With Russell no longer playing and the Celtics' roster aging, in 1969–70 the perennial NBA champion's record fell to an uncharacteristic 34–48 under new coach, Celtics' legend Tom Heinsohn. Finkel took a lot of heat from Celtics fans—although he had one of his best seasons statistically, he simply wasn't Bill Russell and the team was rebuilding. With career highs in games (80) and minutes per game (23,3, seventh on the team), Finkel averaged 9.7 points and a career-best 7.7 rebounds per game.