Damian Lillard made it clear how he felt about the Minnesota Timberwolves passing on David Vanterpool. “How the h*** do you not hire David Vanterpool and he’s right there on the bench,” Lillard wrote on Twitter in response to Minnesota’s decision to hire Chris Finch on February 22nd, 2021.
The Timberwolves had hired Finch in response to a post-pandemic, NBA-worst 7-24. They let former head coach Ryan Saunders go after a loss in New York. Gersson Rosas hired Finch off the Toronto Raptors staff two days after the Wolves had played the Raptors at Target Center. The Timberwolves didn’t conduct any other interviews, and the NBA took notice.
Minnesota faced widespread criticism for the quick hire and not looking at qualified in-house candidates like Vanterpool. Controversy is certainly not new for the Wolves. However, the circumstances surrounding Finch’s hire elevated expectations for him to take control of a bottom-dwelling team and lead them to success.
The laundry list of adversity Finch has overcome is quite staggering. The Timberwolves let Rosas go in September 2021, just seven months after hiring Finch. They replaced him with in-house candidate Sachin Gupta, who held the PBO title until May 2022. The Wolves then made a splash and hired former Denver Nuggets GM Tim Connelly. Finch has had three bosses in his short time with the Wolves. Minnesota has overhauled the roster, too. Of Minnesota’s 15 players when Finch took over in 2021, only five remain — Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid, and Jordan McLaughlin.
Finch has also been the coach through the team sale from Glen Taylor to Mark Lorre and Alex Rodriguez. To say Finch exceeded expectations would be an understatement, given the turmoil he has had to navigate. Finch has elevated himself to potentially becoming the best coach in franchise history.
In 2023-24, Finch is at the helm of the league’s top defense, and the Wolves have the best record in the Western Conference. That statement alone could close the case that Finch is the best coach in Timberwolves history. However, there are other Wolves coaching candidates that Finch could and should be compared to.
To show the differences between a coach’s impact, it’s also essential to look analytically at the teams before and during a certain coach’s reign as head coach. Only the coaches with the highest winning percentage can reasonably compete with Finch. But a deeper look into the analytics could prove who holds the title as the best.
Based on winning percentages, we will look further into the coaches who have won 40% or more of their total games.
- Chris Finch: 55.0%
- Flip Saunders: 52.1%
- Tom Thibodeau: 47.5%
- Dwane Casey: 43.4%
- Rick Adelman: 42.2%
Finch has the best winning percentage, but there are other metrics we can use to translate across eras to compare coaches. While we should note that each coach had differences in personality and ability to develop players, the through line between them is the turmoil of leading one of the most unstable organizations in professional sports.
We will use average plus-minus per game, offensive rating ranking on average per season, defensive rating ranking on average per season, and playoff W/L to determine where Finch ranks among them.
Chris Finch (Feb. 2021-present)
- Plus/minus: +1.4 per game
- Average offense rating ranking: 16th
- Average defensive rating ranking: 13th
- Playoffs: 3-8, 2 appearances
Flip Saunders (1996-2005, 2015)
- Plus/minus: +0.72 per game
- Average offense rating ranking: 10th
- Average defensive rating ranking: 16th
- Playoffs: 17-30, 8 appearances
Tom Thibodeau (2017-19)
- Plus/minus: -0.1 per game
- Average offense rating ranking: 9th
- Average defensive rating ranking: 25th
- Playoffs: 1-4, 1 appearance
Dwayne Casey (2006-07)
- Plus/minus: -1.4 per game
- Average offense rating ranking: 26th
- Average defensive rating ranking: 16th
- Playoffs: 0 appearances
Rick Adelman (2012-14)
- Plus/minus: -0.63
- Average offense rating ranking: 18th
- Average defensive rating ranking: 16th
- Playoffs: 0 appearances
After evaluating the coaches, a couple of things become clear. First, history has a way of proving narratives true or false. Thibodeau has always been known as a defensive coach. But the Wolves were an offensive force every year with Towns, Zach LaVine, Jimmy Butler, and Andrew Wiggins, while averaging 25th in defensive rating..
Adelman made a name for himself with the Chris Webber-led Sacramento Kings in the 2000s. Adelman had a reputation for being a progressive offensive coach, using a modern-day small-ball style coupled with a spread-and-shoot offense years before the Golden State Warriors made it famous. But with the Wolves, Adelman’s teams struggled offensively despite having scorers like Kevin Love, Kevin Martin, and a floppy-haired Ricky Rubio.
Dwayne Casey took over the Wolves from Saunders and inherited a team in transition. We remember him as the coach in Kevin Garnett’s final days with the Wolves. To his credit, Casey coached an average defense and navigated the franchise through the Garnett trade.
Ultimately, the debate over the best coach in franchise history is between Flip Saunders and Finch. They are the only coaches with a positive plus-minus, ranking relatively well season to season in offense and defense. Notably, Adelman also had average offenses and defensive rankings, but the negative plus/minus is telling of the team’s overall losing records.
Between Finch and Saunders, Finch dominates the per-game plus/minus, but Saunders showed consistent offensive and defensive ratings for almost a decade. Ultimately, Finch may be the best coach in Wolves history, but the length of service of Saunders and the consistency with which he led a solid team in all facets could also make him the better coach.
As the Wolves hurdle obstacles on their way to the 2024 playoffs, the deciding factor may be how this season finishes. If Finch leads the Wolves on a deep playoff run and wins the conference finals, his resume may accomplish something Saunders never did — a trip to the Finals. Playoff success could be the deciding factor in which coach is better. Ultimately, Finch can still become the best coach in Wolves history, and it’s because he steadied a team in distress three years ago.
