Wolves fire HC Ryan Saunders, Hired Chris Finch in Same Night

The Wolves saw another comeback attempt go to the wayside of what could have been the 8th win of the season last night in New York. To make it worse it was at the hands of the former coach, currently the only to bring the Wolves to the playoffs in the past 16 years.

So, after the game was over GM Gerrson Rosas fired Saunders after an abysmal 7-24 record. The biggest reason is that after Towns returned from injury/Covid the issues that plagued the team while he was away, seemed to continue anyway. Many fans had been clamoring for this move for almost a month now, and its clear that management wasn't very far off. 

Now lets cover the new head coach of the Wolves, Chris Finch, who was hired away from the Toronto Raptors overnight. This past summer Finch was in the circle for next Wolves head coach, but like ever other interviewee he lost out to Ryan Saunders. Given that Rosas hired Finch overnight and signed him to a multi-year contract its very clear this was Rosas' go to option and may have been his preference this past summer. This is quite shocking, as usually teams will go with an interim coach the rest of the year to leave the contract negotiations with a new contract for the summer. This is no knock against Finch, he is most certainly a good choice for the Wolves on all accounts. He has been praised by every team he has been a part of. His only head coaching outing has been in the G League, except in that stint he was the G League coach of the year. His now-former boss Raptors HC Nick Nurse has praised Finch multiple times since beginning his tenure in Toronto. He has also consistently been praised for his strict defensive focus and creative offensive schemes. 
Rosas and Finch also have been on the same organization together under the Morey organization in Houston.

Keeping Saunders over the summer was most likely the best option for the players involved, it seemed Towns in particular liked playing for Saunders. So it seemed like the easiest option to keep the star center happy. Now it is quite obvious that the satisfaction of Towns and wins aren't exactly mixing correctly, so the Wolves did what any other organization would do and decided to move on from Saunders. Saunders ultimately finished with an overall record of 36-70 with the Timberwolves.

Finch will now be the 14th head coach in Wolves history and hopes to lead this team back to success with one of the most talented and promising rosters in the NBA.

Hopefully this translates to success. The Wolves return to play in Milwaukee tomorrow night at 7 PM CT.