Check out the following excerpt from a Jon K article in The Athletic:
The story is a window in Finch's ability to hold players accountable without alienating them, something that will be critical for him in leading the Timberwolves, who have one of the youngest rosters in the league. It can be a delicate chore for coaches in the player-centric NBA. One misstep can get a coach in water hot enough that eventually leads to his exit. But one thing most Wolves players mention when they talk about a coach who parachuted in from outside the organization to take over for Ryan Saunders 31 games into the season is Finch's ability to call players out for mistakes while also making them feel like he has their backs in tough moments. 1 day ago - via Jon Krawczynski @ The Athletic
Chris Finch
Re: Chris Finch
Some more excerpts from Jon K's article, quoting Ricky and Ant:
"For not being a head coach in the league and being the first time he's a head coach, he has big balls," Wolves guard Ricky Rubio said. "He's not afraid of the superstars. He's not afraid of telling people how he sees things."
"He's not afraid of someone getting mad or hurting their feelings," Rubio said. "It may work or it may not. But if he goes down, he goes down his way. He's not going to change because someone wants to do other things. His way has been proven that it's working. He has a style of basketball that is fun to play and it's fun to watch as well. I think it can work, but if it doesn't work, I know he won't change because he is the way he is."
"I feel like it's great if your coach expects a lot out of you. I want him to hold me accountable," Edwards said. "He can coach me hard. Where I'm from, I done had the worst coaches ever, so I've been coached hard all my life, so I'm pretty good with it." 1 day ago - via Jon Krawczynski
"For not being a head coach in the league and being the first time he's a head coach, he has big balls," Wolves guard Ricky Rubio said. "He's not afraid of the superstars. He's not afraid of telling people how he sees things."
"He's not afraid of someone getting mad or hurting their feelings," Rubio said. "It may work or it may not. But if he goes down, he goes down his way. He's not going to change because someone wants to do other things. His way has been proven that it's working. He has a style of basketball that is fun to play and it's fun to watch as well. I think it can work, but if it doesn't work, I know he won't change because he is the way he is."
"I feel like it's great if your coach expects a lot out of you. I want him to hold me accountable," Edwards said. "He can coach me hard. Where I'm from, I done had the worst coaches ever, so I've been coached hard all my life, so I'm pretty good with it." 1 day ago - via Jon Krawczynski
Re: Chris Finch
Looks like we have the real deal as our head coach. Combine that with some impressive talent in KAT, Edwards, DLO, Beasley, McDaniels and Naz Reid. Next season could be an exciting one for Wolves fans.
Re: Chris Finch
lipoli390 wrote:Looks like we have the real deal as our head coach. Combine that with some impressive talent in KAT, Edwards, DLO, Beasley, McDaniels and Naz Reid. Next season could be an exciting one for Wolves fans.
I know I'm a hopeless homer when it comes to our Wolves, but I have to agree with all the positive comments about Finch. He seems to understand the delicate balance between propping your players up and holding them accountable that so many coaches don't get. I suspect that the public supportive Finch that we get to see is quite different from the behind-the-scenes Finch, and I think the players recognize and appreciate that. Whether we have the talent to compete is an unknown for me. But I'm confident we have the right coach.
Re: Chris Finch
From the little I have seen Finch seems to have both a personality and a persona but also doesn't take himself too seriously. There is a bit of goofiness to him at times and he has a sense of humor. He seems like like able and has varied interests so has a lot of ways of connecting with players in that way. Hearing he is really competitive is good and I'm not surprised. I'm on vacation for a family event and we were talking about how various great players and coaches in different sports play to win and have a really competitive drive. I get the idea that Finch is a guy that's going to figure out ways to win by making adjustments and also after this article expect what it takes out his players to win also.
This team is so young that I think it needs an adult in the room. Finch seems very much like an adult but he also seems like a guy that isn't going to crush you. I've never really gotten the idea that any of the Wolves young players over the past few years are opposed to hard coaching and having high expectations. I agree with Jon K in the article that Sam Mitchell may have been the only coach in the past few years that actually did much to hold players accountable.
Another positive for Finch is that I think who he is will help him because I think it will help him as a public figure. He is interesting reasonably personable etc. that stuff matters. Sam Mitchell I think did a reasonably good job especially under the circumstances as coach but he was such a dick to the media at times and let's be honest the Twin Cities media isn't exactly a tough group of guys to answer questions from. Thibs has his issues in this regard but they probably would have been more fine if he was just the coach and not also GM. Ryan Saunders did show some personality at times but he seemed pretty straightforward not much really to get excited about. I think being such a public figure it helps if you can come off well most of the time you know...in public.
