Stability is the name of the game for the Minnesota Timberwolves this offseason. For nearly 20 years, the Wolves were the laughingstock of the NBA, epitomizing chaos and doom. Between 2004 and 2021, they cycled through 10 different head coaches, nine general managers, and countless draft mistakes and failed rebuilds.
The dark ages are mercifully a thing of the past thanks to Anthony Edwards, Chris Finch, and Tim Connelly. But even with four straight playoff appearances, two consecutive trips to the Western Conference Finals, a 23-year-old superstar, and one of the most talented teams in franchise history, total stability has been hard to come by.
Connelly swung the Rudy Gobert trade weeks into his tenure back in the summer of 2022. He dumped D’Angelo Russell for Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker. And just before training camp last season, he pulled off the shocking Karl-Anthony Towns trade for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, and a first-round pick that has since become Joan Beringer.
The roller coaster ride that is the Minnesota Timberwolves also includes a bitter years-long ownership battle that resulted in an ownership change from Glen Taylor to Mark Lore and Alex Rodriguez. With all of the changes coming in quick order, the new owners have opted for a summer of stability in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. The Wolves re-signed Julius Randle and Naz Reid, keeping the starting unit fully intact. The only major departure was Alexander-Walker leaving for Atlanta.
The Wolves are running things back for the 2025-26 season, and Chris Finch is the man charged with turning stability into Minnesota’s superpower.
You may have missed it, but Finch, who took over for Ryan Saunders in the middle of a lost season in February 2021, is now the sixth-longest tenured head coach in the NBA. He’s behind Erik Spoelstra, who took over on the Miami Heat bench all the way back in 2008. Steve Kerr has led the Golden State Warriors since the start of the dynasty in 2014. And Billy Donovan, Tyronn Lue, and Mark Daigneault, who all took over their respective teams to start the 2020-21 season.
In his first four and a half seasons in Minnesota, Chris Finch has led the Timberwolves to four playoff appearances, has the most playoff wins of any coach in franchise history, and is quickly closing in on Flip Saunders to become the greatest coach in Minnesota Timberwolves history. No matter what you see on Timberwolves Twitter, Finch has ascended from leading the Shefflied Sharks to becoming one of the best coaches in the NBA.
Finch proved his value to the future of the franchise almost immediately. The Wolves were struggling through another disappointing season. Ryan Saunders wasn’t working out and had led the Wolves to a 7-24 record when they let him go in February. May thought assistant coach David Vanterpool would be in line to take over on an interim basis for the rest of the season, which would have been the normal procedure in the NBA.
Instead, Gersson Rosas announced his former assistant with the Houston Rockets, Chris Finch, would be coming in hot in the middle of the season. Finch took two weeks to get his bearings, losing his first five games as head coach. The light finally flipped on, Anthony Edwards took off, and the Wolves finished the season 16-20. Finch and the Wolves haven’t looked back since winning 46, 42, 56, and 49 games in the four years since. Even a ruptured patellar tendon in the 2024 playoffs couldn’t stop Finch from coaching the Wolves to playoff success.
Finch has the respect of his players. Anthony Edwards never forgets to praise Finchy whenever he can. Julius Randle has said Finch is one of the reasons he was excited about the trade and ultimately chose to re-sign in Minnesota. He has been working in lock-step with Tim Connelly, Lore, and A-Rod to build the Wolves into a contender. But he can’t let the rebuild get stagnant.
For all of the stability Finch has brought to the Twin Cities, his tenure is far from perfect. The Finch-era Timberwolves are a turnover-prone team that struggles to move the ball and score for full quarters at a time, leading to huge blown leads and calls from every corner of the internet for Finch to be fired.
Every year, the Wolves took a significant step forward in 2021-22 and 2023-24, but then took a step back in the following seasons. Finch has proven he has the goods to get the Wolves farther than they’ve ever gone before, but has yet to show he can boost them over the hump to an NBA Championship.
The Finch era is defined by stability. For the first time in 20 years, the Wolves are a reliable franchise that consistently remains in the mix year after year. Finch has as much to do with that transformation as anyone else in Minnesota.
But he also has the burden to keep pushing things farther, or become one of the first casualties if the Wolves stagnate. If A-Rod and Marc Lore are reading, I would suggest taking a look at the potential to offer Chris Finch the second-ever lifetime contract for a Minnesota coach. (PJ Fleck signed his lifetime deal a few years ago, and Cheryl Reeve is so far above my stupid lifetime contract bit to be considered.)