Wolves Pistons NYE

[kekgeek]

At the end of the day we can blame Conlley all you want but it's on the players to figure it out.

Dlo former all
Ant was the next big thing
Mcdaniels has all the potential in the world
Anderson has won everywhere he has been
Gobert has been a dominant all nba big his whole career on winners
Forbes a role player on a title team 2 years ago.
Naz made a leap (good for him)
Rivers a consistent role player on winners.

The wolves returned 8 of their top 11 from last year.

Finch seat should be hot (I like finch) but it's on the players who have all had some form of NBA winning success to figure it out.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

At the end of the day we can blame Conlley all you want but it's on the players to figure it out.

Dlo former all
Ant was the next big thing
Mcdaniels has all the potential in the world
Anderson has won everywhere he has been
Gobert has been a dominant all nba big his whole career on winners
Forbes a role player on a title team 2 years ago.
Naz made a leap (good for him)
Rivers a consistent role player on winners.

The wolves returned 8 of their top 11 from last year.

Finch seat should be hot (I like finch) but it's on the players who have all had some form of NBA winning success to figure it out.

Unfortunately, you're just further illustrating why Chris Finch should be held accountable for the disastrous season thus far. The roster is loaded with supremely-talented players and proven winners to varying degrees. The main individual responsible for making these pieces fit and maximizing their strengths just isn't holding up his end, and it's been painfully obvious from the beginning of the season. Would you (or anyone else) care to argue that Finch has gotten the most out of this roster? I'm certainly open to hearing that pitch, but I can assure you that isn't the case.

Finch's seat should be so hot that it's scorching the underside of his trousers and forcing him to leave from where he sits. Considering he just signed an extension this past summer, I doubt that he's in any real trouble right now, but should he be? Absolutely.

[AbeVigodaLive]

In the NBA... the coach is almost always the scapegoat.

So of course Finch will be on the hot seat. Twitter (and I'm assuming elsewhere) is ablaze in asking for Finch to be fired.

It was less than a year ago when Finch was the savior and everybody was yelling "See, it was all Saunders' fault!" Now, suddenly, the savior is a shitty coach.

Rinse. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Lip is right on this one. But Connelly isn't getting fired. So, Finch will take the heat and maybe even be gone and a new coach can come in. And if things go well, those clamoring for a new coach might be right (again)... for a little while... until the coach suddenly sucks.

------------

So we can blame Finch. And a new coach might be able to reach these players a bit better. But we're just putting lipstick on a pig. This is on Connelly. And it's blatantly obvious.

But the decision-makers behind the scenes aren't front and center, so they get free passes for a bit longer.

This is Connelly's (or the owners') mess.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Abe, it's not that Chris Finch is a shitty coach. I don't think that's necessarily the case and neither do most fans, I would think. However, how he's utilized this roster is absolutely head-scratching and he deserves to be held accountable for it. Too often this season Minnesota has been out-coached and downright hurt by their own schemes, or lack thereof. How often have you seen this team get perplexed by a high school-level zone defense? How unprepared has this team looked to start games or coming out of halftime? That doesn't fall on the players or the front office. That falls on management in the form of the coaching staff led by Finch.

Tim Connelly [knowingly, I think] overpaid for Rudy Gobert this past summer, and put his reputation/credibility on the line, so I have to imagine that he's more frustrated than anyone. I refuse to believe he made the move for Gobert with the idea in mind that Minnesota would abandon what made Gobert so effective in Utah. I do not believe he envisioned this assortment of talent being discombobulated offensively either. Ultimately, I don't think we've even seen whatever Connelly's vision is or was for this roster because Finch hasn't put it into action. At some point, Connelly's going to have to find someone that will maximize this roster before he'll be willing to blow it up. That part is understandable.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe, it's not that Chris Finch is a shitty coach. I don't think that's necessarily the case and neither do most fans, I would think. However, how he's utilized this roster is absolutely head-scratching and he deserves to be held accountable for it. Too often this season Minnesota has been out-coached and downright hurt by their own schemes, or lack thereof. How often have you seen this team get perplexed by a high school-level zone defense? How unprepared has this team looked to start games or coming out of halftime? That doesn't fall on the players or the front office. That falls on management in the form of the coaching staff led by Finch.

Tim Connelly [knowingly, I think] overpaid for Rudy Gobert this past summer, and put his reputation/credibility on the line, so I have to imagine that he's more frustrated than anyone. I refuse to believe he made the move for Gobert with the idea in mind that Minnesota would abandon what made Gobert so effective in Utah.I refuse to believe he made the move for Gobert with the idea in mind that Minnesota would abandon what made Gobert so effective in Utah. I do not believe he envisioned this assortment of talent being discombobulated offensively either. Ultimately, I don't think we've even seen whatever Connelly's vision is or was for this roster because Finch hasn't put it into action. At some point, Connelly's going to have to find someone that will maximize this roster before he'll be willing to blow it up. That part is understandable.