Hopefully Finch is the right guy. Coaching still matters.
This team is so young that I think it needs an adult in the room. Finch seems very much like an adult but he also seems like a guy that isn't going to crush you. I've never really gotten the idea that any of the Wolves young players over the past few years are opposed to hard coaching and having high expectations. I agree with Jon K in the article that Sam Mitchell may have been the only coach in the past few years that actually did much to hold players accountable.
Another positive for Finch is that I think who he is will help him because I think it will help him as a public figure. He is interesting reasonably personable etc. that stuff matters. Sam Mitchell I think did a reasonably good job especially under the circumstances as coach but he was such a dick to the media at times and let's be honest the Twin Cities media isn't exactly a tough group of guys to answer questions from. Thibs has his issues in this regard but they probably would have been more fine if he was just the coach and not also GM. Ryan Saunders did show some personality at times but he seemed pretty straightforward not much really to get excited about. I think being such a public figure it helps if you can come off well most of the time you know...in public.
Hopefully Finch is the right guy. Coaching still matters.
Re: Chris Finch
Don't know how much of a common practice this is but Finch is in Georgia hanging with Okogie right now.
I have buddies going to a wedding in Georgia (same guy who lived in the same apartment complex as Ant where Ant did a Skype call in the lobby with Saunders before the draft, haha). They are at a bar and the table right next to them is just Okogie and Finch. They are saying they are talking a ton about shooting.
Don't know how much common practice it is for the HC to be visiting players this early in the offseason but I love it.
I have buddies going to a wedding in Georgia (same guy who lived in the same apartment complex as Ant where Ant did a Skype call in the lobby with Saunders before the draft, haha). They are at a bar and the table right next to them is just Okogie and Finch. They are saying they are talking a ton about shooting.
Don't know how much common practice it is for the HC to be visiting players this early in the offseason but I love it.
Re: Chris Finch
kekgeek1 wrote:Don't know how much of a common practice this is but Finch is in Georgia hanging with Okogie right now.
I have buddies going to a wedding in Georgia (same guy who lived in the same apartment complex as Ant where Ant did a Skype call in the lobby with Saunders before the draft, haha). They are at a bar and the table right next to them is just Okogie and Finch. They are saying they are talking a ton about shooting.
Don't know how much common practice it is for the HC to be visiting players this early in the offseason but I love it.
That's great to know. Thanks for posting the info. I love it too.
Re: Chris Finch
lipoli390 wrote:kekgeek1 wrote:Don't know how much of a common practice this is but Finch is in Georgia hanging with Okogie right now.
I have buddies going to a wedding in Georgia (same guy who lived in the same apartment complex as Ant where Ant did a Skype call in the lobby with Saunders before the draft, haha). They are at a bar and the table right next to them is just Okogie and Finch. They are saying they are talking a ton about shooting.
Don't know how much common practice it is for the HC to be visiting players this early in the offseason but I love it.
That's great to know. Thanks for posting the info. I love it too.
Good info. I read in the comments of a Wolves article in The Athletic (a fan said this) that Lore has actually reached out to Okogie to partner with him and wants to supper him reaching out to the community doing some social justice type things. I can't verify if that's true or not but it would not be too shocking. He isn't the most talented player on the Wolves but Okogie is super likable in a number of ways.
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Camden [enjin:6601484]
- Posts: 18065
- Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:00 am
Re: Chris Finch
I'm not sure where this should go, but Chris Finch and Gersson Rosas sat down with Dane Moore on his podcast to discuss the Wolves heading into this next season.
Obviously, there was a plethora of platitudes thrown around, mainly by the used car salesman Rosas, but I liked enough of what I heard that I would suggest others here to give it a listen. The main takeaway for me and something that has been discussed here ad nauseum was that the Wolves are built to be good offensively, but they want to improve to be at least middle of the road defensively. They figure that if they can do that, and score the ball with the best teams in the league, then they should come out to be a positive.
No shocker there, but Chris Finch talked about how he thought that was achievable without any personnel or scheme adjustments -- ie. by just upping the "give-a-shit" of this team, and those were his words. He specifically mentioned being better on the glass and much better in transition defense. He noted that far too often last season he would see guys picking up teammates off the floor or arguing with referees instead of hustling back on defense. Finch continued on saying that cleaning up those areas would reduce the number of easy buckets the team allows defensively. I would also add that if your offense is better, and more efficient, that there will be less transition opportunities for the opposition and more times where you can actually set your defense. Common sense stuff here, but I appreciate that Finch is verbal about it. He also correctly said that making players give a shit about defense and establishing that environment will be his job.
