***Official Chris Finch -Wolves Head Coach Thread***

[Beef Supreme]

Oops

[twolves31]

I will put some blame on Finch, but its for his lack of structure and letting guys who get flustered run the show. The players are always thinking home run, all or nothing type plays. We get up and then start running ball pounding ISO garbage that gets us bad shots, so the next time down the court we double down on the same mentality. Just tonight he was asked about Towns taking more 3's and basically said the players just do what they want. If they are good at it, fine, but when theres a repetitive issue that costs you games you need to take control and call plays.

My only hope is that this is their first time in the playoffs, and they are pretty young. Hopefully experiencing this will help them learn and grow. But I worry it will be like when Thibs made Wiggins a primary ball handler.

it's been that way all year. they don't know how to take the air out of the ball and run something deliberate on the offensive end. you seen it play out again tonight in the 4th quarter. the last two minutes were terrible. after KAT hits that three you have to be more deliberate on the offensive end.

They were deliberate, they just didnt produce a good shot. I dont care if theres 20 on the shot clock, if you can generate a layup or dunk you take it. Run offense and see if they will just give up the freebies, if you havent gotten an edge by the time theres 10 on the clock, THEN throw it to Edwards/Dlo and tell them to iso. We just stop running anything, maybe a handoff or two but nothing really intended to generate a score. We cross mid court with 17 on the clock, then proceed to do nothing to generate a shot for the next 12 seconds, until whoever has the ball takes a pull up 3 or drives and falls down. Now thats fine if thats all the defense gave you, so long as you at least tried something else during those first 20 seconds. But we just rely on that and its effective 1/4 of the time, its not what gets us the leads in the first place.

I was watching the Boston game last night, and the announcers were saying the same thing, that Boston was trying to run the clock out taking shots at the last 2nd and not taking good shots that let the Nets come back.

[weimy froob]

I will put some blame on Finch, but its for his lack of structure and letting guys who get flustered run the show. The players are always thinking home run, all or nothing type plays. We get up and then start running ball pounding ISO garbage that gets us bad shots, so the next time down the court we double down on the same mentality. Just tonight he was asked about Towns taking more 3's and basically said the players just do what they want. If they are good at it, fine, but when theres a repetitive issue that costs you games you need to take control and call plays.

My only hope is that this is their first time in the playoffs, and they are pretty young. Hopefully experiencing this will help them learn and grow. But I worry it will be like when Thibs made Wiggins a primary ball handler.

it's been that way all year. they don't know how to take the air out of the ball and run something deliberate on the offensive end. you seen it play out again tonight in the 4th quarter. the last two minutes were terrible. after KAT hits that three you have to be more deliberate on the offensive end.

They were deliberate, they just didnt produce a good shot. I dont care if theres 20 on the shot clock, if you can generate a layup or dunk you take it. Run offense and see if they will just give up the freebies, if you havent gotten an edge by the time theres 10 on the clock, THEN throw it to Edwards/Dlo and tell them to iso. We just stop running anything, maybe a handoff or two but nothing really intended to generate a score. We cross mid court with 17 on the clock, then proceed to do nothing to generate a shot for the next 12 seconds, until whoever has the ball takes a pull up 3 or drives and falls down. Now thats fine if thats all the defense gave you, so long as you at least tried something else during those first 20 seconds. But we just rely on that and its effective 1/4 of the time, its not what gets us the leads in the first place.

i'm thinking specifically of two ANT shot selections. one was a quick three and the other was that put back after a miss. on the second one it just made sense to bring the ball out and set up the offense again. you take time off the clock with the lead and work to get a good shot/foul.

they are pretty bad at just running the clock down and trying to score in end of the half/game situations though.

i think finch's big mistake in this series has been his shortening of the bench. Jmac/nowell/monroe playing some minutes in game three and nowell/monroe tonight would have gotten them at least one more W--and maybe even closed it out tonight. that's on top of all the other minutia you could criticize when blowing two 20 plus point leads in one game and an 11 point lead in the 4th tonight.

if you want to point fingers that's the first guy i'm pointing one at.

[jodaman01]

it's been that way all year. they don't know how to take the air out of the ball and run something deliberate on the offensive end. you seen it play out again tonight in the 4th quarter. the last two minutes were terrible. after KAT hits that three you have to be more deliberate on the offensive end.

