“We Want To Keep Pushing Forward.” | Chris Finch Exit Interview | 05.31.24

“We Want To Keep Pushing Forward.” | Chris Finch Exit Interview | 05.31.24

Chris now that you’ve had a night to sleep on it just how shocked are you that you’re sitting here reflecting on the season and not hopping on an airplane for game six well I mean I don’t think shocked is the word um you know it’s always it ends abruptly um it’s kind of a bit of a Numb numbing feeling more more than anything else um and uh but you know reflecting on the good and the bad um you know the bad is more localized last night’s performance not our best we wish it was better give ourself a better chance um but you know I was out and about today doing some things this morning and um you know got a lot of well wishes and great seasons and that stuff like from people in the community so that’s something to take heart take to heart it seems like especially offensively like this team is pretty riant on Mike being out there and being kind of that secondary playmaker I’m guessing like throughout the course of a season you like to have to rely on him a little less um what’s the key to that is it internal growth is it adding another guy who can maybe create on the perimeter how do you see the path of of that being maybe taking a little off his shoulders yeah I think there’s a couple different routes to do that one is um certainly um I think um well you can start with Anthony you know I think ball when the ball’s going to be in his hands more I think a little bit more shot creation um I think um assuming Kyle’s back which which you know I know I personally would love we would love to have him back but um we got to get kind of a little bit of a better package around him uh whether he’s at the one whether he’s at the three um in particular those two things I think we can run more offense through him um but we’ve got to kind of clean that up um and then of course you know um look to have another ball handler um that can play out there alongside anybody so Chris two questions first of all now that it’s over how much pain were you in how much do you have to deal with here the last week or two uh most of the pain was in the first 10 days um you know the last couple weeks it’s not been a lot of pain just kind of discomfort um you know just kind of a pain to no pun intended but just get around it’s you know kind of leg is more in the way than painful so yeah um but the first couple weeks feeling a lot of pain so last year you emphasized defense and the defense made a major jump yeah do you feel like you can just by emphasizing offense help the offense this this next coming year yeah we need to get better offensively we were you know um just thinking about it as the season unfolds there’s always a point where you think like these are things we have to do but it’s really tough to address a midseason um and you try to make tweaks and stuff like that that but going in next season we we’ve got to play we got to play faster you know we don’t have the physically fastest guys but we have to make an effort and a commitment to getting easier stuff in transition running stretching the floor and then when we do and when we did we weren’t very effective we wen’t not a very good finishing team you know some of our transition plays this year um you know it was incredible that we weren’t able to score you know when and the plays so fast now so when you aren’t fast and you’re struggling to get you know easy looks like that’s a good place to start and try and find them and we got to be better there um that’s one I think I thought we did a good job of coming in with more structure and um kind of a little bit more of a blueprint um you know I think there the efficiency and the shot making wasn’t always there um so I think we got to do a better job I think we got to continue to simplify our offensive structures though um based on what we have so but we’re definitely going to make a point of emphasis of of of getting out and running more so I ask similar there the the past two seasons talking to you in trading Camp it’s been like a real focus on on like the defensive side of the ball to instill that identity does does that like instilling a a offensive identity kind of have to come like do you have to choose to do that before the season and and aim at you know what that is kind of in September October um well yes and no I mean um you know I think you don’t have to choose one or the other I think you can choose to have both if that’s the question but um I do believe you know I was extremely encouraged offensively like excited out of my skin in preseason I mean we looked like a juggernaut ball was moving lot of purpose a lot of pace then you realize ah season starts and the the stats count for real and we went through a few weeks or certainly first few games and everything we had kind of done we didn’t look at anything like that uh and I think that kind of set us back a little bit what our offensive identity was going to be and then then it was a series of like just having to keep finding a rhythm finding a rhythm and that was inconsistent for the most part I thought over the second half of the Season we were a little better you know um and there were some adjustments that were being made by guys and all credit to them you know I think Mike had taken maybe too far of a step back in his aggressiveness to score to try to make the offense work you know cat was still trying to figure out his rhythm off the ball um you know Jaden’s shooting kind of took a while to get some level of consistency um you know playing with Rudy was a was still like a work in progress it was getting better all the time uh Kyle back to the three rather than the four so there was a lot of like moving parts that um probably fed into that and some of was just it is what it is you just had to go through