SHAM-WOW: "Timberwolves are hiring Raptors assistant coach Chris Finch as the new head coach"

[Danny1616]

Bjorken and Finch.. Nick Nurse starting a decent coaching tree.

For what it's worth Finch was an assistant to Nurse for all of 2 months. He was on Gentry's staff last year.

They go way back

Read on Twitter

Nurse looks younger now than he did in 2003.

[boomershadow]

Supposedly, Chris Finch was pretty close to getting the Indiana Pacers gig before going to Toronto.

[JN61]

They obviously had eyes on him for a long time. Probably a good hire no matter what likes of Stephen R. Smith say.

[Yeggo Poleggo]

Getting a coach fired is basically a championship for the Knicks.

Dead.

[flow]

Bjorken and Finch.. Nick Nurse starting a decent coaching tree.

Finch is not from Nick Nurse's "tree."

Finch has been a respected coach for decades, both here and overseas. He was most recently Alvin Gentry's #1 assistant during his time with the Pelicans. This is just his first season in Toronto.

.

[Bornstellar]

Stop picking off our people man! Smdh.

Welcome to Spurs fans world

[Klomp]

Saunders had known for several weeks that he was in trouble as the losses mounted, sources told The Athletic. Players openly wondered about Saunders’ job security and it only seemed to be a question of whether he would make it to the end of the season. The answer came not long after a 103-99 loss to the Knicks in New York on Sunday night in a meeting with Wolves President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas.

In the wake of considerable fan criticism of Saunders, Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor had resisted calls to fire the coach while star Karl-Anthony Towns was out of the lineup with COVID-19. Taylor felt that Saunders deserved a chance to coach a team built almost entirely around Towns’ versatility before making such a big decision, sources said. But the Wolves were 1-7 since Towns returned Feb. 10, prompting Taylor to sign off on the move.

https://theathletic.com/2340381/2021/02/22/ryan-saunders-fired-chris-finch-hired-timberwolves

How do you take sole responsibility for your team when an owner like Glen Taylor has to sign off on your personnel moves. I know this happens but Glen Taylor is a dope. This should tell you everything you need to know about why the Wolves are a failure decade after decade.

The owner writes the checks. He probably should have some say in paying someone to go away and then hiring a replacement.

[Foye]

I feel bad for Finch already.

First HC job and you have to deal with Rosas managing your roster.
He has been worse than David Kahn.

Saunders wasn‘t the solution. But he was never put in a position to succeed anyway with this dumpster fire of a roster that was given to him.

[Baseline81]

I feel bad for Finch already.

First HC job and you have to deal with Rosas managing your roster.
He has been worse than David Kahn.

Saunders wasn‘t the solution. But he was never put in a position to succeed anyway with this dumpster fire of a roster that was given to him.

Please explain the underline.

Kahn had two cracks at Curry but opted for Rubio and Flynn instead. Who has Rosas whiffed on? Ball? If so, a little early to claim Ball is a future HOF player and one of the best 3-point shooters the game has seen to date.

Do I need to bring up manna from heaven?

[TheZachAttack]

Very unusual to see a full time hire (as opposed to an interim) mid season.

Its obvious they wanted Finch bad.

I think they went the non-interim route to give the head coach some time to work with the roster and see what he has. They went with the interim route with Saunders and essentially lost a year and a half realizing he wasn't ready to be a competent head coach or at least that he wasn't able to take this roster, given it's talent deficiencies, and develop it on the timeline needed.

If you go Vanterpool, it's hard not to let him start the season next year given that he's paid his dues and at that point you could be looking at KAT starting to make trade rumor noise if the Wolves are still bad. In addition, Rosas is likely potentially on the chopping block... it's only fair to give Rosas a chance with his guy before he goes out given that it's obvious that Saunders was an owner pushed hire (as well as pushed by Towns to be fair).

Finch has experience creating big-centric offenses with success, has deep ties to Rosas, was Rosas's likely #1 originally (Rosas even tried to bring him on as an assistant at the beginning of this season despite hiring Saunders), and is someone that a lot of teams have looked at as someone who would be one of the next guys to get tapped from a pretty solid background.

[Foye]

I feel bad for Finch already.

First HC job and you have to deal with Rosas managing your roster.
He has been worse than David Kahn.

Saunders wasn‘t the solution. But he was never put in a position to succeed anyway with this dumpster fire of a roster that was given to him.

Please explain the underline.

Kahn had two cracks at Curry but opted for Rubio and Flynn instead. Who has Rosas whiffed on? Ball? If so, a little early to claim Ball is a future HOF player and one of the best 3-point shooters the game has seen to date.

Do I need to bring up manna from heaven?

Rosas took a flawed but at least respectable team that won 36 games and developed it into the worst team in the league while also trading away the teams future in this years top pick. Either in 2021 or 2022 he will not even get the chance to pick a top talent although the roster desperately needs an impact player.