They were deliberate, they just didnt produce a good shot. I dont care if theres 20 on the shot clock, if you can generate a layup or dunk you take it. Run offense and see if they will just give up the freebies, if you havent gotten an edge by the time theres 10 on the clock, THEN throw it to Edwards/Dlo and tell them to iso. We just stop running anything, maybe a handoff or two but nothing really intended to generate a score. We cross mid court with 17 on the clock, then proceed to do nothing to generate a shot for the next 12 seconds, until whoever has the ball takes a pull up 3 or drives and falls down. Now thats fine if thats all the defense gave you, so long as you at least tried something else during those first 20 seconds. But we just rely on that and its effective 1/4 of the time, its not what gets us the leads in the first place.

i'm thinking specifically of two ANT shot selections. one was a quick three and the other was that put back after a miss. on the second one it just made sense to bring the ball out and set up the offense again. you take time off the clock with the lead and work to get a good shot/foul.

they are pretty bad at just running the clock down and trying to score in end of the half/game situations though.

i think finch's big mistake in this series has been his shortening of the bench. Jmac/nowell/monroe playing some minutes in game three and nowell/monroe tonight would have gotten them at least one more W--and maybe even closed it out tonight. that's on top of all the other minutia you could criticize when blowing two 20 plus point leads in one game and an 11 point lead in the 4th tonight.

if you want to point fingers that's the first guy i'm pointing one at.

100%

He learned to have better usage of this time outs, now he needs to figure out how to design reliable plays to run that can grind out a win.

[somuchyummy]

the rebounding woes - and specifically against clarke - are driven by the players. finch isn't out there playing. but finch should be REALLY focusing on the clarke problem, and my guess is that he's not. by that i mean i bet he's saying "clarke's killing us on the boards. get a body on him". that's obviously not enough - finch should be doing more to focus on problem/solution.

all nba players these days are guilty of lazy rebounding. they are used to seeing a shot go up and then going to the basket with no other thought than "if it's a rebound, i should get it". most of the time you see them - and it's all of them - standing nearly upright, arms bent at the elbow with their hands poised and ready about armpit height. and that works when everyone has similar verticals. but it doesn't work against a freak like clarke. he simply has a much better ability in that situation to jump remarkably higher than the average big bear to control the rebound. for example, i think clarke's standing vert is nearly a foot better than KAT's and naz's. so you can see wolves bigs (all of them) make a cursory attempt to box out clarke, but then they invariably turn and go to the basket in case they might get the board. the only guy i saw focus on just boxing out clarke last night was jaden on one play - and then it was a long bounce and clarke went over him to tap it out anyway. but at least jaden "got" the concept.

if finch can specifically hammer into the heads of our bigs the need to box out clarke and ONLY box him out and do it before he gets his position under the hoop - let someone else get the actual rebound - we could turn it around. it doesn't show up on any stat sheets, but it in fact could win us a game because clarke's offensive boards have been killers to us. right now he's just been walking unimpeded to the scrum under the basket and then simply outjumping everyone. and then, the fact that he again uses that great bounce to elevate above any shotblocker on a putback - plus the fact that he's super accurate on those - makes it absolutely necessary to shut him down on offensive rebounds. he's scored 56 points in the past three games. how many plays have they run for him in that time? two? maybe?

[weimy froob]

here's another coaching decision that finch made that i disagreed with at the time--and i mentioned it in the game thread. i wish he would have kept ANT in the game when the team had the double digit lead in the 4th quarter. the unit he had on the floor at the time was taking it to the grizzlies. he took him out and they started to begin their comeback.

we'll never know what would have happened. he might have picked up his sixth foul right away--but i would have rolled the dice and kept him in the game.

[T_J]

it's been that way all year. they don't know how to take the air out of the ball and run something deliberate on the offensive end. you seen it play out again tonight in the 4th quarter. the last two minutes were terrible. after KAT hits that three you have to be more deliberate on the offensive end.

