Minnesota Sports Forum

I wonder if the Wolves are swept if Finch will be made the sacrificial lamb. Somebody has to be the scapegoat after the Rudy trade fiasco and Timmy wont' want to fire himself and the owners hired Timmy but didn't hire Finch. Its possible Timmy ends up moving to Washington and Finch stays. Given that two big name coaches who have won titles are available in Nick Nurse and Ime Udoka, I think Finch's job is in jeopardy either way. If the Wolves can rally and win at least two games, I think it might be more palpable to keep Finch by blaming the disappointing season on injuries to KAT and Jaden and run it back.

I think Finch will be safe this year (IMO). I mean, in the heat of this (shitty) moment, I want heads to roll too. But...taking a deep breath...let's consider:

* He's had two full years as coach (not counting the half season he took over) and got us into the playoffs both times.
* He's the second All Time winning percentage in Wolves history (in fairness...the bar is pretty low)
* He has a winning regular season record with the Wolves

On the surface, those are not HUGE accomplishments. But for this shitty franchise? That's top of the class. I can't see them moving on until the wheels fall off and they don't get into the playoffs.

If it were up to me I'd give Finch another year to right the ship. I just don't know if ownership will if they have the opportunity to land a big fish coach.

There are some things I think are strikes against him.

• Not utilizing the pick and roll more is definitely one of them.

• He's had some questionable game management. His decision not to call a timeout as we fell apart last year against Memphis arguably cost us a chance to win a playoff game. Playing our starters when we were up, like, 25-30 against San Antonio in game 81 was inexplicable--it risked injury at a crucial time and that's the game that Rudy's back spasms started in. I'd be curious to see what his stats are on out of timeout plays. And I bet our record in crunch time games has been pretty bad, and some of that has to land on the feet of the guy managing things at the end.

• In general, he doesn't seem to have the kind of strong personality that has pulled a team with some egos together in obvious respect for him. To be fair, winning is the best ticket for that. But he just doesn't seem to have the gravitas that a guy like Spo or Pop or even Ime Udoka have had (and yes, I know what happened to him).

• At the end of the day, he's had a more talented team than a lot of Minnesota coaches have had, so his record of (barely) getting into the playoffs doesn't look that great. A lot of people were skeptical of the two-big pairing with KAT and Rudy, but those are very talented guys, and it is disappointing that Finch wasn't able to find a way to make that work better, even with KAT's limited time on the floor this year.

• This has been two bad playoff performances in a row. And that's probably the biggest knock against him.

But all those things aside, I don't know that changing coaches is going to be the solution here. This team needs some stability and a chance to try to figure it out with Ant, KAT, and Rudy. Having coached those guys for a while, I get the sense that he's probably about as well positioned as anyone to figure out how to get more out of them. And I don't get the sense that he's a bad coach, just maybe not a very good one. He did sort of overachieve during the regular season last year, arguably, and probably disappointed somewhat in the regular season this year (the loss of KAT was a big blow). The playoff performances are probably the biggest negative for him, and they have been super disappointing.

People's ideas of what makes a good coach are often just based on what others are saying about him. It's not that long ago that the consensus in public opinion was that Finch was a really good coach, but how would people actually have known that about a guy who was mostly an assistant? I think talking heads were just saying that because they thought it made them sound smart. A coach is only as good as they can prove it, so now that we've had more evidence to evaluate Finch, the shine has worn off. But that doesn't mean he's a bad coach (necessarily). At this point, I think it just means he hasn't been able to get more out of this team. As disappointing as he's been in ways, I think changing coaches would just feel desperate, and unless we got lucky and the coach was great, that additional turnover would just contribute to the culture of instability with this franchise. Safer to try to hold the course, I think.

Again...

... I don't know if Finch is the answer.

Then again, this franchise has a long and sordid history of going from one coach to another coach to another coach. And nothing really changes all that much.

Heck, look at Tom Thibodeau. He was a winner in Chicago. And now a winner in New York. In Minnesota, we thought he was a terrible coach.

Maybe it's less about them... and more about the franchise/ownership/players.

There was a guy here who used to post on the old board who had two main takes...1)D'Angelo Russell is a winning PG who deserves a big contract extension, and 2) Chris Finch needs to be held accountable for his poor coaching. I think we all know that the first take was misguided (his dreadful postseason performance makes that obvious), but I'm coming around on the second take. I've been a supporter of Finchie through his tenure here, but as someone who agrees with what a reputable source that Phenom quoted a couple weeks ago (that the Wolves' had the second most talented playoff rotation in the West), I think we have to at least look at whether he is the right guy to coach this team.

I don't disagree that TC likely overpaid for Rudy (even though I'm not losing any sleep over the departure of PatBev, Vando, and Beasley), but a team with Ant, Conley, Rudy and KAT in the starting lineup should be able to at least show up against Denver...and we haven't. I expect us to win a meaningless game 4 tomorrow, and then lose the next game in Denver. If that happens, I think new ownership will be very disappointed and will be looking at changes. Assuming TC doesn't leave on his own for Washington (and he very likely might), here is how I rank the various shake up moves they can make.

