There have been some brutal losses to cover and write over the years. It seems that we made up all the excuses in the book, trying with all our might to see things in a positive light, thinking mainly about the potential long-term gains over short-term losses.
Tonight is one of the most unforgivable losses I remember.
The Memphis Grizzlies fell Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson, Jr., as did Justise Winslow. Minnesota was in full swing tonight.
The Minnesota Timberwolves led by double digits in the second half of this game and inexplicably played away.
It is the players’ fault (we will get there), but many of the coach’s decisions at the end of the game raised questions.
The Minnesota Timberwolves simply cannot afford to play against Juancho Hernangomez in important minutes of the closing. He absolutely kills the team. He does not recover, he has reverted to his pre-Minnesota shooting rules and his defense is a killer. If you can’t get ahead of Kyle Anderson, who is literally nicknamed “Slo-Mo”, to the point of giving him enough space to launch his three-point slow motion after facing you, you can’t play 4.
Do you know who I miss? Every PF Karl-Anthony Towns has played with Juancho Hernangomez.
– Katie Davidson (@ByKatieDavidson) January 14, 2021
Furthermore, unfortunately, Ricky Rubio was just terrible on his second visit to Minnesota. It’s a drag, but there’s really no other way to put it.
Ryan Saunders may not be to blame for how badly these two players have played, but he is certainly to blame for continuing to play them in times of crisis.
If trust is a requirement for competence, then these guys just can’t be in the rotation
– Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) January 14, 2021
So Ryan’s solution is … to put Ricky out there and keep Juancho out?
What the hell is he thinking?
– Jack Borman (@ jrborman13) January 14, 2021
I just, I don’t know, man. This was brutally frustrating.
For what it’s worth, Ryan’s job here is not easy. I think the simple solution in Juancho’s place would be to play Jarred Vanderbilt, but that doesn’t solve Rubio’s problem. I love what Vanderbilt has done so far, but do they trust him enough to play PF at the time of the squeeze? Or do they still want to go small with JO at 4, while Rubio plays at 1? That seems to be the difficult question to answer.
If you’re going to have to throw two non-snipers together anyway, I don’t see what can hurt to launch the Russell / Beasley / Okogie / Vando / KAT squad at this point, but then again, that’s not an easy choice.
At the end of the day, this is yet another frustrating loss. I will notice that Karl-Anthony Towns, D’Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley played well. Minnesota received almost nothing from anyone, and that was it.
The Wolves will need to recover on Friday in the second leg of this baseball series with Memphis.