that process so um but yeah I think you know we definitely need to kind of drill down on what that offense looks like um and that’s a summer long kind of vision that you then have to kind of sell to the team when they show up in October so Chris in terms of selling that to the team do you think in some ways that this series against Dallas helps in that way in terms of I mean the Mavericks clearly have a real identity they knew exactly what they wanted to do offensively and to get their shots and I know they’re constituted differently from you guys but having your guys see what what that benefits and and and approaching it that way um I mean yes and again yes and no John I mean just like not a big fan of the heliocentric offenses where you know it’s one guy I mean you have to have a player who’s pretty special to be able to create that much offense for himself and everybody else and he has to have a complete like um you know skill set and then you know I I think um you know you look some teams now I mean Boston’s a good example of it like they kind of just spread you out and then try to beat you one on one and that and that creates a lot of advantages um you know I’m not sure we have those type of players either so so we’re still going to be movement based we’re still going to be sharing the ball um we still have the bigs to incorporate so you know I think it’s there’s a there’s a lot of different things like the M Mike Rudy combo is a great one um you know I think the Anthony Cat combo needs to continue to grow um I think there’s way more that they can learn um kind of help each other maybe the way that yic and Murray do you know rather so I would look more to that kind of uh model than I would to Dallas um you know obviously you know Anthony’s going to continue to have the ball in his hands a ton um you know and he has that burden of having to score and create but he’s such a wired to score that you know he’s he’s going to have you know and we’re going to need him to do that too so if we assume that front office and coaching staff stays pretty much the same going in next year that’s three years together what do you think that continuity means for an organization for you and Tim to try and establish everything that you want to and and set this Foundation yeah I’m a big fan of continuity certainly um you know offensively when to you know back to the question at hand is you should have continuity offensively because you just kind of know each other better so hopefully we can be a little bit continue to be a little bit better out of the gate offensively um yeah and you know continuity and internal growth that to me is the key to um you know to go far in this league you know the the teams that take you know we’ve experienced ourselves heavy change takes a while to settle down and then build off of I mean I mean Dallas last year basically look what you know they they basically tanked the season at the end so they could get you know one of the one of the pieces that they need and then you know went through the season and added the perfect pieces so um but yeah so it’s just to you know if you have continuity you’re going to be ahead of the curve so one of the two of the buzzword that were present throughout the season was structure and maturity yeah and it seems like your structure comes out of your game plan and part of maturity is adhering to the game plan yeah was it difficult to be patient with that and how How well was your patience rewarded in just trusting that they would continue to adhere to the game plan for the season yeah I thought I thought they did a great job of U executing game plans all season long I think uh you know there was a lot of moving Parts in our game plans just because of way we’re we’re constructure with the two bigs every night with was you know you’ve heard me say it before was a little bit of a puzzle um but yet we still maintained an identity through it all um you know where I think a year ago we didn’t have that same identity because you know every night we were trying to figure ourselves out and reinvent ourselves so that was one maturity I was pleased with um you know as a young team we still have immature moments but um the type of maturity that we saw the most gross with with was Readiness preparation attention to detail game plan execution and we you know we didn’t we you know our record against teams that we should have beaten was pretty good you know a year ago it was not so um you know so things like that I thought we took a big step forward you know so one of the ways you strengthened your defensive identity was through versatility yeah um hearing the answer to your first question you were talking about surrounding slow-mo with different Personnel or getting different combinations together do you need more versatility practiced versatility in your offense yeah absolutely yeah I think you know we just we need to have kind of different faces um based on different lineup combinations that are out there so Carl had some really nice moments this postseason we struggled at the beginning of of this series obviously as you as you move forward and kind of evaluating where you want to go with this team did Carl show you enough that he could be a contender on a potential Championship winning team this season for you yeah absolutely yeah I mean listen the there’s [Music] um when the playoffs are two months Long play a lot you know you playing every other night and every series is different ton of adjustments coaching’s at a high level and everybody’s going to go through some sort of period where they don’t play particularly well I don’t think donic played great out of the shoot against OKC for a couple games there so um yeah you know 100% believe that you know cat can uh help take us to where we’re really ultimately trying to go is it you talked about you know wanting