They were deliberate, they just didnt produce a good shot. I dont care if theres 20 on the shot clock, if you can generate a layup or dunk you take it. Run offense and see if they will just give up the freebies, if you havent gotten an edge by the time theres 10 on the clock, THEN throw it to Edwards/Dlo and tell them to iso. We just stop running anything, maybe a handoff or two but nothing really intended to generate a score. We cross mid court with 17 on the clock, then proceed to do nothing to generate a shot for the next 12 seconds, until whoever has the ball takes a pull up 3 or drives and falls down. Now thats fine if thats all the defense gave you, so long as you at least tried something else during those first 20 seconds. But we just rely on that and its effective 1/4 of the time, its not what gets us the leads in the first place.

i'm thinking specifically of two ANT shot selections. one was a quick three and the other was that put back after a miss. on the second one it just made sense to bring the ball out and set up the offense again. you take time off the clock with the lead and work to get a good shot/foul.

they are pretty bad at just running the clock down and trying to score in end of the half/game situations though.

i think finch's big mistake in this series has been his shortening of the bench. Jmac/nowell/monroe playing some minutes in game three and nowell/monroe tonight would have gotten them at least one more W--and maybe even closed it out tonight. that's on top of all the other minutia you could criticize when blowing two 20 plus point leads in one game and an 11 point lead in the 4th tonight.

if you want to point fingers that's the first guy i'm pointing one at.

Everyone shortens their bench in the playoffs. I’d rather have semi gassed guys playing 40 minutes than Greg F’n Monroe. There are so many breaks in these games with all the timeouts that it’s the same thing as guys getting their regular season blow. There’s good reason those guys aren’t getting minutes and it’s because they are much worse than our top 7-8 guys.

[weimy froob]

Jmac was a DNP in game three. was prince hurt tonight? nowell only played in garbage time and monroe looked functional in his minutes--he just didn't get very many of them. those are all coaching decisions.

let alone the collapses where he wasn't able to rally his team. a tough series for him too.

[jffl_commish]

Finch has some major improving to do this offseason. Still miles better than Flip Jr.

[weimy froob]

Finch has some major improving to do this offseason. Still miles better than Flip Jr.

sometimes this team gets so undisciplined on the offensive end that it seems like it's as difficult as herding cats to get them to run an offensive set. he needs to identify when that happens faster. was too late with a TO last night imo.

i felt like his biggest mistakes in this series was keeping nowell on the bench for the series and keeping Jmac on the bench in game three. i think there's a game seven or this series is over in the t-wolves favor if they played.

also was prince hurt last night?

[shoteh]

Gotta bump up this thread. Finch came in with Zone and that made a difference this last game.

Next step, try NAZ , Kat, Rudy together once.

[Moses Scurry]

Winningest coach in Wolves history and it just keeps climbing!

[flexbuffchest]

Wolves by quarter

23-24

1Q: +0.1 net rating
2Q: +8.9 net rating
3Q: +15.7 net rating
4Q: +4.1 net rating
OT: +38.2 net rating (1 game though )

22-23

1Q: +4.9 net rating
2Q: +1.7 net rating
3Q: -4.4 net rating
4Q: -0.8 net rating
OT: -26.5 net rating

What a turn around a year makes. Gotta give credit where credit is due. Finch may have a weakness when it comes to calling timely time outs but his half time adjustments this year have been incredible. Very encouraging to see him improve in that area.

All coaches have flaws but at the end of the day...if he keeps improving on his weaknesses year after year he deserves to stay.

[Beef Supreme]

A LOT less iso/hero ball this year. They’re playing a lot more connected as a team.

[SHAFA]

A LOT less iso/hero ball this year. They’re playing a lot more connected as a team.

And a huge part of that can be credited to Conley. As big a year that Gobert is having, Conley is right there given his intelligence and ability to give structure to the offense.

[Beef Supreme]

A LOT less iso/hero ball this year. They’re playing a lot more connected as a team.

And a huge part of that can be credited to Conley. As big a year that Gobert is having, Conley is right there given his intelligence and ability to give structure to the offense.

For sure. The upgrade from Russell that Conley represents can’t be understated. But that tells me that this is what Finchy always wanted and Russell wasn’t doing it. Minnesota Mike probably didn’t have enough time to pick up what finch wanted to do on the fly last year so they kept it going. Kudos to Finchy and Connelly for making the trade.

[Lightning]

Finch's 30-13 > Adrian Griffins 30-13??

