’s best at the moment – or anyone else, for that matter. Through four games, the Wolves sport the fourth-worst defense in basketball at 119.8 points allowed per 100 possessions.

For reference, that number was 108.4 during the 2023-24 season. The defense has been in a slow decline since that point. It got incrementally worse last season. And, despite a commitment to re-establishing defensive dominance in training camp, the Wolves have fallen off a cliff on that end through four games this season.

Mike Conley said guys are “playing hard” but cited “too many breakdowns” as a reason for the struggles. Miscommunications ran rampant Monday, which led to a number of open looks for the Nuggets.

“We have to do things as a unit. All five guys have to be in the same mindset and connected when we do things. We kind of got too many rogue situations going on and guys not being on the weak side early enough. Game plan stuff,” Conley said. “It’s just a combination of a lot of things that’s happening.”

First and foremost, Conley said it comes down to guys taking on challenges – to not get beat, to not need to rely on help defense. Miscommunication can be covered up by sheer effort.

“That’s who we used to be,” Conley said, “and we need to get back to that.”

But when Minnesota was that, it had guys like Kyle Anderson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker in the rotation. The Wolves’ current personnel isn’t as deeply steeped in defensive ability. That’s especially true when Anthony Edwards and Jaylen Clark are out with injuries.

Perhaps that’s why Finch insists he gets more out of McDaniels and Gobert, who are handsomely compensated specifically for their defensive efforts.

“It starts with us. I think we are a defensive-minded team, and whether it’s me inside or Jaden on the wing, I think a lot of the mindset that we try to put into our team starts with us,” Gobert said. “When Jaden and whoever is guarding the ball is pressuring the ball, and when I’m being a monster in the paint, it sets the tone for everybody else.”

But that hasn’t been the case yet this season. Minnesota’s ball pressure has left much to be desired. Opponent’s screen games have created ample separation to free up shot opportunities. Again, the fix is more tenacious on-ball pressure.

“Us on the ball have got to be more sticky. I think we’re just not being as physical as we can be,” Conley said. “I think we can fight over it. Guys can not get screened. We’ve done it. There’s no excuse for it. As a group, we have to be more aggressive on the ball … not just get into a dance with (the ball handler), but trying to lead the dance a little bit, being physical and aggressive like we can be.”

McDaniels and Clark lead the charge on that front, when McDaniels is playing to the defensive level at which he’s capable. He feels as though he’s playing defense the same way he always has.

“But it’s obviously not working,” McDaniels said.

Not for him, not for the team – whose once-proud defensive identity is slowly fading into the abyss. Sure, you don’t want to panic after just four games, but Finch admitted he’s “very concerned about it.”

“We have been extremely inconsistent defensively,” Finch said.

Which, Conley admitted, is “confusing.” Minnesota has enough defenders to guard the ball. It has continuity from last season. It has no reason to not get stops.

“I don’t think we’re looking up like, ‘Man, we can’t guard anybody.’ It’s just like, ‘Why didn’t we do this? Why didn’t we try to block that? Why didn’t you get back on defense? Why did you leave him open in the corner?’” Conley said. “It’s just kind of more baffling than it is a real issue. Nonetheless, it’s something that we have to correct.”

Especially, Finch noted, if they want to win, Conley said it starts with accountability. Finch got that ball rolling postgame Monday. Now Conley said it’s on everyone to respond.

“It’s got to be what matters more than anything, more than how many points we score or anything else going on,” Gobert said of getting stops. “I think that’s the team we need to be.”

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Early voting is underway. City Limits has the details on where the candidates stand on rent stabilization, affordable housing production, zoning reform, and NYCHA.

Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and Guardian Angels found Curtis Sliwa. (Ron Adar / Shutterstock.com)

After months of campaigning and two heated debates, early voting for New York City mayor is underway.

Housing has taken a central role in the campaign since the primary. Renters, who make up a majority of New Yorkers, have been at the center of the policy debate. Over half of New York renters are rent-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30 percent of their income in rent.

“We see that, especially in the lowest income households, that is where the rent burden is the heaviest,” said Chris Walters, senior land use policy associate at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development. “But I think this is something that transcends a lot of voters’ and people’s experiences in New York.”

City Limits reviewed the candidates’ plans and watched the debates to tell you where they stand on four key issues: freezing the rent, housing production, zoning reform, and public housing.

The Rent Guidelines Board meeting in 2024 at Hunter College in Manhattan. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

Freezing the rent

The mayor appoints nine members of the city’s Rent Guidelines Board (RBG). Each year, its members take into account costs for landlords and incomes for renters and set the allowable rent increases for the city’s 2 million rent stabilized tenants. 