maybe aunt and Cat to get a little bit more of like helping each other like joic and Murray do those two can they do that right now in in the level that they’re at in terms of kind of seeing the game making reads you know like multiple actions back to back just off what the defense is doing or do they need to take another step um just kind of mentally to get to that point where they can consistently play off each other oh they can do it I mean the there’s certain things that they do in combination with each other that you know work seemingly almost every time they try it they just need to do it more you know and I think that’s just like a willingness to give themselves to you know to the greater good a little bit um and um you know there may not be natural into how they play but when these things happen and if they if the if you know if if I write it up or or play call it um it usually works but they got to be able to find it in the flow which is probably the next step so yeah is the fact that they’re both they’re both kind of first thought is to score yeah does that maybe what has to change or they have to fight that a little bit more yeah I think it’s less about like score score score more about I want to play in this style this is the manner that I’m comfortable playing in you know so when you and Mike get together and form the game plan for moving forward for next year and that type of thing after getting over what happened last night in this series are you concerned with the ownership situation which is either in the up in the air or do you know where it is are you comfortable that they’re going to support the things that you want to do uh yeah not own not concerned with the ownership situation at all to be quite honest with you um first of all on a personal level have a great relationship with all parties um they’ve been nothing but supportive of us um you know in many ways this run that we’ve been on um has pushed all that to the background and they’ve been 100% committed to the team and the team’s efforts and the and enjoying the success that stuff will be what it’ll be um they’ve all pledged that you know no no matter how shakes out that they’re going to be able to give us every opportunity to be you know successful and continue to build and build a winner and a champion and all the things that um we’re all trying to do together so um and if anything happens outside of that it’s outside my control anyway and that’s you know my basketball life has been that and just keep adjusting and figuring out and keep trying to you know figure out a new way to win so it’s pretty rare for teams to skip steps kind of on their progress toward a title are there any particular experiences or struggles of this postseason run you think they benefit you guys next year yeah I think um you know I do think like Fitness like mental physical fatigue becomes a real thing the deeper you go you know the the number of minutes you’re playing the load the intensity um everything goes up and I think over time that probably take took its toll on us a little bit more um you know shifting mindsets between series um you know I think the emotion of game seven um definitely took its toll on game one of this series but I think that you know probably I’ve seen a stat that said not many people that win a seventh game win a first game when the other team’s been rested so but doesn’t mean you can’t be in a better shape you know frame of mind for it um yeah just every step you go it gets harder and harder that’s that’s you know what makes it so special and you know your level of detail execution all that stuff has to continue to go up for me the biggest concern and Learning lesson is that the skipping steps isn’t whether you have to learn these lessons to win a championship the skipping steps goes back to day one like we come back to work in October we’re not going to fast forward to the Western Conference Finals so you know as a young team who’s experienced the you know what they’ve just experienced young players rather we have to make sure that um the lessons that we learn you know in the Dallas series and and before in the playoffs are applied day one in training camp and every day up until that point in time because you know there’s a lot of teams that have reached this point and gone backwards last one you’ve been in the league for for a long time and you know go back maybe 10 years a team that’s at you know this stage Conference Finals there was a structure in place to kind of keep your teams back together you could resign your own players go over the salary cap to do that we’re now at a stage where it’s more punitive in restrictions of of keeping a team together I know that’s mostly you know Tim in the front office’s job to handle but just kind of curious how you think about that knowing that whether it’s this year or going forward there’s just even though you’re at this level there will be things to navigate to keep you know a group together yeah well every year it’s different every team you know if you make even if you don’t make any changes the team personality s seemingly changes um so yeah there we just my job is to coach the team that that’s there um I have utmost confidence in all the ownership parties Tim and his group um to to to make all the right decisions whether it be basketball or long-term strategic you know it’s not just about what happens on the floor I think we got a great partnership here um so I don’t overly concern myself with it I think um you know we are in a moment where you know we want to keep pushing forward and we’re going to do that what that looks like I’m not 100% sure I know that they’re going to be open-minded and aggressive when whenever something happens and they can do do something to feel to better their teames thanks guys

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