The official fire Chris Finch thread

[Norseman79]

Except that fans here were also complaining about Finch keeping Ant in too long in games earlier this season and were saying how he's not developing into a facilitating guard.

The dude is statistically better every year not sure how little of that can be placed on Finch.

I think he tries to make him do too much facilitating. I said he isn't maximizing Edwards, I didn't say he hasn't done a decent job developing him.

He's 23.

I'd rather push him to do too much and then pull back if needed then never find out what he's capable of.

Nothing wrong with pushing him to reach his potential, I'm talking about maximizing his skill set and fostering a killer mindset. I'm talking about getting him open, running plays for him, designing an offense that maximizes his scoring abilities. Getting him set up on the box to use his strength and vertical to score over smaller guards, or to go around larger slower players. It feels like Finch is trying to develop Edwards to fit his system instead of changing his system to fit Edwards. That's what I mean by maximizing him.

[Norseman79]

And I'm not even necessarily saying that he should be fired, just that there's definitely room for improvement and if they found somebody who would be better I would be fine with it.

[shrink]

WHY do you simply state the team SHOULD be doing better than WCF appearances?

Because the players are so good?

Read it again, shrink.

I didn't say the team should be doing better than WCF appearances.

Got it. I noticed it after I posted, and edited before you responded.

But other posters with the Fire Finch opinion are not happy with the WCFs, because they think we should have done better. It’s not the goal.

Do you think in-game improvements and pre-game prep would have led to better results? Did we get past PHX, DEN, LAL, GSW, but fail at OKC because of Finch? Do the players or Connelly need to be fired too, in your opinion? So we should do better?

[Baseline81]

Got it. I noticed it after I posted, and edited before you responded.

But other posters with the Fire Finch opinion are not happy with the WCFs, because they think we should have done better. It’s not the goal.

Do you think in-game improvements and pre-game prep would have led to better results? Did we get past PHX, DEN, LAL, GSW, but fail at OKC because of Finch? Do the players or Connelly need to be fired too, in your opinion? So we should do better?

I, too, am not happy with the outcome of the WCF. Even though I did not believe we would win the series, I did think it would be much more competitive (three of five games being over at the half speaks to that).

I think if the team was coached better throughout the year, it would have lead to a more enjoyable viewing for fans. Again, OKC may have simply been too much for the Wolves to handle, however, it's quite clear they weren't prepared for that series.

There have been times where I gave Finch his credit, just as I did with Randle, whom I never wanted on the squad to begin with.

[mondry]

I think Finch is a slightly above average coach but I don't know that he can get us a championship. To me, in a 7 game playoff series a coach should be tinkering with things to see what works because you just don't know until you see a guy like Terrance Shannon Jr out there putting in work. That's why Kerr was running 9-10 dudes at one point just to see if he could find anything. I thought he outcoached Finch pretty badly but he didn't have the horses to win that race. Daigneault made great adjustments and eventually landed on a lineup that reduced Hartensteins role despite him being a big time factor in every other series. We were suppose to be one of the deepest teams out there but in the end couldn't play more than 8 or so guys for most of the playoffs?

DDV was horrible, Randle was horrible. I guess I'll give Finch some credit for benching Randle at one point in game 2 I think it was but then he just put him right back out there to flounder in game 4 and 5. He mostly abandoned the young guys that played so well against OKC in the regular season even though those other guys were absolutely dreadful.

Spotting the Thunder a 2 game lead with a game plan that focused on seeing if SGA and Williams could beat us 1 on 1 as scorers when everyone in the league knows you're better off forcing those guys to be play makers and seeing if the streaky Thunder role players can beat you.

When they did try to run a Zone defense our guys clearly didn't know what they were doing, just completely unprepared there. The Coach has to have these guys ready for anything.

And the thing I probably hate the most about Finch is we KNOW Jaden is not a good corner 3 shooter yet game after game the offense relegates Jaden to just standing in the corner so Randle can get touches and do nothing with them and probably turn it over. It's a bad look to me when the only reason the coach tries something different is because of Injury's like what happened with Randle's groin in the regular season. With Randle out then we find out Jaden actually has a decent offensive game they can utilize!

Except his coach is Chris Finch so he goes right back to standing in the corner where we know he sucks as soon as Randle's back. I mean it's just pathetic that the opposing team puts 3 guys on Ant and we have no solution what so ever. The other team is putting guys like Butler on Gobert because Finch literally has nothing designed to get him a Lob or make any use of him at all.

I mean how is that Doncic can get 10 lobs a game to Lively and Gafford and we can't get Gobert anything, even when they put tiny defenders on him? We need someone who can unlock the players we do have. I'd argue Ant, Jaden, and Gobert are so misused here with a coach that doesn't play to their strengths. Ant is just so ridiculously special that he still some how makes it work against anyone but the best defense in a decade.