The mayoral candidates disagree about how they would use the RGB:  

Zohran Mamdani captured the issue early in the campaign, promising a four year rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments—a move he said will provide relief to millions of New Yorkers who have a median income of $60,000, while finding other ways to help some rent stabilized buildings in distress because of high insurance costs and high property taxes. He says he can appoint a Rent Guidelines Board that will freeze the rent, saying that the data has justified rent freezes in the past. Critics have said that the RGB is an independent body, and the New York Post reported Friday that Mayor Eric Adams can still appoint members to new terms before he leaves office, which could jeopardize Mamdani’s chances of making a rent freeze happen in year one. 

Andrew Cuomo has said that Mamdani’s rent freeze proposal is not possible, and that it will defund buildings that need higher rents in order to keep up with repairs. He’s also campaigned on a proposal to means-test rent stabilized housing, which would require new rent stabilized leaseholders to have annual incomes so that they are paying at least 30 percent of their earnings in rent.

Curtis Sliwa wants to get empty rent stabilized units back in use, calling for a vacancy tax on large landlords who he says are holding units off the market (which some building owners say is due to costly repair needs that too-low regulated rents don’t cover). The number of vacant rent stabilized units is disputed, but one recent estimate puts it at 26,000. Sliwa’s website also calls for repealing the 2019 rent laws that increased tenant protections and limited the ways landlords could increase rent or deregulate rent stabilized units (though that’s something state lawmakers would have to take on).

Tenants have been raising the alarm for years about how their income can’t keep up with rising rents, but advocacy groups have also begun to draw attention to significant financial distress in the city’s affordable housing stock.

“We know that people are rent burdened in New York. It’s not very different in the rent stabilized stock,” said the New York Housing Conference’s Executive Director Rachel Fee. “We need to think about additional solutions for these buildings that are in distress.” 

Affordable apartments under construction in Brooklyn in 2020. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

Building new affordable housing

With available apartments at a record low, there isn’t enough housing to go around in New York. At the lowest income, there are even fewer options: just 0.4 percent of apartments priced below $1,100 were vacant in 2023.

“If we want to bring rents down, we need to build more. We need to build more at every income level,” said Fee.

Mamdani wants to triple affordable housing production and build 200,000 “truly affordable,” union-built apartments. At Thursday’s debate he said he wants those units “built with the median household income in mind, which is $70,000 for a family of four.” He has also called for fully funding the city’s Department of Housing, Preservation, and Development (HPD), to build housing faster and take advantage of programs that create low income apartments for seniors and extremely low income New Yorkers. His plan would require more funding for housing development, which he hopes to get from raising taxes, which would require collaborating with the state legislature and the governor.

Cuomo has called for building 500,000 units of housing over 10 years, two thirds of which he says will be affordable to low- and moderate-income New Yorkers. He has championed his experience as U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary and building infrastructure, saying that he wants to work with private developers, nonprofits, and unions to start a building boom on thousands of sites right away, including city-owned properties. He has also called for shakeups at HPD to make the organization more efficient and get housing built faster.

Sliwa’s plan calls for prioritizing housing for seniors and working families instead of “corporate developments.” He has also called for reforming New York City’s property tax system to lower the burden on multi-family housing, and for protecting homeownership and tax increases on working class and senior homeowners. He wants to convert more office spaces to residential, arguing that development should not overburden existing infrastructure, particularly in the outer boroughs. He has not set a housing production goal.

On HPD, Fee added: “I agree that we need reforms at the agency, and I also think we need to add staff if we’re increasing production.”

Changing zoning

Mayor Eric Adams’ City of Yes zoning reform, passed in December 2024, was designed to build “a little more housing in every neighborhood,” by increasing residential density across the city, especially near transit. While it faced pushback in many neighborhoods, experts suggest it will help boost the supply of housing and temper rising rents. This election, voters are also being asked to weigh in on four ballot measures that seek to modify the process for permitting new housing. You can read more about the ballot measures here.

Mamdani has called for comprehensive planning that would increase zoning capacity, eliminate parking minimums, build near transit, and fast-track review for affordable housing. He has not taken a position on the ballot measures, which would reduce some of the City Council’s power over land use decisions. But in a June candidate questionnaire from the Citizens Budget Commission, he said he wants to “move away from member deference”—when the Council defers to the vote of the local member on projects in their district—in favor of citywide planning that “will allow Council Members to set long term goals for their districts instead of only weighing in” when specific projects trigger public review. 

Cuomo has called for accelerated residential development in Midtown South (which was recently rezoned to allow for it), manufacturing districts, and other places. He has also called for the expansion of transfer of development rights, which lets owners sell off excess zoning floor area to neighboring lots. He has said that he supports the ballot measures that will fast track affordable housing and create a new review board that can override the Council’s decisions on development projects.

Sliwa has called for repealing the City of Yes and focusing on local control over development. He does not support the housing-related ballot measures. He has called for increasing office to residential conversions in Manhattan to create new housing, an approach that he says will not overburden the residential neighborhoods in the outer boroughs.

