You see that cover image?
The one ever so slightly above that title, made with David Byrnesian inspiration to be as weird as possible with the color scheme of a New Order music video? It wasn’t made for this article. It wasn’t even made this week, or this month, or this year. It was made just about three years ago. During the first year of the Rudy Gobert experience, I asked if Finch would be able to survive the fallout of a trade that big going sour.
It’s pretty easy to see how that article was shelved. A Karl-Anthony Towns injury made the first-year failure have a built-in scapegoat without needing to fire the head coach. Year two saw the first playoff series win in franchise and a run to the Western Conference Finals, leading to another seismic trade that sent Towns to New York for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, and the first-round pick that became Joan Beringer (and Keita Bates-Diop, let’s not forget him).
Ostensibly, Finch has survived enough turnover and turbulence to be locked in as the coach of this era of Minnesota Timberwolves basketball. And yet, as it is with every fanbase, whenever the on-court product is looking rough, the first change that is brought up is getting rid of the coach.
There have been many issues that can be placed at Finch’s feet, notably that the late-game failures that he once said were “baked into our DNA” have not only continued but have become this team’s calling card. It’s hard to be called an elite team when you’re only elite for about six to eight minutes a game and coast for the other 40. More importantly, it’s even harder when that handful of minutes does not come at the game’s most important moments.
Even as someone who is not the man’s biggest defender, focusing on that string of logic also undersells just how good Finch has been at other hugely important parts of basketball. It’s also equally safe to say that basketball fans straight up do not know what a coach in the NBA does. This is not high school. This is not JV. Coaches do not call plays (outside of ATOs), they are not sending signals from the sideline, and they certainly are not responsible for the entirety of a team’s on-court execution.
There’s so much more to basketball than simply running a system. While I trust Samuel L. Jackson to do almost anything well, I’m not sure Coach Carter could take these Wolves to the title.
Instead, why don’t we focus on the good and the bad of Chris Finch, and ultimately, what it means for his job security so far in the year and going forward?
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – MAY 18: Head Coach Chris Finch of the Minnesota Timberwolves during an All Access practice on May 18, 2025 at the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx Courts at Mayo Clinic Square in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images) NBAE via Getty Images
The Good: Everyone Loves Finchy
The primary duties of a coach in the NBA are largely balancing interpersonal relationships and managing substitutions.
While the latter of those two will come up in the less-than-flattering half of this piece, the first is certainly a strength of his. Chris Finch arrived from outside of the organization in the middle of a lost season, about as bad as a starting point as someone can find. Within his first year of being a part of the team, the guy who brought him in had already been fired for improper relations in the workplace. And yet, despite being associated with the organization with someone that gross, no one has really had a bad word to say about Finch.
This shines through in his relationships with players. Even the guys he gets on the most, from Anthony Edwards to Jaden McDaniels to Rob Dillingham (also to be discussed later), everyone involved has taken the criticisms in stride and responded. Edwards, in particular, has lauded the only coach he’s known in the NBA as willing to build a culture of responsibility.
It is genuinely hard to overstate how important it is to establish accountability. It’s why Ant has been able to attack not just the things that made him the first overall pick, but the things that got him compared to Dion Waiters.
In many ways, the argument for Chris Finch is largely based on what Ant has said of him and how close that relationship really is.
The good of Finch is that he has clearly never lost the locker room. Trust goes so far, and he has built so much social currency with everyone on the roster that even when his decisions turn out wrong, the team will still back what he decides the next time out. Public mutiny is rare, but public apathy is not. When teams stop trusting, they stop caring. And when teams stop caring, the whole organization craters.
Say what you will about this era of Wolves basketball, but they have never stopped caring.
PHOENIX, ARIZONA – NOVEMBER 21: Head coach Chris Finch of the Minnesota Timberwolves reacts as referee Robert Hussey #85 calls a foul on Julius Randle #30 during the second half of an NBA Cup game against the Phoenix Suns at Mortgage Matchup Center on November 21, 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Chris Coduto/Getty Images) Getty Images
The Bad: Inflexibility in Pursuit of Stability
I mentioned the collapses. I’ve mentioned the bad process. I’ve mentioned the calling of timeouts. All of those are problems with the Finchian regime. However, I think all of that can be explained in Finch’s ethos, along with how it has defined the way these Wolves have been built.
