[ad_1]
There have been some brutal and brutal losses to cover and recount over the years. It feels like we’ve found every excuse in the book, trying with all our might to make a positive sense of things, mostly thinking about the potential long term gains over short term losses.
Tonight is one of the most inexcusable losses I can remember.
The Memphis Grizzlies are both Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson, Jr., as well as Justise Winslow. Minnesota was at full power tonight.
The Minnesota Timberwolves led by double digits in the second half of that game and inexplicably threw it out.
The players are surely to blame (we’ll get to that), but many late-game coaching decisions raised questions.
The Minnesota Timberwolves just can’t afford to play Juancho Hernangomez in the important minutes of closing time. He’s absolutely killing the team. He’s not rebounding, he’s returned to his pre-Minnesota shooting standards and his defense is a killer. If you can’t stay in front of Kyle Anderson, who is literally nicknamed “Slo-Mo”, to the point that you have to give him enough room to throw his three point slow motion after looking down at you, you can’t. not play the 4.
Do you know who I miss? All PF Karl-Anthony Towns have previously played with unnamed Juancho Hernangomez.
– Katie Davidson (@ByKatieDavidson) January 14, 2021
On top of that, unfortunately, Ricky Rubio was just terrible on his second stint in Minnesota. It’s really disappointing but there really is no other way to say it.
Ryan Saunders may not be responsible for the poor play of these two guys, but he’s definitely at fault for continuing to play them through tough times.
If confidence is a skill requirement then these guys just can’t be part of the rotation.
– Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) January 14, 2021
So Ryan’s solution is to … put Ricky there and keep Juancho there?
What the hell is he thinking?
– Jack Borman (@ jrborman13) January 14, 2021
I just, I don’t know, man. It was brutally frustrating.
For what it’s worth, Ryan’s job here isn’t easy. I think the simple solution instead of Juancho would be to play Jarred Vanderbilt, but that doesn’t solve their Rubio problem. Love what Vanderbilt has done so far, but do they trust him enough to play PF in crunch time? Or do they still want to go small with OJ at 4, while Rubio plays at 1? This seems like the hard question to answer.
If you’re going to have to play two non-shooters together anyway, I don’t see what can hinder the rollout of the Russell / Beasley / Okogie / Vando / KAT lineup at this point, but again it’s not. easy. choice.
In the end, it’s yet another frustrating loss. I will note that Karl-Anthony Towns, D’Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley played well. Minnesota got next to nothing from anyone else, and that was it.
Wolves will have to bounce back on Friday in the return leg of this baseball-style series with Memphis.
[ad_2]
Source link