T-wolves replace Saunders with Finch after 7-24 start
MINNEAPOLIS — For the 10th time in the past 15 years, the Minnesota Timberwolves have a new head coach.
Toronto assistant Chris Finch was introduced Monday as the replacement for Ryan Saunders, who was fired the night before with the team carrying the NBA’S worst record (7-24).
“We have excellent pieces in place, and I can’t wait to get to work,“Finch said in a statement distributed by the Timberwolves, before he was scheduled to meet the team in Milwaukee prior to playing there Tuesday.
President of basketball operations Gersson Rosas made the change on the bench to the 51-year-old Finch, who was in his first season with the Raptors. They worked together in Houston, where Finch was an assistant (2011-16) and Rosas was a basketball operations executive.
“He is one of the most creative basketball minds in the NBA, has success maximizing players, and I am excited to see him bring our team to the next level and beyond,” Rosas said.
Finch has 24 years of coaching experience, roughly half of that in Europe. The two-time NCAA Division III All-american at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania played for the Sheffield Sharks in the British Basketball League and later coached the same team from 1997-2003. Finch also coached Britain’s national team in the 2012 Olympics.
The midseason move from one team’s staff to another is rare, an obvious sign that Rosas had his former colleague in mind for awhile. What’s not uncommon, though, is the Timberwolves switching head coaches amid persistent struggles.
Saunders, 34, went 43-94 after taking over on an interim basis on Jan. 6, 2019, when Tom Thibodeau was fired. When Rosas was hired to run the front office four months later, he kept Saunders as the full-time coach, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, Saunders never had a full season.
The injuries, trades and COVID-19 protocols that shuffled and diluted the rosters appeared to be insurmountable impediments to success for Saunders, but blown late-game leads were far too common. Even since star Karl-anthony Towns recently returned, after recovering from COVID-19, the Timberwolves are 1-6.
Saunders is the son of the late Flip Saunders, by far the winningest coach in team history and the only one beside Thibodeau (2018) to take the Timberwolves to the playoffs. Ryan Saunders ranks seventh out of 13 on the all-time winning percentage list for the woebegone franchise, ahead of Bill Musselman, Randy Wittman, Bill Blair, Sidney Lowe, Kurt Rambis and Jimmy Rodgers.