Thibs Out in NY

[Coolbreeze44]

Familiar story for Thibs. Come in and make a splash, beat the hell out of your best players, fall short of goals, and get shown the door. Rinse repeat.

[BloopOracle]

Gotta be Mike Malone right?

[Lipoli390]

Finch out, Thibs in for the Wolves! What do you say? .

[Lipoli390]

Familiar story for Thibs. Come in and make a splash, beat the hell out of your best players, fall short of goals, and get shown the door. Rinse repeat.

Well said, Cool. It really is the exact same story every time. On one level I feel bad for the guy. He loves coaching and he’s totally committed to his profession. He just can’t adapt and that’s why we keep seeing the same story with him over and over again.

[Q-is-here]

He did seem to adapt a bit in these playoffs and actually had a healthy squad. He expanded his rotation against Indiana and none of his starters averaged more than 38 MPG in that series. However, I think his hand was forced by how Indiana was playing.

I actually think Thibs and Finch have similar tendencies, but Finch seems like a better communicator. If Indiana goes onto beat OKC with their high paced offense and 10-man rotation, it's not going to reflect very well on Finch.

[Lipoli390]

He did seem to adapt a bit in these playoffs and actually had a healthy squad. He expanded his rotation against Indiana and none of his starters averaged more than 38 MPG in that series. However, I think his hand was forced by how Indiana was playing.

I actually think Thibs and Finch have similar tendencies, but Finch seems like a better communicator. If Indiana goes onto beat OKC with their high paced offense and 10-man rotation, it's not going to reflect very well on Finch.

That outcome could reflect poorly on Finch, but it could also reflect poorly on our roster construction. The Pacers strike me as the team we could be if we had been built differently around Ant and Jaden.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Worst good coach... or Best worst coach?

Cool is right. The guy has about a 5-year window. He ALWAYS takes over a team that gets better, only to see his tenure end within 5 years.

He's made the playoffs 10 out of 13 years... and that counts taking over the Wolves on a 13-year-playoff drought and the Knicks who went 7 years without a playoff berth.

[bleedspeed]

Oh well.

[TheFuture]

The GM should've been fired before Thibs, imo. They really only had a handful of players worth playing, and who the hell trades that much for a player of Mikal Bridges caliber?? He's a great role player, not an AD, Luka, Giannis type superstar who should command offers like that.

[KG4Ever]

I wasn't a Thibs fan mainly because he was a terrible GM but I didn't like his shallow rotations and that he overplays guys which has led to injuries and lack of development of the non-rotation guys, his failure to live up to his defensive genius reputation, plus his barking is really annoying. Can't say I'm upset by the news The only downside is the Knicks may tap a guy that I was hoping the Wolves would consider for their next head coach.

Thibs and Finch are cut from the same cloth in many ways with similar strengths and weaknesses.
Thibs and Finch are both good coaches who regularly get their teams into the playoffs. But neither are great coaches and that is what I want here. I want a coach who can make in-game adjustments, who can develop a deep rotation, can bench guys when they need to be benched and who can inspire the team when they need it. None of these attributes are strengths of Thibs or Finch. I like the precedent that even if a coach gets to the finals like Thibs, his job may not be safe. Heck, there are several coaches who won a title and didn't last more than a couple years later. I'm hoping TC who inherited Finch might consider a different direction either this offseason or next if the Wolves don't make it past the conference finals.