Maybe we can't do better than Finch, but I wouldn't blame Conly if he tried.

[KGdaBom]

If Finch is capable of winning a championship, fine, I don’t think he is capable..

Of course not he gets easily outclassed by head coaches like Jason freaking Kidd and OKC coach in wolves most important series. Finch is very average.
If Finch somehow wins a championship here, most wolves fan would want to keep him for life… even if he sucks and is completely average right after ,they would never be in favor of firing him like Denver did to Malone expections here are soo **** low it’s embarrassing.

It's more embarrassing to fire your most successful coach ever in a desperate attempt to win it all and most likely take a giant step backward.

[MN7725]

Wolves have had worst PG rotation in the playoffs last two seasons, thats a big hurdle to overcome

I think I'd give Finch even an average PG before making any judgements, tough to win in any era of NBA without consistent PG/primary ball handler play

[shrink]

Read on Twitter

[Klomp]

Read on Twitter

Happy for KAT!

[Baseline81]

Read on Twitter

And yet the Wolves shouldn't fire their coach?

New York's best run in 25 years.

Several on this forum keep spouting how there's no one available. Apparently, the Knicks feel otherwise.

[Klomp]

And yet the Wolves shouldn't fire their coach?

New York's best run in 25 years.

Several on this forum keep spouting how there's no one available. Apparently, the Knicks feel otherwise.

Because the Knicks are a model franchise for smart decisions?

[Baseline81]

Because the Knicks are a model franchise for smart decisions?

In the past, clearly not. Recently, that's debatable.

At least they are showing ambition.

[Worm Guts]

Read on Twitter

And yet the Wolves shouldn't fire their coach?

New York's best run in 25 years.

Several on this forum keep spouting how there's no one available. Apparently, the Knicks feel otherwise.

The fact somebody did it doesn't make it the right decision. We'll see who's in a better place next season, Knicks or Wolves.

[shrink]

Read on Twitter

And yet the Wolves shouldn't fire their coach?

New York's best run in 25 years.

Several on this forum keep spouting how there's no one available. Apparently, the Knicks feel otherwise.

I posted it here because it represents others’ positions, and could lead to better discussion.

Personally, I would fire Thibs in NYK before I’d fire Finch. With the way Thibs exhausts his starters, I think it was only dumb luck they didn’t have more injuries and a worse record, not his coaching expertise.

[Guest84]

I guess the question to ask is, "do the pros outweigh the cons" as it pertains to Finch? Without doing a deep dive, I would say yes right now. I can understand why many would want to relieve him of his duties. Although, idk if I'm quite there yet.

I say that because I think he's done great with what's been given to him. He's been given one of the lowest bball IQ teams in the whole league but has gotten them to the WCF. I don't think the roster does him any favors when it comes to game planning.

While Finch should prob take a considerable amount of blame, I think you have to give a lot of it to TC and Ant as well. Yes, TC's moves have helped turn this team into a winner but the pieces don't fit well. It just doesn't work smoothly or efficiently. They win because of talent but not necessarily by playing smart. They got to the WCF just off of talent but if they were smarter, they could've gotten to the finals.

In regards to Ant, when your leader is wishy washy and inconsistent, it bleeds throughout the team. It's almost like you get two different Ants. Against KD, LBJ, Jokic, you get the high energy, aggressive, trash talking Ant. But against Luka (first time), SGA, you got this low energy, quiet version of Ant.

Was he giving them too much respect? Did he feel like he had no chance or wasn't good enough? Does his confidence actually fluctuate unlike what he says? Is he a front-runner? Does he have to walk through the fire and feel defeat first in order to have that motivation?

I think Finch excels when he has time to game plan. However, he's not a good in-game adjuster. I think he also allows too much freedom without structure as well. However, he's forced to play guys who don't truly fit the star and I can't put that solely on him.

I wouldn't fire Finch yet but he'll prob feel the heat the after next season depending on what happens.

[KGdaBom]

Read on Twitter

And yet the Wolves shouldn't fire their coach?

New York's best run in 25 years.

Several on this forum keep spouting how there's no one available. Apparently, the Knicks feel otherwise.

The Knicks are most likely making a big mistake.

[guest81]

Because the Knicks are a model franchise for smart decisions?

In the past, clearly not. Recently, that's debatable.

At least they are showing ambition.

Do you think the Knicks are a different coach away from a championship?

[Baseline81]

Do you think the Knicks are a different coach away from a championship?

I would say the Knicks are a different coach away from reaching the NBA Finals. From there, it would depend on whom comes out of the Western Conference.

[Dewey]

TC will get something going for a 2025-2026 run

Finch will be here…

Likely we will trade for KD…

[KGdaBom]

TC will get something going for a 2025-2026 run

Finch will be here…

Likely we will trade for KD…

It's a fun idea, but I really doubt it. Make it Happen without overpaying TC.