Minnesota Sports Forum

BloopOracle wrote:Kind of disturbing that they wouldn't give Vanderpool as shot, and they will rightfully get raked over the coals by players across that league. Putting that aside I'm very excited that we actually moved on from Ryan and am curious to see what Finch brings.

Yeah, I'm curious too, bloop, and a little optimistic. I suspect that as many players that Finch developed will praise him as much as Portland's backcourt praised Vanterpool. And as I mentioned in another thread, we're about the 7th or 8th team that has interviewed Vanterpool for head coach and then passed on him. Are all these GMs wrong? Maybe, but I suspect that, not unlike Saunders, something about Vanterpool just screams "assistant coach".

Lip pointed out something about Finch earlier that I have to agree with. He is dull! We're not going to enjoy a Finch interview as much as we used to enjoy a Sam Mitchell interview, or as much as we are enjoying Ant every time he opens his mouth! But dull works sometimes, just ask New England Patriots' fans. If he wins but bores us to tears in his pressers, I won't complain. Well, maybe a little ;-) ...

Is Prigioni gone this year? This week?

Is Prigioni gone this year? This week?

So they finally got away from the Country Club hiring practices and the outsider they bring in is now hiring from his own Country Club?

Woofs gonna woof.

TheSP wrote:So they finally got away from the Country Club hiring practices and the outsider they bring in is now hiring from his own Country Club?

Woofs gonna woof.

This was my initial impression as well, SP. The only thing more fitting would be a Chris Finch Jr. being added to the end of the bench!

Jake Paynting: Offensive rating before and after the first season that Chris Finch arrived:

HOU - 16th to 4th
DEN - 17th to 4th
NOP - 26th to 12th
TOR - 13th to 10th

Obviously the credit can't be completely given to Finch, but the pedigree is clearly there. Wolves currently rank 28th.

That can't all be by coincidence so at least it appears that Finch has some real coaching chops and ingenuity when it comes to teams scoring the basketball. I'm cautiously optimistic, especially after seeing that his past systems have incorporated aspects of the corner offense.

TheSP wrote:So they finally got away from the Country Club hiring practices and the outsider they bring in is now hiring from his own Country Club?

Woofs gonna woof.

Very good observation. Brace yourself. Like the doctor told your Mom the day you were born, this could get ugly.

How awkward is that first meeting with Finch and the assistant coaches.

ALL of their jobs are on the line. Do they try to impress him? Or, just assume they're gone this summer?

And does Vanderpool discreetly leave his phone lying around with tweets from Dame and McCollum coincidentally showing as his screen saver?

It is a bit interesting that we've had to hire an offensive guru when the main theory heading into the season was that we'd be OK offensively and horrible defensively. Thanks to the likes of McDaniels, Vando, and DLO being out, our defense has been somewhat passable lately.

We've talked about a roster that is largely bifurcated between defensive role players that can't shoot and offensive role players that can't defend. It will be interesting to see how Finch deals with this dilemma when deploying his rotations.

Q12543 wrote:It is a bit interesting that we've had to hire an offensive guru when the main theory heading into the season was that we'd be OK offensively and horrible defensively. Thanks to the likes of McDaniels, Vando, and DLO being out, our defense has been somewhat passable lately.

We've talked about a roster that is largely bifurcated between defensive role players that can't shoot and offensive role players that can't defend. It will be interesting to see how Finch deals with this dilemma when deploying his rotations.

As long as Finch doesn't start Josh Okogie at the four, he'll be a welcomed upgrade. The bar truly isn't that high when it comes to what we'll have versus what we had. At least Finch gets to come here without the pressure of replacing a quality head coach.