Rather than closing in on his 51st birthday, Chris Finch is closing out on it. That’s what good defenders do, and that’s what Finch was, in his heyday at Franklin & Marshall. So whether by rote or some other mechanism, he is closing out on this milestone, and doing so as if challenging some luckless shooter from Muhlenberg or Johns Hopkins — quickly, purposefully, well aware of where he needs to go and how he needs to get there.
Now in his third year as a New Orleans Pelicans assistant (and thus firmly ensconced at present in the NBA’s Orlando-based bubble), he turns 51 on Nov. 6, one of many indications that he appears destined to be a pro basketball lifer. He has, after all, coached pros since 1997, first in Europe for 12 years, then in what is now known as the G-League for two and finally in the NBA the last nine — as an assistant in Houston and Denver before his current stop.
If there was any lingering doubt about what he is and how he views himself, consider his response when I asked him over the phone last Tuesday — two days before the Pelicans resumed their season — if he had had any interest in the head-coaching job at F&M, following the retirement of long-time boss Glenn Robinson before last season.
“I didn’t really consider it, to be fair,” said Finch, who played for Robinson from 1988-92. “I’m just at a place in my career right now where I just want to follow my current path. I didn’t really look into it. It’s a phenomenal school and it would be in many ways a romantic notion to go back there and coach, but I just have a goal and a dream here in the NBA, and I’m just not ready to walk away from that yet.”
As it was, former Dips assistant Nick Nichay — the interim guy last season — was named Robinson’s permanent successor in May, though F&M did consider some outside candidates. Finch, who hopes to one day become an NBA head coach, will continue to pursue that dream, while working with the promising Pelicans.
None of them has a greater upside than rookie forward Zion Williamson, who missed the season’s first 45 games with injury, sparkled in a 19-game cameo before the league went on hiatus and now is on a minutes restriction, after departing the bubble for just over a week to tend to what was reported to be “an urgent family medical matter.”
Williamson scored 23 points in 25 minutes of Monday’s victory over Memphis, the Pelicans’ first in three games in Orlando. It drew New Orleans (29-38) within 2.5 games of the Grizzlies, who are eighth in the West; the Pels are part of a five-team scramble for ninth. If any of those teams finishes within four games of the No. 8 seed, there will be a play-in tournament.
“Our stated goal at the beginning of the season was to play meaningful basketball games coming down the stretch — you know, in what would be March and April in a normal calendar,” Finch said. “And to this point we’ve accomplished that.”
In the 20-year-old Williamson, they also have a player the league would certainly love to see in the postseason. Finch, the de facto offensive coordinator under Alvin Gentry, is enthused by Williamson’s explosiveness and coachability, and sees parallels to a young Charles Barkley, who Finch saw up close when the Sixers held training camp at F&M years ago. Only difference is, Williamson, listed at 6-6 and 285 pounds, is bigger than Barkley, who stood a shade under 6-5 and carried about 250 pounds in his prime (and trust me, he was in shape then; check YouTube).
“They’re similar,” Finch said, “in their … reckless finesse. They’re offensively physical players in that they can create space and just knock people out the way but finish with touch or finish with some kind of great power.”
Williamson, averaging 22 points and six rebounds at present, will get better. Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball, who came over from the Lakers (along with Josh Hart) in the Anthony Davis trade last July, already have. Ingram is averaging over 24 points a game, Ball over 12 — both career highs — the latter while chipping in seven assists and six rebounds a night. Both are shooting it better than they ever have, and neither has turned 23. Add in the 25-year-old Hart (one of those 3&D guys who will play forever), and it appears that the Pels actually received value while dealing a superstar. That seldom happens.
“We love our young core,” Finch said.
It’s a matter of nudging them in the right direction. Of encouraging Ingram to step out and shoot it from the arc. Of putting the ball in Ball’s hands and letting him create; his unselfishness, Finch said, is “contagious.”
Finch also said he puts it this way to guys like that: “You’re already wearing an Armani suit. It’s just my job to tailor it. I just want you to be a better version of you.”
The Pels aren’t all that big, and they don’t defend all that well. But they have some other pieces, like ex-Sixers JJ Redick and Jrue Holiday. They’re kind of fun, kind of interesting.
The question now is whether they will get to play out their season, whatever that might consist of. Indeed, all 22 teams in Orlando must be wondering the same thing, given the toll the coronavirus has taken. And while the bubble has been punctured a time or two — notably when the Clippers’ Lou Williams (another ex-Sixer) wound up at a strip club — it appears every precaution is being taken. Players and staffers are tested every day, Finch said. Mask-wearing and social-distancing are observed.
“I’m more optimistic (about the season being completed) now that I’m here,” said Finch, who has been in Orlando the better part of a month. “It’s off to a good start, let’s put it that way. It’s probably the best way to say it. These things are fragile by nature. Look at baseball; things could turn quickly. I don’t want to celebrate, but I think the NBA’s done a great job. I think Disney’s done a great job. I think the teams have done a great job. Really it takes all three — a working partnership — to make it work. I think everyone here is committed to making it work.”
And in a larger sense, he’s right where he’s supposed to be, right where he wants to be — and right where it appears he always will be. He’s an NBA guy, through and through. Has been for a while. Now it’s a matter of whether he can tailor his own Armani suit.