There have been losses and more losses enough that last season the Wolves didn't even make the cut for the MBA bubble enough that this season the team already has the worst record in the MBA.

There have been injuries to to the point that D'Angelo Russell on Karl Anthony towns have played a grand total of five games together five since Minnesota traded for Dello more than a year ago.

It's all been largely miserable, including last night when the Wolves came into the Garden to face their old coach, Tom Thibodeau.

Minnesota fell behind by as many as 21 then eat their way back to a late game lead thanks to a 15 point fourth quarter from Karl Anthony towns, including this nice little spin move.

And if the Wolves would have held on for the final 2.5 minutes, I assume Ryan Saunders would have woken up this morning and still been the head coach of an MBA team.

Instead, Minnesota folded, and within a few hours not only had Saunders been fired, but Chris Finch, an assistant coach with the Toronto Raptors have been announced as his permanent replacement.

And look, Saunders being fired in itself, not a shock.

Ryan is, of course, the son of late Flip Saunders, and it was a really feel good story when he was made interim coach in the wake of the team getting rid of tips.

Remember how the guys doused him in the locker room after his first win?

But Ryan was never able to get any mo mentum going, and the writing has seemed to be on the wall for a while now that he was on his way out.

Still, it was the immediate hiring of Finch without any interim period or search process that did shock the rest of the league, making that kind of midseason switch to another team's assistant coach instead of giving one of the team's own assistance.

At least a look just isn't normal in the n B A.

In fact, it's so where that the last time it happened was 12 years ago, and it was even more jarring, considering that the Wolves did have an internal candidate who many considered ready for the big chair.

Saunders lead assistant David Vanderpool Vanderpool had come to Minnesota from Portland, and when he was so abruptly passed over last night, two of his former players called it out immediately.

Here's Damian Lillard.

How the hell do you not hire David Vanderpool?

And And he's right there on the bench and has been in the front office successfully and on the front of a bench of a winning team successfully and has played a major role in the development of a dominant, backcourt shaking madam head and then c.

J.

McCollum.

Make it make sense respectfully.

Make it make sense.

We will see if Rose Sauce answers that query later today.

The Wolves air holding a press conference around six o'clock Eastern.

But here's what we already know.

Finch and Rosa's go way back.

They worked together for years when both were with the Houston Rockets, and Rosa's actually considered hiring Finch in 2019 before deciding to extend Saunders instead.

And we can probably deduce that Rosas is feeling his seat get a little more hot these days.

And in those kinds of situations, front office execs often go with hiring someone they already know.

But just because it's common doesn't mean it's not a problem.

hiring someone you go way back with without giving anyone else a chance to interview is exactly the kind of old boys Old Boys club networking that keeps the coaching ranks of so many sports leagues overwhelmingly white, even though their players are overwhelmingly not.

And I want to be clear.

This is not to put down Chris Finch.

The man could go on to become a Hall of Fame head coach, but big picture.

The MBA needs to be a league where minority candidates get more consideration, and I'm talking about candidates way beyond Vanterpool here, where even if they don't get the job, they do get the experience of going through the hiring process so they are more qualified the next time around.

And Rosa's the first Latino exact.

Whoever had an MBA front office certainly knows this as well as anyone, so I'm going to at least hear him out tonight on his thought process before I pass judgment.

But I can sit here right now and say this.

It doesn't look good, which has been a problem in Minnesota for a very long time.

Another black head coach text me fire Ryan higher Finch on the same day.

Passover.

David Vanderpool crazy shaking my head.

I don't know how David sticks around on.

Then I think another thing that stuck out to me.

You know, Quinn Cook from the Lakers spoke about it on Twitter.

So did Isaiah Thomas.

It's not what you say basketball.

I hear that David was very popular with the Timberwolves players but haven't heard anything from them.

But, you know, Dame also said on Twitter, look at Vander Pulls resume.

This is a former MBA player played for the Wizards, played in the Continental Basketball Association.

He was an assistant with the Blazers for seven seasons, departing to be an associate head coach, which means I'm close to be a head coach.

He interviewed with New Orleans.

He interview with Houston last offseason but didn't get the job.

And now to say that he's an associate head coach, that title seems a little hollow right now.

Well, I'm gonna say this, OK, and this is what it is.

It's not what you know.

It's who you know.

And despite what Rosa may say in the interview later on this evening, we all know what it is.

Him and Fitch are best friends.

They've been best friends since the rocket days when they was down there doing all the analytic stuff and they were really close friends, and they trust one another.

Here's the thing about hiring African American coaches, and this is why coaches air, not African American coaches air not getting hired and getting these job opportunities when they come up is because in order for this to happen, we gotta have more African Americans in the front office.

When you look, for example, James Jones for the Phoenix Suns, he's the G M of the Phoenix Suns, who he goes out and hires Monty Williams.

Another example, before down More got to the Philadelphia 76 is El Brand was still calling the shots who?

He went out and hired Doc Rivers.

So until we started getting more African Americans in the front office in position of power, toe actually hired former players.

Guys like Phil Handy, who have won three championships.

Guys like Jason Kidd, one of the greatest to ever play the game and was a pretty good coach when he was the head of the snake.

Guys like Sam Cassell, who has been a long time assistant under Doc Rivers and vice versa worked with superstar players.

Until we get African Americans in those front off in those front office positions, we're going to continue to see these trends because there's more so off.

I'm hiring my friend and not the guy that's best for the job.