1) Replace Finchie with a coach who can get more wins than he has been able to. I'm afraid he is at best an assistant coach.

2) Trade either Rudy or KAT, provided the return is sufficient to make us better. I'm skeptical though.

3) Fire TC...I don't think this would help the team at all.

I suspect we will be having a "Who should the Wolves hire as coach" thread within a couple weeks...

I think any talk of the Wolves having the 2nd most talented playoff rotation in the West is woefully misguided. Or, just inaccurate.

Whether we're talking about #1 options... or bench guys... Minnesota comes up short.

Heck, just look at the Timberwolves lead guard options off the bench in the playoffs... NAW, McLauglin, Nowell, and Anderson. Two of those guys wouldn't even be in the playoff rotation for most (all?) of the 16 teams. NAW played all of 4 minutes for a disappointing Utah team last year in the playoffs (while down 25).

And by far the best of the bunch, Kyle Anderson, has played less in the playoffs than the regular season in 4 of his previous 5 trips.

Meanwhile, Memphis can bring guys like T. Jones and L. Kennard off the bench. Sacramento has Monk, Lyles and Mitchell. The Clippers have N. Powell, Plumlee and Mann. Even the Lakers have Hachimura and Schroeder.

And if we want to look at the starters or marquee players from each team... I think it's even more damning for Minnesota.

What does Finch get blame and credit for?

Development of Edwards?

Development of McDaniels?

Team defense 2 years in a row? Keep in mind this franchise SUCKED big time on that end for YEARS even with Thibs a supposed defensive wizard as head coach.

Russell having a career year shooting the ball?

Conley shooting the hell out of the ball too?

Only winning 42 games in a VERY competitive conference with one of his best players playing less than half the games and some other players missing games too?

Not winning a game so far in a playoff series despite being down a starter who is one of the best defenders in the league and a legit rotation guy all against the top seed of the west.

I was one person this offseason that suggested we didn’t absolutely know if Finch is an elite or really good coach despite the success of last year. As we sit right now I don’t think we know if he is or isn’t the guy either. There is a lot of good Finch has done in his time here. This season has been a struggle at times but a significant part of that has been due to injury. Nowell was a guy the franchise banked on and he floundered. Is that Finch’s fault?

Nic Nurse got fired for his team playing meh. Is he going to be better? I’m not saying Finch is for sure awesome or that he sucks. I’m not saying he is mediocre either. I’m saying there is good and bad and the reality is I’m not sure it makes sense to make a change now. Look over and Mike Malone. Was he killing it as a head coach all these years? I’d argue the answer could easily be no and mentioned that a few times over the years. I didn’t suggest he should be fired either.

I’d say let’s keep going with Finch unless there is some issue I am unaware of or there is some super obvious upgrade which maybe I’ve missed but so don’t see it. I’m looking forward to seeing what The Wolves can do to improve the roster and then what Finch can do with the roster next season.

AbeVigodaLive wrote: ↑Sat Apr 22, 2023 1:18 pm I think any talk of the Wolves having the 2nd most talented playoff rotation in the West is woefully misguided. Or, just inaccurate.

Whether we're talking about #1 options... or bench guys... Minnesota comes up short.

Heck, just look at the Timberwolves lead guard options off the bench in the playoffs... NAW, McLauglin, Nowell, and Anderson. Two of those guys wouldn't even be in the playoff rotation for most (all?) of the 16 teams. NAW played all of 4 minutes for a disappointing Utah team last year in the playoffs (while down 25).

And by far the best of the bunch, Kyle Anderson, has played less in the playoffs than the regular season in 4 of his previous 5 trips.

Meanwhile, Memphis can bring guys like T. Jones and L. Kennard off the bench. Sacramento has Monk, Lyles and Mitchell. The Clippers have N. Powell, Plumlee and Mann. Even the Lakers have Hachimura and Schroeder.

And if we want to look at the starters or marquee players from each team... I think it's even more damning for Minnesota.

God point. Those neat advanced numbers saying that had the Wolves being so good included McDaniels right? He isn’t playing. That’s a pretty big deal. In addition no Naz Reid either. Maybe he isn’t a rotation player for every time but the difference between him playing minutes and some of the guys you mentioned…pretty big difference.

KG4Ever wrote: ↑Sat Apr 22, 2023 10:41 am I wonder if the Wolves are swept if Finch will be made the sacrificial lamb. Somebody has to be the scapegoat after the Rudy trade fiasco and Timmy wont' want to fire himself and the owners hired Timmy but didn't hire Finch. Its possible Timmy ends up moving to Washington and Finch stays. Given that two big name coaches who have won titles are available in Nick Nurse and Ime Udoka, I think Finch's job is in jeopardy either way. If the Wolves can rally and win at least two games, I think it might be more palpable to keep Finch by blaming the disappointing season on injuries to KAT and Jaden and run it back.

There is zero chance this gets run back. AT least one of the three will be gone and maybe all three between Finch, Rudy and KAT.

I said it 6 months ago KAT gets traded in the summer so I'll stick with that. He does nothing in the playoffs to help the team advance so he is the fall guy (flops on offense and zero defense).