But is that what makes Towns, Edwards and Russell so effective?

Giving up THAT much and then asking everybody else to make concessions for the new guy who has obvious limitations that are actually dismissed by people and players around the league is a big ask in the NBA. As I've repeated, a player who garners that many assets shouldn't have to have the perfect storm around him to succeed.

We've heard stories of pettiness for many many years in the NBA. Often, its about money. Sometimes, it's about personalities or other things. Would any of us be surprised if some Wolves players simply don't want to make all those concessions for a player they don't dig all that much or respect as a player all that much?

Is there a chance that Edwards, Russell and Towns were frustrated that the team was changed entirely immediately after the tiniest glimmer of success... without any say in who the new guy was? Like it or not... players do have a lot of say in today's NBA. But in Minnesota, a new GM they don't really know traded the farm and change the team for a new guy they might not even like.

It's the NBA. That stuff is so common. And by the way this team has played (and the effort they've displayed far too often)... something is amiss. There is a discord on this team and it's revealing itself in many ways. So we can blame the coach for not forcing players to gel. But these are guys with $100+ millions either in the bank or at stake doing things their own way. They have so much more say in how they gel with the new guy than a coach.

[Q-is-here]

Yikes, terrible loss!

I agree with others that Finch is on the hot seat, even if it's not his fault. Sometimes you just need a different voice.

What is it about this team and shooters? We bring Bryn Forbes in to help give us a sniper and replace (some of) the shooting we lost with Beasley. He's by far shooting the worst in his career (25%). We bring in Matt Ryan to help provide some shooting punch we've lost with Prince being out. He's shooting 29%. Nowell was a stud shooter at Washington and showed great efficiency in the G-League. Last season he finally "arrived" and shot 39% from 3 off the bench. Now he's 30% despite having a super well defined role and consistent minutes. This shit just KILLS us - guys who are paid to shoot but just can't make shots for whatever reason when wearing a Wolves uniform.

[TheFuture]

Yikes, terrible loss!

I agree with others that Finch is on the hot seat, even if it's not his fault. Sometimes you just need a different voice.

What is it about this team and shooters? We bring Bryn Forbes in to help give us a sniper and replace (some of) the shooting we lost with Beasley. He's by far shooting the worst in his career (25%). We bring in Matt Ryan to help provide some shooting punch we've lost with Prince being out. He's shooting 29%. Nowell was a stud shooter at Washington and showed great efficiency in the G-League. Last season he finally "arrived" and shot 39% from 3 off the bench. Now he's 30% despite having a super well defined role and consistent minutes. This shit just KILLS us - guys who are paid to shoot but just can't make shots for whatever reason when wearing a Wolves uniform.

It might be because catch and shoot guys operate well in an actual offense with ball movement. Not iso shot hunting and scramble pass outs.

[FNG]

There's no way to sugar coat this one...this was a terrible loss. I almost turned it off at halftime this morning because it looked like a blowout win against a really bad team. But I stuck around and watched us get outscored 66-40 in the second half by the worst team in the Association. There is a lot of blame to go around, but I'm pointing the finger at Jaylen Nowell and Rudy Gobert. Nowell has impressed me with his improved defense the past 10 days, but he reverted to Bad Jaylen in this game. And Gobert was dreadful. But despite those two trying their best to give us a loss, we would have at least had a chance if Mr. 4th Quarter had shot better than 1 for 6 (although oddly, that was one more basket than the entire Pistons starting 5made in the 4th). If he's not going to play any defense, we at least need him to show up on offense in the 4th quarter...and he didn't.

I'm not jumping on the Fire Finch bus quite yet. He wasn't as good a coach as many thought last year when we were healthy and beating teams missing key players, and he's not as bad as he's being cast this year when we're the crippled team. 3 of the 7 top on/off performers this season are injured, and a 4th (SloMo) has missed several games and might be struggling with a bad back. Missing our arguably best player makes things difficult, but missing JMac and Prince is also difficult to overcome. Finchie just doesn't have many options with such a depleted bench, and has been forced to give too many minutes to guys like Rivers, Ryan, Knight and Forbes, or he's forced to play guys who refuse to play any defense just because there isn't a suitable replacement. If the sore calf brothers don't return soon, you can kiss this season goodbye.

[Lipoli390]

Will Finchy be canned before the end of the year. At this rate, I'd say yes. Timmy has to scapegoat someone and he probably won't fire himself (though he should and might even earn him a modicum of respect).

I think it's likely Finch will be fired in the next couple weeks unless things turn around dramatically, Should he be fired? In my view, absolutely not. If anyone should be fired, it's Tim Connelly. There is no coaching savior who can magically fix what is fundamentally a roster problem of Connelly's making. If TC fires Finch as I suspect he will, this thing will unravel even further. Then this franchise will ultimately, Edwards will want out, KAT will be gone and Connelly will be fired as this team garners lottery picks for Utah in 2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029.