Darko Milicic returning from his apple farm would probably improve the Timberwolves terrible interior defense right away.

I will give you the Curry part but then again - I dont think there was even a Curry available in the Rosas drafts so far. He more than likely would‘ve missed him as well.

Feels like there are more nba players on those 2010-11 and 2011/12 Timberwolves rosters that Kahn assembled than on the current one from Rosas.

[Klomp]

Feels like there are more nba players on those 2010-11 and 2011/12 Timberwolves rosters that Kahn assembled than on the current one from Rosas.

Not really

[TheZachAttack]

Good hire for Minnesota, but I have a relatively scathing opinion of the people scapegoating Coach Saunders. Just unnuanced takes, but people on the Minnesota board have already heard me explain that on numerous occasions.

The hire will absolutely improve the team, so that's cool, I just wish people would actually look at the unwinnable circumstances Minnesota has endured over the past two seasons.

Wish Ryan the best, he will get another opportunity in half a decade or so; beyond being a good guy, he has the capacity of being a solid coach, in less absurd circumstances.

What are the absurd circumstances? I know your owner is horrible - do you think KAT needs to be moved potentially and just start over?

The Timberwolves have never had anything remotely close to a healthy team under the Saunders era. For example, Towns has missed the majority of the last 2 seasons with injuries like getting hit by a drunk driver (and almost dying), covid, 7 of his family members dying, and falling on his wrist. D lo has now been injured most of this season and will miss 80% of this year. It's been over a year since the trade happened and Towns and D lo have played a total of 90 minutes together. The Wolves will likely start next season over a year and half post-trade and have the two players they wanted to try to build around have 90 total minutes. The year before the Wolves second best player, Covington, was out for the whole season basically with a freak injury.

The Wolves last season had one of the worst rosters to begin the season in the league (just go look at the depth chart to begin the season). The Wolves added a decent amount of talent with the D lo and Beasley trade to actually have a roster fit their system, but then Towns went down and a week or two later covid hit. The Wolves missed the bubble... all of their players had like 10 months off from organized basketball because of the bubble and everything that followed with COVID, followed by a shortened training camp, followed by more injuries to the Wolves best players.

The Wolves are also the youngest team in the league. It's almost impossible to succeed with an extremely young team, a lack of quality rotation players (not his fault), constant injuries to the teams best 2 or 3 players that the system is around, and a lack of ability to practice as a team for 10+ months.

I don't think Saunders was the solution and he made a number of mistakes (mostly just compounding execution issues from the reasons above in the 4th quarter and late game situations), but it's not hard to see he kinda had one of the worst year and a half stretches for a coach that you could have.

[Foye]

Feels like there are more nba players on those 2010-11 and 2011/12 Timberwolves rosters that Kahn assembled than on the current one from Rosas.

Not really

Optimistic take for a roster where more than half the players are below 43% in the field goal percentage while the league average is 46%.

[Klomp]

Feels like there are more nba players on those 2010-11 and 2011/12 Timberwolves rosters that Kahn assembled than on the current one from Rosas.

Not really

Optimistic take for a roster where more than half the players are below 43% in the field goal percentage while the league average is 46%.

I've never argued that the offense isn't bad right now.

[TheAlanParsons]

I feel bad for Finch already.

First HC job and you have to deal with Rosas managing your roster.
He has been worse than David Kahn.

Saunders wasn‘t the solution. But he was never put in a position to succeed anyway with this dumpster fire of a roster that was given to him.

Please explain the underline.

Kahn had two cracks at Curry but opted for Rubio and Flynn instead. Who has Rosas whiffed on? Ball? If so, a little early to claim Ball is a future HOF player and one of the best 3-point shooters the game has seen to date.

Do I need to bring up manna from heaven?

At least Kahn provided us with ample lulz.

[Quentin]

I think the DLo for Wiggins and their pick could be a disaster. Still not sure why the Wolves did that deal. Should have made the pick top 5 protected at least. They lose the pick this year and Rosas will look like a complete idiot.

[Buzzard]

I am glad they did not look at the proven vet coaching pool. Hawks assistant McMillan and former Nets Coach Atkinson are my two front runners should the Hawks part ways with Lloyd Pierce.

[mcgrady_1]

They obviously had eyes on him for a long time. Probably a good hire no matter what likes of Stephen R. Smith say.

For real though. This is quickly starting to become a race thing.

[kodo]

Feels like there are more nba players on those 2010-11 and 2011/12 Timberwolves rosters that Kahn assembled than on the current one from Rosas.

Not really

Optimistic take for a roster where more than half the players are below 43% in the field goal percentage while the league average is 46%.

Will be interesting what Finch can do.
A coaching change took the Bulls from the 26th in TS% last season to 7th this year, with an identical roster.