Timberwolves Hire New Coach Amid Losing Streak

On Sunday, Feb. 21,  after a 103-99 loss to the New York Knicks, the Minnesota Timberwolves announced that they had relieved Head Coach Ryan Saunders of his duties. 

The son of former Timberwolves head coach and general manager Flip Saunders had a rough tenure as head coach. Through parts of three seasons, Saunders held a 43-94 record. 

Directly after news broke of Saunders being fired, news surfaced that the wolves had already made a decision on who their next coach would be for the foreseeable future. 

Coach Chris Finch was signed to a multi-year contract on Feb. 22, not even 24 hours after Saunders had been fired. A very rare situation, in which the permanent replacement is found and hired in the middle of the season. 

Coach Finch has a hefty amount of experience with over 20 years of coaching at the professional level. 

Finch is considered an offensive mastermind who is credited with unlocking the MVP level talents of players like Anthony Davis and Nikola Jokic. 

It seems General Manager Gersson Rosas felt coach Finch could unlock some hidden potential in All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns.

Though coach Saunders was heavily burdened with injuries and even COVID, It seemed time for the Wolves to go in a new direction. 

Coach Finch will use his experience to try to bring some stability to a Timberwolves franchise that has only made the playoffs once in the last 16 seasons.