Is Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch already on the hot seat?

Making it all work

Just look at the Los Angeles Lakers, a team that added guard Russell Westbrook in hopes of improving the overall roster, but chemistry difficulties led to them missing the playoffs last season.

It could happen just as quickly to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Everything about this team’s fit is theoretical. Karl-Anthony Towns has never played a full season at power forward before. Rudy Gobert, as good as he is, has never played for the Timberwolves before. The players on the roster are like field stones.

Now it’s up to Coach Finch to lay the bricks and assemble the team in the best possible manner. Coach Finch must coach up younger players, realign veterans, and work out a rotation that not only optimizes play on the basketball court but is sustainable over the course of an 82-game season.

Piecing together an NBA Championship jigsaw puzzle

However, It’s a long season, and the Timberwolves have time to figure out their dynamics. The team’s ball movement did improve last season but developing good team chemistry does not guarantee that Minnesota will win an NBA Championship with this core. Many NBA analysts have weighed in, and believe that this is arguably the best team the Timberwolves have had since Kevin Garnett’s MVP season in 2003-04.

The pieces are all there—no more excuses for players or coaches. So that puts pressure on the head coach and the coaching staff to deliver.

Like Karl Anthony Town said in his press conference welcoming center Rudy Gobert and in acknowledging his new super-max contract:

"“It’s ‘championship or bust’ in Minnesota. When you make the trade that we made, that’s the reality. I’m not trying to sugarcoat,” Towns said. “You’ve got to think that. That’s really what’s on the table. I don’t think the fans would be accepting of [a goal of] a third-round elimination. … Let’s be real. The standards are high. The pressure is high. And that’s when we should all love to play basketball even more.” – Per Karl-Anthony Towns interview with the Star Tribune’s Michael Rand"

The Timberwolves have raised the stakes. By doing so, the bar has been raised for this team as well. The Minnesota Timberwolves franchise has only made it out of the first round of the NBA Playoffs once in team history when the team advanced to the NBA Western Conference Finals after the 2003-04 season.

It seems clear that the expectation is for the team to advance to and through the first round of the NBA Playoffs this year. So, head coach Chris Finch is on the hot seat, and the clock is ticking; Timberwolves fans are hungry, and the time to win is now.