The New Orleans Pelicans are closing in on the hire of Nuggets assistant coach Chris Finch to join Alvin Gentry's staff, league sources say.
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) May 19, 2017
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The New Orleans Pelicans are closing in on the hire of Nuggets assistant coach Chris Finch to join Alvin Gentry's staff, league sources say.
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) May 19, 2017
Who?
A highly regarded offensive assistant. I expect this was more of the FO hiring rather than Gentry. They probably think Gentry needs some help diversifying his offense.
The Pels, sources says, are eager to add Finch's offensive brainpower to the staff to spark the Anthony Davis/DeMarcus Cousins partnership.
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) May 19, 2017
This is huge for NOP. Finch is considered one of the better offensive minds in basketball. And he knows how to make two bigs work together. https://t.co/I4QDsv0lj0
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) May 19, 2017
It depends on who you ask, but Finch was at least partially instrumental in building the Nuggets’ offense this year. 5th best https://t.co/27z86nCa9B
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) May 19, 2017
The Nuggets offense was incredible this year and Finch gets a lot of the credit for that. Somewhat unconventional having Jokic play point-C.
— Adam Mares (@Adam_Mares) May 19, 2017
Nuggets were #5 in ORTG and #1 since DEC 15 when Jokic became the starter. The style the Nuggets adopted on DEC 15 was brilliant, IMO.
— Adam Mares (@Adam_Mares) May 19, 2017
@ESPNSteinLine Finch played an enormous part in helping the Nuggets to the No. 1 ranked offense in the league since Dec. 15 (when Jokic became the starter)
— Harrison Wind (@NBAWind) May 19, 2017
Well he sounds like promising addition
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Between Weber, Gentry, and now Finch, that is a lot of offensive brain power for the Pels. And that's not counting what Erman brings.
— Kumar (@FearTheBrown) May 19, 2017
Steve Kerr and Pop have many great assistants.
Smart play by Pels.
Never heard of him before, but from what little I've found out in the past hour, this seems like a great hire.
And I cannot stress this enough. Not every coach would've thought of allowing a 6-11 C to play PG the way Jokic does.
— Adam Mares (@Adam_Mares) May 19, 2017
Dell hired a great assistant in Erman, and now perhaps another one in Finch. Credit needs to be given. Also to Gentry for accepting help.
— Kumar (@FearTheBrown) May 19, 2017
Pelicans hiring highly regarded assistant coaches is a good thing. Maybe the draw of BoogieBrow helps in recruitment there.
— David Fisher (@DavidFisherTBW) May 19, 2017
Has the office pool started on how long before someone post a replace Gentry with Finch comment?
Good. Hope this means more cutting by more players than DC (should he stay).
OK we got the coaches, but coaches don't play. We need the players around AD and Boogie to make this work.
Gentry shouldn't have a staff. Homie should be sent on the next flight out of town.
Sounds like a promising hire if they can seal the deal.
Ok listen up everybody , Gentry is going to be here next year it's already been announced can we move on for Gods sakes . Let's think positive hopefully this guy can bring something to this team .
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Scroll down a little piece on chris Finch
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/1...s-watch-summer
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Has it gone through? I'm anxious to hear this one get locked in.
Edit:
Scott Kushner says:
"New #Pelicans** asst Chris Finch served as the Nuggets' lead offensive asst last year. Denver finished No. 2 in offensive rating post-ASG."
https://twitter.com/scottdkushner/st...45178660413442
There's also this tweet from Kushner:
"I can confirm @ESPNSteinLine's report that Chris Finch will fill a spot on Alvin Gentry's staff."
So it sounds like it's a done deal. He's the most locked in writer we have for the Pels.
Really excited about this hire, just from the tweets posted here. If anyone finds any articles or other material on coach Finch, please share it here. I'm glad we brought in an offensive assistant, who seems to specialize in bigs and offenses based around the front court. I like that alot, since my main gripe in keeping Gentry was that his system has been more guard-oriented.
Now let's bring in the right players to make it work.
For those that want to know more about his career and what he's done:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chri...h_(basketball)
A short summary would be, he has taken every team he has coached to either the finals of the league they are in or outright champions except for 1 team. He did it twice in Europe, and once in the D-League before finally being hired by the Rockets in 2011. He was eventually named as Associate Head Coach for them until last year when he went to the Nuggets as Associate Head Coach.
The guy has the chops and the resume to soon get a head coaching offer. Makes me wonder why he decided to do a lateral move to the Pelicans. Maybe he feels like if he can turn this team into a contender the Head Coaching offers will come, sort of like Gentry and Luke Walton at GS.
Good on us bringing in another offensive mind, maybe we will be able to create some sort of hybrid offense to maximize AD and Boogie's talent.
You can't be conventional. Cuz AD and Cousins aren't conventional players. Way too skilled for their sizes.
So Finch replaces Pack I see
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Robert Pack is no longer on the #Pelicans staff. He's trying to land a G-League head coaching job, per his agent Warren LeGarie.
— Scott Kushner (@ScottDKushner) May 19, 2017
Let's see if this embeds properly.
So, Chris Finch will replace Robert Pack on the #Pelicans bench. Both sides presented the split as amicable.
— Scott Kushner (@ScottDKushner) May 19, 2017
Btw, when did it become the G-League, instead of the D-League?
Brand new change, aligning with Gatorade as a sponsor.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the...ade-2017-02-14
I think we are still a fair bit off from having a team, so hard to say. He could get the summer league team.
Awesome, really love the way the Nuggets play. Just want to see better movement off the ball from this team as a result of this hire.
Yeah I'm also not sure if Pack left on his own to chase a HC gig, or if his yearly review didn't go down well and that was the nicely worded out for him. Reading around there has definitely been the potential HC label thrown around with Finch so always possible. Personally I just hope our players are open to his ideas and smart enough to run with them. Seems to push the players to constantly be probing and testing the defense, and giving them the freedom to make the right choices themselves. Movement on and off ball important. Theoretically it shouldn't be a big difference, Gentry values the same things. Our groups intelligence has been questioned though, hopefully some willing new signings will help. Another point is the coaches finding the right balance between o and d. The points around solos shooting suffering because of the drive to get back on d, maybe a comfort with the system will help allow more focus on offense.
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It's an interesting hiring fr the Pels. I was first worried of a possible "replacement" of Erman given how effective was the pels defense after Cousins' trade but now I see only upside in this hiring.
One name that could come up due to Finch now is Deng, Finch coached him with the GB national team so I'm sure there is still a bound between the two of them.
Curious about the offer given to Finch.
Nugs have upwards trajectory.
Was it DMC -AD combo? Or future HC commitment?
Finch is exactly a type of assistant who soon becomes HC.