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Eric WoodyardESPN
The international experience and world perspective of Minnesota Timberwolves’ newly-hired coach Chris Finch was what intrigued basketball operations president Gersson Rosas.
During Monday’s introductory press conference, Rosas welcomed the former Toronto Raptors assistant to try to turn things around after firing Ryan Saunders after Sunday’s loss to the Knicks in New York.
“The things he has trained around the world at different levels, these experiences, I think, are very relevant to our current game,” said Rosas. “We played a very international game in the NBA, and the experience that Chris has, the perspective he has, the time he was a coach outside the NBA, an assistant in the NBA too, I think those perspectives, this knowledge is really important for the our organization on both sides of the floor. “
In addition to Finch’s stops in Houston, Denver, New Orleans and Toronto as an assistant, he also served as head coach of the Rockets’ G League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, which won the 2010 championship.
Internationally, he trained in England, Germany and Belgium.
“I would like to be judged on victories and defeats. That’s what it is about,” said Finch. “It is about winning and, hopefully, we can accumulate victories over each other. In addition, we want to see the growth of our young players and develop an identity. I think if we manage to achieve all three, this is a home run, if we get two out of three, I think it’s a big step forward. “
Although the timing of the signing is not desirable, with Minnesota in the midst of a skidding four games lost while in last place in the league standings 7-24, Finch is trying to make the best of the situation.
“This is a less than ideal situation for a coach and we don’t have a summer, we don’t have a pre-season,” said Finch. “We have a consecutive fight, but this is life in some of the leagues in which I coached, and these challenges have really sharpened my determination and my ability to be prepared, and I am considering this as a major challenge now and we will find out as we go along. We will slowly discover the adjustments we need to make. “
Rosas described Sunday as a “crazy day for everyone involved”. He called the choice to dismiss Saunders “difficult”, but said the decision to make a change was made over the weekend.
The Timberwolves’ board went through the process of who would be available in the middle of the season, but was still unsure until Toronto gave permission to give Finch an interview for the new role, which took place late on Sunday afternoon. The decision to dismiss Saunders came after the defeat of the Knicks.
The deal was finalized on Monday morning.
“The decision to fire Ryan was not made until Sunday and, at that point, we were already preparing for the game and, to be fair to Ryan, those decisions take time,” said Rosas. “We spoke properly and, when we met with our leadership group, it was a process and decision that was not easy and you have a team that is going through a pandemic where there is no pause button.
“There is no stop button, there are shots and games for which we must be prepared. And we did the best we could in the time we were given.”
Rosas said he considered internal options like David Vanterpool and Pablo Prigioni on the team, but were realistic in terms of ranking in the league. Rosas didn’t think he could get the real change he needed without being “bold and straightforward with this opportunity”.
“With Chris, we have a guy here with whom we share a vision, we share a philosophy and we feel very confident about his ability to impact this team,” said Rosas. “And, unfortunately, with our struggles here over the past year and a half, the ability to change that narrative would be difficult from an internal perspective.”
“I didn’t hear much from outside comments, just because it was a real hurricane for 24 hours for me,” added Finch. “I can say that I am very excited and I enjoy every day that I have in the NBA. I live the dream ”.
The Timberwolves will face the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night.