New York’s housing groups are split on the housing ballot proposals. The City Council is firmly opposed, with lawmakers saying it would limit their ability to negotiate neighborhood benefits from developers. NY Tenants PAC said in a statement Monday that the ballot measures will “disempower working class tenants and will accelerate displacement.”

But other housing advocacy groups say it will help empower the next mayor to tackle the housing crisis by making it easier for city agencies to build affordable housing, particularly in neighborhoods where local opposition makes it politically impossible.

“Voters now have a unique opportunity to leverage the power in their own hands to equip the city government with the tools we need to actually solve this problem,” said Amit Singh Bagga who heads the Yes on Affordable Housing campaign and PAC supporting the measures.

Some, like the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development have taken a middle road, endorsing ballot measure two, which creates a fast track for 100 percent affordable housing projects and affordable housing projects in areas of the city that have produced the least. They declined to weigh in on the others. 

“For our interest of increasing the supply of affordable housing and the equitable distribution, we feel like two is the one that speaks most directly to that,” said Walters.

NYCHA’s Claremont Village in the Bronx. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

Helping NYCHA

NYCHA, home to almost 400,000 New Yorkers, has a $78 billion backlog of repairs after decades of federal disinvestment. 

Some developments are undergoing comprehensive repairs by converting them from the federal Section 9 program to Section 8 through the city’s PACT and Preservation Trust programs, which you can read more about here.

Mamdani has pledged to double the city’s capital investment in major renovations for NYCHA, and he wants to push Albany to invest more. He has also called for activating underutilized storage areas on NYCHA campuses, like parking lots, for affordable housing development. He has not weighed in on converting NYCHA to private management under the PACT program.

Cuomo has called for an additional $500 million in city capital funding for NYCHA (a 75 percent increase). He called for identifying sites suitable for redevelopment for more affordable and workforce housing, or retail and mixed use development. He also proposed investing in management changes to improve safety, governance, and open space. He wants to accelerate conversion projects through PACT and the Trust, while calling for increased resources for Section 9 at campuses where conversion is not a good fit.

Curtis Sliwa has called for filling NYCHA’s 6,000 vacant units. He has not weighed in on new development on NYCHA land or converting public housing under the PACT or Trust.

Even after a NYCHA building partially collapsed in the Bronx earlier this month, NYCHA has gotten little attention in the mayoral race.

“I actually think it’s really deplorable,” Sharon Stergis, a resident at NYCHA’s Riis Houses on the Lower East Side, said of the scant focus on public housing. “I also think that it’s the way it is basically, you know—that’s how it’s been.”

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Patrick@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post Where The Mayoral Candidates Stand On Housing Issues appeared first on City Limits.

By JOHN O’CONNOR, Associated Press

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois jury has begun deliberations in the first-degree murder trial of a sheriff’s deputy who shot Sonya Massey, a Black woman in her home who had called 911 for help and was later killed because of the way she was handling a pan of hot water.

The nine-woman, three-man jury received the case just after 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. Jurors must decide whether Sean Grayson, 31, is guilty of murder for fatally shooting Massey in her Springfield home.

Grayson and another deputy answered Massey’s emergency call reporting a prowler outside the 36-year-old woman’s home early on the morning of July 6, 2024. They entered the house and, spotting a pan of hot water on the stove, Grayson ordered it removed, according to the other deputy’s body camera video, which was key evidence.

Grayson and Massey joked about how Grayson moved away as Massey moved the hot pan. Then, Massey said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” Grayson yelled at her to drop the pot and threatened to shoot her. Massey apologized and ducked behind a counter.

“She makes it abundantly clear, ‘I want no part of this. Let this be done,’” Mary Beth Rodgers, Sangamon County First Assistant State’s attorney, said in her closing argument. “She doesn’t say, ‘Let’s go, Sean.’ She says, ‘I’m sorry.’ He has no right to go into her kitchen, where she’s hiding from an angry man with a gun, he has no right to follow her and shoot her.”

Defense attorney Daniel Fultz beseeched the jury to decide how Grayson felt in the moment, “not to sit back 15 months later and say, ‘This is what I would have done.’”

“He drew his weapon to gain compliance, to make her realize that whatever she was considering doing, she shouldn’t do,” Fultz said. “It is true that she put the pot down. If it ended there, we wouldn’t be here today, but for reasons we’ll never know, she reacquired the pot, stood up and threw it in his direction. Only at that time did he fire his weapon.”

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Massey’s killing raised new questions about U.S. law enforcement shootings of Black people in their homes. The accompanying publicity, protests and legal action over the incident prompted Judge Ryan Cadagin to move the trial from Springfield, 200 miles southwest of Chicago, to Peoria, an hour’s drive north of the capital city, because of pre-trial publicity.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Grayson faces a sentence of 45 years to life in prison. The jury also has been given the option of considering second-degree murder, which applies when there is a “serious provocation” of the defendant or when defendants believe their actions are justified even though that belief is unreasonable.

