The Wolves make the move they had to make
You’re going to hear this over and over for the next few days, so I won’t belabor it, but it is worth saying: Ryan Saunders is good people. An A+ human being, as a son, husband, dad and friend. That shouldn’t be diminished in all of this.
That said, he is not a good NBA coach. At least not yet. In this case, the youth very definitely came with a lack of experience.
The Timberwolves should have a dozen wins or so right now. San Antonio, Orlando, Memphis, Atlanta, Toronto, New York - all games the Wolves could have easily won. Some of them they quite literally had all but won. Then lost, and all of those losses can be directly attributed to terrible coaching decisions. Missed timeouts. Bad after-timeout plays. Taking out lineups that had it rolling for lineups that were already proven ineffective. Completely busted play calling - when veterans like Rubio and Ed Davis are lost, that’s a major red flag.
At a minimum, Glen Taylor wanted to wait until Karl-Anthony Towns returned before making a decision on Saunders. Ideally, he would have liked to have seen KAT and D’Angelo Russell together, first. But then DLo needed surgery, and the Wolves went 1-7 in KAT’s comeback. The offense remained broken, with the Wolves failing to top 100 points or 40% shooting in the last two games, and the decision making remained indecipherable. And Ryan’s professed preference for coaching a team led by Rubio instead of Russell ended up going against him. He had the lineup he wanted - Rubio, Beasley, Edwards, Vanderbilt and Towns - and the losses kept coming.
The Wolves needed- and still need - top tier coaching in the worst way this season, for a number of reasons
they need to develop their young guys as fast as possible, particularly Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels who have both shown elite talent
they need to win games to avoid handing a high draft pick to the Warriors
they need to win games to prove to KAT he can win here
It’s surprising that the Wolves are doing this now. Hiring outside the organization is exceedingly rare midseason - the last time it happened I believe was way back in 2009, when the Memphis Grizzlies hired Lionel Hollins in late January. The Saunders name is synonymous with basketball in Minnesota. Glen has watched Ryan grow up since he was a toddler, and the Saunders family still holds a trust that has a minority ownership stake in the team. And with DLo out, Glen had a built in excuse to procrastinating a decision, which he prefers to do.
But it became clear Ryan Saunders was just not ready for the captain’s chair. He would often say the Wolves didn’t have plays, they had concepts. Unfortunately that can’t be a literal thing as a head coach. From an antagonistic relationship with DLo, to dustups with the assistants that began spilling onto the court, to just the general lack of structure or direction, it was obvious this was simply not going to work with Ryan at the wheel.
Chris Finch goes way back with Gersson Rosas. Finch was the head coach of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Rockets’ GLeague affiliate, when Rosas was an assistant GM for the Rockets and the GM for the Vipers. They ended up winning two conference titles and a GLeague championship together, and set the stage for Rosas’ deep belief in the GLeague system that has netted the Wolves Naz Reid, Jordan McLaughlin, Jaylen Nowell, and Jarred Vanderbilt. Finch then became an assistant coach with the Rockets, as part of the group that elevated James Harden into an MVP.
During this time, Finch also built a close relationship with Nick Nurse. Nurse in fact succeeded Finch as head coach of the Vipers (after, ironically, coming over from Iowa, who were at that time the Energy). They also coached the UK Men’s team at the 2012 Olympics together.
Finch then coached under Mike Malone in Denver, were he was instrumental in building the offense that has turned Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray into stars. A year with the Pelicans, then Toronto with Nurse again this year.
All in all, Finch’s career path has closely mirrored Nurse’s, which sounds pretty good. His time in Denver also stands out. Jokic and Murray are two uniquely, supremely skilled players who lack burst.
Jokic is a great shooter for a center and an all-timer as a facilitator who lacks real verticality. Towns is a historically great shooter and highly skilled, underrated passer who also lacks major hops. Murray is an elite shooter who lacks a great first step in isolation. DLo is also an elite shooter and master strategist in the pick and roll who lacks burst. Finch will be working with two player types, at two positions, he’s already intimately familiar with, and for whom he laid the groundwork to superstardom.
The Wolves will take criticism for how they handled Ryan’s dismissal, lining up a long term replacement for him, mid-season, on a game night without notification. They’ve also taken criticism for not elevating David Vanterpool at least to the interim position.
It’s warranted. The Wolves only have themselves to blame for this situation. For not firing Thibs in the offseason as they should have when the Jimmy Butler situation blew up. For not allowing Rosas to hire Finch immediately as he wanted to when he was brought in. For giving Vanterpool the Associate Head Coach tag in the first place.
But ultimately, hiring Chris Finch is the right decision. He’s on the same page as the front office, has a long history learning from and with elite coaches - Kevin McHale (a subpar GM, but yes, a great coach) Mike Malone, Nick Nurse - and has a proven track record of elevating players analogous to the two most important Wolves.
Finch is highly regarded around the league, and would have been highly sought after this offseason. The Wolves made a mess of things with the timing and execution of all this, but they got the right guy in the end.
