The Official Chris Finch Thread

[TimberKat]

Wait, did not we won two games against ATL and Snyder who knows Gobert strengths and weaknesses more than anyone?

Quin didn’t want to make Rudy look bad cause he’s his guy and he will trade us a whole bunch of draft picks for him this summer. /s

Didn't he resign from Utah because he couldn't make it work with Rudy and Mitchell?

It was clearly the problem with Mitchell who doesn't play D . Please don't tell me he transformed Cavs into a playoff team. It's all credit to Rubio and Brickerstaff - two of the Twolves alumni

[urinesane]

^This. I've been here for all 34 seasons and it's not hard to believe at all.

If we stay above.500 (which I think we will ), it will than be our 3rd time over .500 since (after) 04-05 season. For you Finch fans, he will own two of the three. I didn't think we were that bad for so long.

It's pretty crazy how short people's memories are when it comes to how incredibly bad this franchise has performed since post KG-era. Which is why when they struggle as much as they have this season AND have had such bad injury luck that I temper my expectations for a "50 win team" and try to enjoy the fact that they are competing for a playoff spot currently.

You can't control the team (and neither can the coach), but you can control yourself and how you choose to react to things out of your control.

[Baseline81]

How can anyone defend this?

He's obviously one of the better coaches the team has had, but that isn't saying much, especially when coming off Saunders.

[Neeva]

He’s mediocre and this team needs better than that.

[Calinks]

Bozo The Clown on life support should be able to coach his team to a win in that Portland game. I'm not pinning this L on Finch.

[Calinks]

Bozo The Clown on life support should be able to coach today's team to a win against that Portland game in our situation. I'm not pinning this L on Finch.

[TimberKat]

Ok everyone clam down. We will get Jason Kidd in here next year.

Our bench sucked and Towns sucked. I didn't go back and watch the second time (kinda difficult for this game) but likely things coach could do? Maybe call a play or something? Especially the last play. You got to have two plays ready depending if the challenge is successful. The last play really sucked.

Maybe Finch wins two play-in games and we all happy

[babyjax13]

Wait, did not we won two games against ATL and Snyder who knows Gobert strengths and weaknesses more than anyone?

Quin didn’t want to make Rudy look bad cause he’s his guy and he will trade us a whole bunch of draft picks for him this summer. /s

Didn't he resign from Utah because he couldn't make it work with Rudy and Mitchell?

Our front office tried to keep him. I think he resigned because he was ready for something different, which is basically what he said. If he wanted something better he wouldn't be coaching the Hawks. He probably also had a sense the team would be broken up, and that Gobert was likely to be moved. He built an entire system around Gobert that kept us in the playoffs for almost a decade. He's a brilliant coach - maybe not the best coach in the league (I often thought he was top 5, but I'm more iffy on that now with how great Hardy has been), but really, really good.

RE: Finch, he seems okay. I don't think Minnesota hurts itself by letting him go and trying someone new, but I also think he's probably good enough to get another job in the future. If the Clippers fire Lue, I'd actually love to see Minny target him.

[younggunsmn]

Yes I think Snyder just didn't want to be part of a rebuild.
Had he known how good Markaanen and Kessler would be does he change his mind?

Finch has been out coached in a LOT of games this year.
Teams have been wrecking us with zones and box and ones and killing our D scheme by switching us into favorable ISO matchups they can exploit. WIth no adjustments from Finch.

He also just plain quit making defensive adjustments the last month after a lot of tinkering early in the year and we have almost exclusively been running one scheme.
The Dallas game where we played high wall trap on their ballhandlers (successfully I might add) is the last time I saw us do anything at all different, no matter how hot a player on the other team has been (Julius Randle for 57 anyone?)

There is also little to no playcalling at all on offense and non shot creators like Taurean Prince getting stuck with the ball a lot as the shot clock runs down.

Finch is an offensive system coach and he has not shown me much at all in the area of playcalling, game management, and in-game adjustment that separates the good coaches from the bad.
We added three veteran players with high BBIQs this year and it didn't do anything to fix the late game meltdowns that plagued us last year. In fact we got much much worse at losing to bad teams this year.

Part of why the offense is so much worse this year is that Connelly blew up the mix of players that FInch coached to 47 wins last year and stuck him with a 7'2 big with no skill who does not fit his system at all, which allows the other team to effectively ignore him and just wall up the painted area.
And he has to play that guy next to his other big who is so soft he can be guarded by anyone 6'3 and taller.

[moss_is_1]

RE: Finch, he seems okay. I don't think Minnesota hurts itself by letting him go and trying someone new, but I also think he's probably good enough to get another job in the future. If the Clippers fire Lue, I'd actually love to see Minny target him.

Finch is at least an NBA coach, a huge step up from Ryan Saunders.

Lue would be great. If we miss the playoffs, or even get swept/lose in Finch fashion(bunch of blown lesds), I could see him get the axe. We should take some hard looks at Udoka and if anyone else gets fired. Nick Nurse would be ironic if he was fired also.

[Dewey]

My 2 cents… a double-edge sword.

1. It’s troubling that an NBA coach needs to motivate professional athletes. Coaches have enough on their plate coaching the game itself. Somewhere along the way he needs to be more accountable for his teams drive.