[shoteh]

Why is Finch not playing guys like TBJ when he did pretty well for us down that stretch last month? In my opinion TBJ needs some minutes during these cold stretches.

[weimy froob]

[SHAFA]

Honest question - given what the All Star game has turned into in recent years, do coaches assigned actually benefit from the experience? Other than managing minutes and substitutions, I mean, the players don't really give a shit about gameplans.

[PanicWolf]

I think it’s great for Finch and co to just create relationships with the all stars.

[aztimberwolves]

Not sure who’s correct ESPN or Al Horton. Espn says Wolves need to win both tomorrow night and Sunday to clinch the coaching honor. It says if we split, and thunder win both, their coach gets it.

[Catalyst]

Not sure who’s correct ESPN or Al Horton. Espn says Wolves need to win both tomorrow night and Sunday to clinch the coaching honor. It says if we split, and thunder win both, their coach gets it.

At the moment we are one game ahead. So if we split and they win both games, we should then be tied and we win the tie breaker.

[weimy froob]

Not sure who’s correct ESPN or Al Horton. Espn says Wolves need to win both tomorrow night and Sunday to clinch the coaching honor. It says if we split, and thunder win both, their coach gets it.

At the moment we are one game ahead. So if we split and they win both games, we should then be tied and we win the tie breaker.

yep. based on better conference record. i don't actually know what the conference records are--but i'm trusting alan on that one.

[Jimi_Thing]

Not sure who’s correct ESPN or Al Horton. Espn says Wolves need to win both tomorrow night and Sunday to clinch the coaching honor. It says if we split, and thunder win both, their coach gets it.

At the moment we are one game ahead. So if we split and they win both games, we should then be tied and we win the tie breaker.

yep. based on better conference record. i don't actually know what the conference records are--but i'm trusting alan on that one.

OKC has a better division record than MN. 10-3 OKC vs. 6-2 MN

MN has a better conference record than OKC. 23-8 MN vs. 21-11

Not sure how the tie breakers for the All-Star game.

[weimy froob]

At the moment we are one game ahead. So if we split and they win both games, we should then be tied and we win the tie breaker.

yep. based on better conference record. i don't actually know what the conference records are--but i'm trusting alan on that one.

OKC has a better division record than MN. 10-3 OKC vs. 6-2 MN

MN has a better conference record than OKC. 23-8 MN vs. 21-11

Not sure how the tie breakers for the All-Star game.

Alan Horton
@WolvesRadio
A win Friday vs. Magic and Chris Finch & his staff will coach the Western Conference All-Star team. Teams with the best record in each conference 2 weeks before the All-Star Game send their coach. MIN owns 2nd tiebreaker over OKC, better conference record.

[salamander]

yep. based on better conference record. i don't actually know what the conference records are--but i'm trusting alan on that one.

OKC has a better division record than MN. 10-3 OKC vs. 6-2 MN

MN has a better conference record than OKC. 23-8 MN vs. 21-11

Not sure how the tie breakers for the All-Star game.

Alan Horton
@WolvesRadio
A win Friday vs. Magic and Chris Finch & his staff will coach the Western Conference All-Star team. Teams with the best record in each conference 2 weeks before the All-Star Game send their coach. MIN owns 2nd tiebreaker over OKC, better conference record.

What's the 1st tiebreaker?

[Jimi_Thing]

OKC has a better division record than MN. 10-3 OKC vs. 6-2 MN

MN has a better conference record than OKC. 23-8 MN vs. 21-11

Not sure how the tie breakers for the All-Star game.

Alan Horton
@WolvesRadio
A win Friday vs. Magic and Chris Finch & his staff will coach the Western Conference All-Star team. Teams with the best record in each conference 2 weeks before the All-Star Game send their coach. MIN owns 2nd tiebreaker over OKC, better conference record.

What's the 1st tiebreaker?

Head to head record.

[salamander]

Alan Horton
@WolvesRadio
A win Friday vs. Magic and Chris Finch & his staff will coach the Western Conference All-Star team. Teams with the best record in each conference 2 weeks before the All-Star Game send their coach. MIN owns 2nd tiebreaker over OKC, better conference record.

What's the 1st tiebreaker?

Head to head record.

Gotcha. Thank you sir.

[PanicWolf]

How does Doc Rivers get the East coaching spot?

Send Finch to the All Star game!