Second-degree murder is punishable by a term of four to 20 years or probation.

In an unusual step for a defendant in a murder case, Grayson testified in his own defense, saying he considered using a Taser to subdue Massey but was afraid it wouldn’t work given the distance and the counter separating them. He said he determined that Massey was a threat and drew his 9 mm pistol only after she uttered her “rebuke” twice — although prosecutors pointed out that was because he didn’t hear her and asked her to repeat it.

Dawson Farley, the other deputy on the scene that morning, testified that while he followed Grayson in drawing his gun, he did not see or hear anything that caused him to consider Massey a threat. But Farley, who did not fire his weapon, acknowledged that he initially told investigators he was threatened by the hot water. Fultz suggested in his closing that the reason the then-probationary employee changed his story after Grayson was indicted was so he wouldn’t be criminally charged too.

By REBECCA SANTANA and ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is reassigning at least half the top leadership at Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices around the country in a major shake-up of the agency responsible for carrying out the president’s vision for mass deportations, according to one current and one former U.S. government official.

The current official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity, said 12 ICE field office directors — the officers who run the network of field offices around the country responsible for immigration enforcement — were being reassigned.

Half are to be replaced by existing or retired Customs and Border Protection staff, while the other half would be replaced by ICE officers, both the current and former officials said. The changes were initiated by the Homeland Security Department, the current official said, without specifying which cities were impacted.

The former official, who has direct knowledge of the changes and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information that was not intended for public release, said on top of the 12 reassignments, leaders in another four cities were being swapped out through retirements or other circumstances. He said the cities include major immigration enforcement targets such as Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington.

He added that ICE leadership has been discussing the changes with other Trump administration officials for some time as part of a broad review of the agency.

The reason for the personnel changes wasn’t immediately clear. But they indicate a greater integration of Border Patrol agents in ICE at a time when Customs and Border Protection has been accused of using heavy-handed tactics in its immigration enforcement.

A major shakeup in Trump’s immigration enforcement leadership

With a total of 25 field offices around the country, the reassignments amount to turnover of about half or more of the top staffers carrying out the president’s hardline immigration enforcement plans, which has seen a major deployment of law enforcement in major American cities, thousands of arrests and surging fear among residents, especially in immigrant communities.

Homeland Security and the White House did not comment on the reassignments and each instead highlighted that all elements of immigration enforcement were working as one team.

Putting Customs and Border Protection officers into top positions within Immigration and Customs Enforcement would create an expanded role for an agency that is already at the forefront of many of the aggressive tactics seen in both Los Angeles and now in Chicago.

CBP officers — specifically Border Patrol agents — have carried out some of the most controversial operations as part of immigration crackdowns in both of those cities, including a recent raid in Chicago where officers rappelled down onto a building in an apartment complex from a helicopter. Border Patrol agents have also popped out of a moving truck and chased after people and conducted patrols through downtown Chicago.

Border Patrol agents protect the land and water between the official border crossings to prevent human trafficking, drug smuggling or other types of contraband from entering the U.S. ICE, since its creation in 2003, is the main agency responsible for immigration enforcement inside the country.

But during the Trump administration, Border Patrol agents have been taking part in immigration enforcement operations around the country, far from their more traditional duties.

Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol sector chief from California who has been heading the Border Patrol’s operations in both cities, is himself accused of throwing tear gas canisters at protesters and took the stand Tuesday as a defendant in a federal lawsuit about whether federal officials are using excessive force in Chicago.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement says its agents carry out “targeted enforcement operations,” which often involve hours of time staking out people they’re trying to remove from the country.

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It’s the latest in a series of personnel changes

This is the third shake-up at ICE since Trump took office, reflecting the importance of the agency’s role in executing the president’s vision.

In February, Homeland Security reassigned Caleb Vitello, the acting director of ICE, to another position. Todd Lyons, a veteran ICE agent, was later announced as the new acting head of the agency, a position he still holds.

Then in May, ICE announced the reassignment of the two top officials heading the agency’s main branches.

A spokesperson for Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, did not comment Tuesday on the personnel changes but said in a statement that the department remained “laser focused on RESULTS and we will deliver.”

“This is one team, one fight,” she said. “President (Donald) Trump has a brilliant, tenacious team led by Secretary (Kristi) Noem to deliver on the American people’s mandate to remove criminal illegal aliens from this country.”

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in an e-mailed statement: “The President’s entire team is working in lockstep to implement the President’s policy agenda, and the tremendous results from securing the border to deporting criminal illegal aliens speak for themselves.”

Spagat reported from Chicago.