The Timberwolves have signed head coach Chris Finch to a multiyear contract extension, the team announced today in a press release. The assistants on Finch’s staff have also been extended.
Shams Charania and Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic (Twitter link) first reported that Finch and his coaching staff were receiving multiyear extensions. According to Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link), Finch signed a three-year deal with a fourth-year option.
A former assistant coach in Houston, Denver, New Orleans, and Toronto, Finch took the reins in Minnesota midway through the 2020/21 following Ryan Saunders‘ dismissal. He guided the Timberwolves – who got off to a 7-24 start – to a 16-25 finish last season, then helped take the club to another level in ’21/22.
Minnesota finished this season with a 46-36 record, good for seventh in the Western Conference. It’s the Wolves’ second-best record since 2004 and puts them in position to earn just their second playoff berth since then, assuming they can win a play-in game this week.
“Chris has done a tremendous job creating stability and consistency for this franchise and building a winning mentality,” the Timberwolves said in a statement attributed to their ownership group. “We look forward to supporting him throughout the years while he continues achieving the goals he and his staff have set out for the team.”
The Wolves are in the midst of an ownership transition, with Glen Taylor planning to hand majority control over to Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore in 2023. Finch’s extension – and the statement from team ownership – is a strong signal that he has the full support of Rodriguez and Lore in addition to Taylor.
NBA coaching ranks are littered with coaches who can list a position with the Timberpuppies on their resume
Eventually, this guy and his crew will be no exception
That’s how the coaching world works – there is generally a lot of turnover. Nice to have you join us in reality.
Exhibit A in combating the excuse of “Why fire mediocre Head Coach A when you might hire someone worse?”
This is the Wolves. The Wolves of all teams found themselves a very good head coach. If they can do it, anyone can. Or, rather, anyone with a competent front office that knows what traits to prioritize in a head coach search.
A clueless front-office, will go the safe route and will tend to hire coaching retreads like Gentry, Vogel, Shaw, Mike Brown.
A progressive front-office, will look around to see what actually makes for sustainable success in the league …… they go against the grain, hire relatively unknown coaches FROM known successful programs with emphasis on defense and player development.
Look at what Jenkins (Pops/Budenholzer tree), Udoka (Pops/Brett Brown tree) or Finch (Nurse tree) has done with their respective teams.
Ty Lue credits Dan Craig (Riles/Spoelstra tree) for being an integral part of whatever toughness the CLIPPERS have shown the past few seasons.
Now, there will be duds e.g. Bjorkgren, Vaughn, from time to time, but these are few and far between and it shouldn’t stop FO’s from looking into these known programs,
Teams should take a hard look at any of these, Will Hardy (SPURS), Chris Quinn (HEAT), Darvin Ham (BUCKS), Dan Craig (CLIPPERS).
Is the Brett Brown tree a thing? I think Udoka was ready already after Pops. Maybe he needed to soften his edges.
Not sure about Finch frankly. Interesting, very different from Bjorkgren. (I’ll take neither!)