2. Finch needs to do more to inspire this team - or this teams culture. IMO he seems to struggle with this role. They have enough talent, but they just are not wired to play hard enough of the time. He needs to simplify the roles and hold them to a higher standard.

Teams need to challenge themselves and Bev was the one who pushed those buttons last year. We don’t have that energy coming from neither a player or coach this year and it shows.

[TimberKat]

To Finch's credit, he has to deal with too many broken parts (or Bipolar parts). We don't have enough all around type players. I think we have 3 right now - SlowMo, JMac, Conley. None of them are star level all around players at this time and JMac is not exactly consistent either. I am wondering if the best course for the remaining games is to play them together as much as possible. I think this line is best when we want an offensive or defensive run. Could someone check the advance stats to see if that is true?

I certainly thinks Finch could be better but at the same time we are not at the point of fire a coach to shake things up or see any good alternative... Wait, oh, Snyder is not available.

Let's find that last player with Naz sign/trade and see what Finch can do next year. Of course I reserve the rights to change my mind if Finch really mess up in the last two games and the play-in Just a little lawyer talk here.

[Guest84]

Does Finch have a strong enough personality to command respect and control the room? Is this more of an issue from the TOP trickling down?

[minimus]

Read on Twitter

[TimberKat]

Read on Twitter

Could someone explain what he means and what he is talking about. Finch could call a different play or put in a different player. Throwing terms like Spain Pick and Roll out there doesn't make it a smart post.

[minimus]

Read on Twitter

Could someone explain what he means and what he is talking about. Finch could call a different play or put in a different player. Throwing terms like Spain Pick and Roll out there doesn't make it a smart post.

Joe makes one of the best NBA analysis. While 99% of posters who blame Finch can't even recognize a simple basketball play. I remember one time when I asked on MIN subreddit about delay action and from thousand views I got five answers and three of them were like: dude, we are ordinary basketball fans, we don't even know about it.

P.S. Yeah, Finch could call a different play. But you have a clearly injured Edwards, Towns with fouls and no bench. Yeah, in theory he could have put Moore, Minott, Rivers or Knight. In theory.

[TimberKat]

Read on Twitter

Could someone explain what he means and what he is talking about. Finch could call a different play or put in a different player. Throwing terms like Spain Pick and Roll out there doesn't make it a smart post.

Joe makes one of the best NBA analysis. While 99% of posters who blame Finch can't even recognize a simple basketball play. I remember one time when I asked on MIN subreddit about delay action and from thousand views I got five answers and three of them were like: dude, we are ordinary basketball fans, we don't even know about it.

P.S. Yeah, Finch could call a different play. But you have a clearly injured Edwards, Towns with fouls and no bench. Yeah, in theory he could have put Moore, Minott, Rivers or Knight. In theory.

I was think NAW or Nowell. NAW maybe a better choice because he plays better D and was moving and cutting. Would have sub out Prince. Tough to sub out Edwards. Double LBJ or use Ant on LBJ

[Colbinii]

Finch has been a great coach this year given what he has dealt with.

-Team with little depth on the perimeter/wing
-Team missing its best player for 52 games
-No A-tier offensive players [is ANT a Top 25 offensive player?]
-No Defense D-Lo for 60 games

Team just ran out of gas against a very good LA team missing 3 key rotation players [Reid, Gobert, McDaniels].

If anything, this season shows just how good Finch has been and can be.

[Baseline81]

Finch has been a great coach this year given what he has dealt with.

-Team with little depth on the perimeter/wing
-Team missing its best player for 52 games
-No A-tier offensive players [is ANT a Top 25 offensive player?]
-No Defense D-Lo for 60 games

Team just ran out of gas against a very good LA team missing 3 key rotation players [Reid, Gobert, McDaniels].

If anything, this season shows just how good Finch has been and can be.

And yet, you omit the elephant in the room -- record vs. bottom teams.

I don't understand why some folks refuse to discuss to his weaknesses...

[shrink]

Finch has been a great coach this year given what he has dealt with.

-Team with little depth on the perimeter/wing
-Team missing its best player for 52 games
-No A-tier offensive players [is ANT a Top 25 offensive player?]
-No Defense D-Lo for 60 games

Team just ran out of gas against a very good LA team missing 3 key rotation players [Reid, Gobert, McDaniels].

If anything, this season shows just how good Finch has been and can be.

And yet, you omit the elephant in the room -- record vs. bottom teams.

I don't understand why some folks refuse to discuss to his weaknesses...

But he didn’t mention that the Wolves had the fifth best record against playoff teams, if I heard that right?

As for the elephant, I think it’s hard for anyone to determine whether the players or the coach is more at fault when teams struggle against bottom teams. Both share some blame, but personally I put more responsibility on the players. The coach didn’t tell them, “my game plan is for you to stop passing the ball around, don’t hurry back on defense, and get forced to do a lot of isolation. Just take it easy out there.” I see the players as adult, professionals that should bring the required level of energy to every game, regardless of the opponent.

I think it’s easier for fans to give credit to the players when the team succeeds, and blame the coach when the team fails.