When I wrote that first version of this piece years ago, I was focused on whether someone like him could overcome the change in style that a big trade would necessitate. After two (arguably three) upheaving moves, it seems like that logic was unfounded. However, I’d argue that Finch did not change his system very much. He simply forced other players to fill the roles he already wanted.
There is nowhere where this is more evident than in the developmental approach to former eighth overall pick Rob Dillingham.
Rob entered the draft as an electric, undersized scoring guard. His pre-draft comparisons were largely players defined by their heights. From Isaiah Thomas to Kemba Walker, there was a pretty clear archetype that Dillingham fit into. He would need to be hidden on defense, but could bring an additional scoring punch off the bench or even alongside starters.
These types of players are usually given the space to grow on bad teams. The ball is placed in their hands, and the question of whether they would sink or swim rests solely on whether they can manage not to be awful within the next two or so years. Look at Trae Young or Darius Garland, famed for how truly awful they were for large parts of their rookie years.
Instead, the Wolves organization seemingly drafted Rob with the hope of turning him into a younger clone of the aging Mike Conley. In an ode to Gattaca, the Wolves have taken the ball out of their young point guard’s hand and asked him to function largely as a playmaker. The result has been disastrous both for the front office, which leveraged two substantial future picks to move into the top-10, and the player, who has seen his confidence shot within the world of quick benchings and a redshirted rookie year.
It’s the inflexibility to accept the player Dillingham was, instead forcing him to be something he’s not, that comes through in so much of the choices that Finch and his staff have made. This same approach comes through in those dreaded late-game choices. A few nights ago, Terrence Shannon Jr. shot perfectly from the field and did not finish out the game in favor of the same starters who open and close every game, no matter how well they played that night.
The jury remains out on Dillingham. Maybe he’s just not that good. Maybe a five-foot, ten-inch guard who weighs under 200 pounds cannot succeed in the NBA. Maybe successfully making him into a Conley clone would’ve saved the player from the current comparisons to someone like Nik Stauskas (ouch.)
However, this insistence that the way things have always worked is the best approach is something that Finch has unfortunately displayed time and time again. Both Conference Finals runs have been magical, but have collapsed the second the Wolves reached the final four because the man just will not adjust.
He trusts his formula. It often works. But when it doesn’t work, it looks awful, and blame is rightfully placed on him.
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – NOVEMBER 10: Head coach Chris Finch (C) talks to Anthony Edwards #5 and Donte DiVincenzo #0 of the Minnesota Timberwolves in the third quarter against the Miami Heat at Target Center on November 10, 2024 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Heat defeated the Timberwolves 95-94. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images) Getty Images
The Conclusion: Nothing’s Changing
The truth remains that Finch and the Wolves are locked to each other. Whenever the question of firing a coach comes up, the first response must be about who could possibly replace him. The popular name would be Michael Malone, the former Denver Nuggets coach who shares a colored history with both Minnesota and GM Tim Connelly.
However, last year saw the Nuggets revolt against Malone and his minutes distributions before his replacement gave the Oklahoma City Thunder their biggest challenge in the Western Conference.
The grass is not always greener, and while there is a conversation worth having about the shortcomings of Chris Finch, we first need to take a deep look at the current construction. There are no playable point guards. The shooting specialist did what every shooting specialist has done in a Wolves uniform and disappointed. The defense is entirely dependent on one player, who is simultaneously an offensive zero.
Is Finch the guy to take this team to a championship? I can promise with utmost certainty that I don’t know (I would lean no). But the bigger, much scarier question is whether or not this is a championship roster.
The answer to that is far less controversial.
The Timberwolves simply do not have the team to win a title with. As much as I wish a coaching change would fix that, it would come at the expense of a team that still believes in each other, even if some of us do not.
To disrupt that would doom the team that the fans think they would be fixing.