‘Less Is More’: How Chris Finch Guided the Timberwolves Back to the Playoffs

The newly extended coach has played a notable role in Minnesota’s return to relevance this season.

Before the three-point revolution came to the NBA, before Karl-Anthony Towns staked his claim as the greatest shooting big man of all time, Chris Finch was working on the future of the sport across the Atlantic.

From 1997 to 2003, the Timberwolves coach led the Sheffield Sharks of the British Basketball League, earning two Coach of the Year awards with a rag-tag group of undersized bigs and speedy sharpshooters. Finch didn’t necessarily know he was taking part in the game’s transformation as he worked to build a winner in Europe.

“The reason we played that way is because it’s all we could afford,” Finch says. “We played in a hyperefficient system, but at the time I had never seen the math. It’s just what made sense for us.”

Finch, now 52, wasn’t eyeing a spot on an NBA bench as he logged coaching stints in England and Belgium. He landed his first coaching gig with Sheffield after playing for the club for four seasons, ending a playing career Finch says “was going nowhere fast.” The transition to coaching was rocky in spurts—Finch noted he could be “moody” and “overly emotional”—though success came quickly as the Sharks won the BBL Cup in 1999 and 2000. Finch viewed the international game as a potential route to collegiate coaching, where he could conceivably climb the ranks from Division III or NAIA schools to Division I programs. But one former NBA executive changed that plan in a hurry.

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Sam Hinkie can take at least some credit for Finch’s current spot at the end of Minnesota’s bench. The Process architect in Philadelphia spent nearly a decade as an executive in Houston from 2005 to ’13, with the organization’s G League (then–D-League) team serving as somewhat of a pet project for the Stanford graduate and advanced analytics acolyte. The Rockets used their team in Rio Grande Valley as an experiment for their theories on offensive efficiency, where threes and pace reigned supreme. In Finch, Hinkie found a fellow mad scientist.

The pair met at Summer League in 2009 as Finch made a trip stateside for an interim stint with the Mavericks. A brief recruiting ensued, in which Hinkie and Artūras Karnišovas—now the lead executive in Chicago—detailed their plans for a case study on the future of offense. Finch was an easy sell for the Rockets’ unique approach, and he joined the organization shortly after the meeting in Las Vegas.

Rio Grande Valley led the D-League in threes attempted over Finch’s two years coaching the team, and it led the league in offensive rating by a considerable margin in 2009–10. Finch says the success was anything but an accident. He credits the Rockets’ “alignment and vision” for the program’s ability to churn out quality players and coaches at the G League level, where Finch and Raptors coach Nick Nurse—a longtime confidant—are among the notable alumni. The southern tip of Texas is home to one of the NBA’s great development pipelines this century, providing Finch with a sort of secondary school as he continued his coaching odyssey.

“It was a very connected environment,” Finch says of his time with the Rockets. “Here I am as a G League coach, and not only am I learning how to be a good coach, I’m getting to learn the inner workings of a front office. I’m learning player evaluations, long-term visions for roster building. That perspective was just terrific to gain.”

It would take another decade for Finch to move from the D-League to the top of an NBA staff. He worked as an assistant in Houston from 2011 to ’15 before assuming the associate head coach role in Denver, where he helped design an offense to best complement Nikola Jokic’s burgeoning genius. He was working alongside Nurse—a former rival and confidant in the BBL—in Toronto when he received a call from Minnesota in February ’21. The offer of a lifetime stood ahead of Finch, though it came in complex circumstances.

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The Timberwolves brought in Finch as a midseason hire in place of Ryan Saunders, who was let go during his third season with the franchise. Many assumed an interim head coach role would then be given to David Vanterpool, who had been with Minnesota since the start of the 2019 season. The bypassing of Vanterpool continued a trend across both the NBA and professional sports writ large, in which Black coaching candidates are often denied opportunities given to their white peers.

The criticism of Finch’s hire was swift. Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum both called out the Timberwolves for their decision not to hire Vanterpool. The NBA Coaches Association released a statement on Finch’s receiving the role, noting its “disappointment” with the hiring process. Finch didn’t address the controversy with his new players in Minnesota, though he did speak with Vanterpool as he “tried to understand what a hard and difficult situation it must have been.” From there, it was time for Finch to prove himself worthy of the new opportunity.

“The best way for me to handle the situation was for me to prove I was worthy,” Finch says. “I wanted to prove I had a vision for what this team could be.”

Finch’s arrival didn’t coincide with an immediate turnaround for the then–Western Conference cellar dwellers. He says he spent his first weeks with the organization in “evaluation mode,” assessing a roster that, while struggling, was not bereft of talent. Minnesota limped out to an 0–5 start in Finch’s first five games, but the coming weeks brought confidence for his tenure. Minnesota posted the NBA’s 10th-best net rating in its final 35 contests and closed the regular season at a 9–7 clip. The tumult of Finch’s first week turned to optimism as the outline of a playoff team began to take shape.

“He earned our respect organically, the right way,” Towns says. “He was able to prove himself first on the floor, being a mastermind on both offense and defense.”

Minnesota’s coach provides a simple explanation for his team’s success—as well as his recent contract extension—in 2021–22 ahead of Tuesday’s play-in matchup against the Clippers. “We have some incredibly talented players here,” Finch says. “I’m usually just trying to stay out of their way.”

The quip is made with more than a hint of self-deprecation, but it’s frankly revealing about the philosophy of Minnesota’s coach. Finch isn’t one to bark out a stream of sets from the sideline, domineering each possession with a list of strident rules. Instead, Finch prefers to funnel actions through his trio of leading scorers (Towns, Anthony Edwards and D’Angelo Russell), often leaning on Towns as a primary fulcrum in isolation or pick-and-roll opportunities.

The numbers match Finch’s philosophy. Minnesota finished No. 6 in total isolation possessions this season. It finished No. 6 in pace, and only the Jazz and Warriors launched threes at a more prolific clip. Finch is no longer reimagining the sport as he did with Sheffield, though his current team remains well on the right side of the league’s efficiency matrix. The freedom Finch provides has brought out the best in his top players.

“Less is more,” Finch says. “The way I grew up in coaching, there are a few things I usually try to remember. Trust the players, play fast, and shoot a lot of threes.”

Finch’s schematic skills earned him the necessary respect in Minnesota’s locker room last season. This year featured a more personal connection. Towns refers to Finch as a “genuine friend,” highlighting hours of FaceTime conversations featuring Finch, Towns and the center’s extended family. Minnesota guard Jordan McLaughlin chuckles at his coach’s competitive streak during post-practice shooting competitions, in which Finch recently engaged in some light trash talk after hitting a half-court shot. Finch is a skilled tactician. He’s meticulous in his preparation. Yet what’s endeared Finch to this current Minnesota group isn’t necessarily his schemes. It’s his character.

“He’s worked to build real relationships with each of us,” Towns says. “I think we can all genuinely call him a friend of ours. He respects us and understands our words, and we know what he wants from us.”

Finch has played a notable role in the franchise’s return to relevance this season, where Minnesota hopes to win a playoff series for the first time since Kevin Garnett was banging his head against the Target Center stanchion. And while a run to the Finals this summer would be a downright shock, it’s not out of the question for Finch and the Timberwolves to stand as a Western Conference contender throughout the 2020s. Minnesota sports a roster flush with talent. Finch believes the best is yet to come.

“We know we’re a long way off from where we ultimately want to be,” Finch says. “But we’ve laid the groundwork to get to the right place.”