Overall, Finch sounded like a coach that really wants to win and that came across in the podcast. Hopefully we can get further away from the nonsense of "creating a family" and focus on actually winning basketball games. No more trips to the Bahamas or Glen Taylor's villa for spaghetti.
Obviously, there was a plethora of platitudes thrown around, mainly by the used car salesman Rosas, but I liked enough of what I heard that I would suggest others here to give it a listen. The main takeaway for me and something that has been discussed here ad nauseum was that the Wolves are built to be good offensively, but they want to improve to be at least middle of the road defensively. They figure that if they can do that, and score the ball with the best teams in the league, then they should come out to be a positive.
No shocker there, but Chris Finch talked about how he thought that was achievable without any personnel or scheme adjustments -- ie. by just upping the "give-a-shit" of this team, and those were his words. He specifically mentioned being better on the glass and much better in transition defense. He noted that far too often last season he would see guys picking up teammates off the floor or arguing with referees instead of hustling back on defense. Finch continued on saying that cleaning up those areas would reduce the number of easy buckets the team allows defensively. I would also add that if your offense is better, and more efficient, that there will be less transition opportunities for the opposition and more times where you can actually set your defense. Common sense stuff here, but I appreciate that Finch is verbal about it. He also correctly said that making players give a shit about defense and establishing that environment will be his job.
Overall, Finch sounded like a coach that really wants to win and that came across in the podcast. Hopefully we can get further away from the nonsense of "creating a family" and focus on actually winning basketball games. No more trips to the Bahamas or Glen Taylor's villa for spaghetti.
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RUN138 [enjin:9186519]
- Posts: 39
- Joined: Mon Feb 24, 2014 12:00 am
Re: Chris Finch
Let me add in a few of my zodiac analysis,
Finch 11/6/69 born as wood rooster dog rooster and he needs monkey to form three good combinations. If U google rooster zodiac not hear from me, people who is rooster personality is very upfront and direct, can't hold in their feeling and will vocal about it but they are honest to their feeling straight forward shooter no matter what got out from there
"no lie or joke and it can be bored". Honest is best policy. Some people will find it very annoying just like Tom Thibodeau also born as rooster. That's reason why Lip said Finch will come at any player face but players with opposite zodiac will find very difficult like Culver.
Since Finch took over coach Okogie was playing more and before that Okogie was in Ryan Saunders dog house (Saunders Tiger and Okogie Monkey are oppostite) Now it's good to hear Okogie hanging out with coach Finch (BFF).
It was opposite world with when Culver was Ryan Saunders favorite (Ryan tiger dragon tiger need rabbit to form three combinations Ryan wife is Rabbit). Now Culver (Rabbit) is in Finch dog house. Rabbit and Rooster are opposite....I can hear a lot of barking everywhere "get him out of here and blame on Rosa (I prefered Coby)" Poor Culver. If Coby (dragon) is here Finch and Coby are inseparable just like Tom Thibodeau and Derrick Rose (dragon). I complete the cycle!
Finch 11/6/69 born as wood rooster dog rooster and he needs monkey to form three good combinations. If U google rooster zodiac not hear from me, people who is rooster personality is very upfront and direct, can't hold in their feeling and will vocal about it but they are honest to their feeling straight forward shooter no matter what got out from there
"no lie or joke and it can be bored". Honest is best policy. Some people will find it very annoying just like Tom Thibodeau also born as rooster. That's reason why Lip said Finch will come at any player face but players with opposite zodiac will find very difficult like Culver.
Since Finch took over coach Okogie was playing more and before that Okogie was in Ryan Saunders dog house (Saunders Tiger and Okogie Monkey are oppostite) Now it's good to hear Okogie hanging out with coach Finch (BFF).
It was opposite world with when Culver was Ryan Saunders favorite (Ryan tiger dragon tiger need rabbit to form three combinations Ryan wife is Rabbit). Now Culver (Rabbit) is in Finch dog house. Rabbit and Rooster are opposite....I can hear a lot of barking everywhere "get him out of here and blame on Rosa (I prefered Coby)" Poor Culver. If Coby (dragon) is here Finch and Coby are inseparable just like Tom Thibodeau and Derrick Rose (dragon). I complete the cycle!