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3 things to know about new Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch

By Ben Beecken

This isn't Chris Finch, it's the man who hired him, Minnesota Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas and rookie Anthony Edwards. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
This isn't Chris Finch, it's the man who hired him, Minnesota Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas and rookie Anthony Edwards. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images) /
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Minnesota Timberwolves, Karl-Anthony Towns
Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves defends against Nikola Jokic. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images) /

In Denver, Chris Finch was tasked with figuring out a way for the Nuggets to use 21-year-old big man Nikola Jokic, who wasn’t yet considered a budding star.

Back in 2016-17, Jokic was coming off of an up-and-down rookie campaign and the Nuggets had just gone 33-49 in Mike Malone’s first year at the helm.

Finch took Jokic and made him the focal point of the offense, as noted in this fantastic breakdown at Indy Corn Rows. The Nuggets wing pieces were a combination of aging (Jameer Nelson, Wilson Chandler) and young and inexperienced (rookies Jamal Murray and Malik Beasley) while the frontcourt, led by Jokic, Kenneth Faried, and Danilo Gallinari was the strength of the team.

The Nuggets started mixing in 5-out sets, allowing Jokic to survey the defense and find open cutters and shooters. This also hid some of the weaknesses of their guards and wings, allowing them to flourish as cutters and spot-up shooters while Jokic began to get comfortable with picking defenses apart.

Jokic was often positioned near the elbow and was, in essence, the fulcrum of the offense as they transitioned into more of a read-and-react style of play. As it turns it out, it was a pretty savvy decision by Finch and the Nuggets staff.

So much so, as it turns out, that Finch was hired away by New Orleans following the 2016-17 season, and the rest is history when it comes to Jokic and the Nuggets.

The Pelicans were trying to make the big man tandem of Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins work and tapped Finch to help. He installed similar sets to what he had run with Jokic in Denver, but the superior shooting of both Davis and Cousins opened things up even more.

Finch also introduced big-big pick-and-rolls and showed what he could do with bigs that could handle the ball adeptly.

Towns isn’t on the same level as a passer as Jokic, but then again, no big around the league can pass like The Joker. Towns is a better shooter, however, and there’s definitely some overlap in skill-sets between KAT and the big men that Finch coached in New Orleans, as well.

In short, the Wolves’ roster, and Towns in particular, should mesh well with what Finch likes to do offensively.

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