Last year’s Minnesota Timberwolves were a fun team. They had success under second-year head coach Chris Finch that the franchise hadn’t achieved since the Kevin Garnett days. The vibes were at an all-time high, and so was their confidence. The young Wolves found that winning allowed for more fun, so they kept doing both. The players helped change the culture, especially Patrick Beverley, but Finch had a hand in it.
The Wolves used that confidence to drag themselves through the play-in and secure their first trip to the playoffs since 2017-18. Even after the gut-wrenching playoff series that ended after six games, everyone had reason to be proud of that season’s Wolves squad. Fans had reason to hope for the future after watching young star Anthony Edwards explode in the playoffs.
It’s easy to be happy as a fan while your team is successful. There’s no reason to look for people to blame if your team is winning. But what happens when adversity hits a year later?
The Wolves have regressed this season. The winning ways have faded, and the fun is slipping alongside it. It’s not fun to witness the team you watch every night lose by 20. It’s not fun to watch them play with no effort. And it’s especially no fun watching them do all that, knowing they traded four first-round picks this offseason.
It’s easy to find someone to blame in situations like these, and many Wolves fans and analysts are targeting Finch. Many people who credited Finch with last year’s success blame him for the slow start. And although Finch has overseen losing streaks in his first two years, this season’s early struggles expand far beyond Finch’s coaching. Still, he’s receiving a disproportionate amount of blame.
However, most of the blame Finch receives isn’t rooted in anything.
The Wolves have occasionally played uninspired basketball. At times, it seems like they don’t want to give any effort, nor do they care about winning. It’s a concerning development that was unexpected, considering how Minnesota played last season.
Although this was, and still is, a concerning way for the Wolves to play, it’s entirely up to the players to give effort nightly. Finch can try to inspire them with locker room speeches, but that’s typically reserved for Hollywood films. Most good teams have player-led leadership.
Many people suggest that Finch is losing the locker room, but we don’t have any evidence.
There are some legitimate gripes about Finch’s coaching style this season. One of them is his questionable usage of timeouts.
It’s a problem that stretches back to last season’s playoff series, where Finch had multiple instances of letting long runs continue for too long. The most memorable was during Minnesota’s Game 3 collapse when he allowed a 21-0 run to continue without calling a timeout. It was complete coaching malpractice, but Finch admitted fault and told the team he blew it.
However, because of Minnesota’s struggles in the playoffs last year, people over-criticize Finch for mishandling timeouts. This year, his most egregious errors occurred during Minnesota’s back-to-back games in Portland.
The first misusage came when Finch used a timeout that stopped a fast-break in the first game against the Blazers.
The second came the game later when the Wolves came storming back after getting put on their heels by a near-historic shooting night from Damian Lillard. As the Wolves reeled themselves back within ten points with 4:37 left in the third quarter, they could smell the comeback, but the Blazers had other plans. They went on a 31-15 run to put Portland up 26 without Finch calling a single timeout.
Although neither instance was perfect coaching, neither cost the Wolves the game. And Finch has expressed his thoughts on using timeouts to stop runs after last year’s Game 3 versus Memphis. “Do timeouts really stop runs? I don’t know.”
Inconsistency, lack of effort, turnovers, and poor shooting are costing the Wolves this year. Finch can’t control a single one of these, so to blame Minnesota’s slow start on him is unfair. Finch hasn’t been perfect, but neither have the players.
The Wolves are no strangers to bad coaches, but Finch isn’t one of them. Since the team’s inception in 1991, the Wolves have employed 14 different head coaches, and only two have at least a .500 record — Finch and the legendary Flip Saunders.
Finch is already one of Minnesota’s best coaches two and half seasons in. Although that’s not saying much, it’s been a great start for Finch. It’s wrong to scapegoat him, especially considering all the problems the Wolves already have.
