Post game thoughts. Spurs.

[K4P]

This is one of those games they REALLY could have used Okogie to stick to Demar since he's a lot more disruptive than Culver as an on ball defender

[K4P]

Anthony Edwards had a wide open dunk that would have put Minnesota down one with multiple seconds left. Just a bad take.

Regardless, D'Angelo Russells monopolizing of possessions hurts Minnesota. I have zero idea why Ryan would isolate him at the top, when Minnesota is at their best when Towns is the primary play maker. It is maddening to me that Minnesota does not fully utilize Karl-Anthony Towns.

I guess Jim Pete, a former NBA player, former WNBA associate coach, said the exact same thing that Ryan should of called a timeout.

Jim Pete, you don’t know basketball!

I mean, Jim Peterson is right if the argument is that you can't trust your player to take a wide open layup/dunk. Just look at the gif that PharmD posted, there was over seven seconds after the layup. Anthony Edwards choked massively under pressure; it happens, it is part of the learning process.

Somehow its Ryan's fault the guys on the court didn't execute lol

[Merc_Porto]

The season is on the line (if we want to make a push for the playoffs) in the next 5-6 games with so many winnable games.

The time is now to make a run...

Vs Spurs
Vs Grizzlies
Vs Grizzlies
@ Hawks
Vs Magic
Vs Hawks

[packforfreedom]

We're of course better with KAT and it was nice to see him back. Anyway half of the players on the team are absolutly clueluess about how to play zone. We were lucky the Spurs haven't taken even more advantage of it. Also you need to stop playing Herni. He brings nothing. Bad turnovers, bad offense, bad defense.

I liked Edwards passing it more out of his drives, this can be a weapon for him and I think he might just have realized it (a bit too much maybe but still).

[Heimdal]

I was frustrated with Edwards the whole game, so the last play was just the tipping point. He is a 19 years old rookie who was drafted 5 minutes ago, who used to take 25 shots a game while his 4 teammates watched, who is clueless to zone and help defense.

So, if they are serious about winning now, they should ease his development and don't put him in positions to ruin games. When I saw him enter the game for Culver in clutch time, I feared for the worst. He bounced the ball off his foot in the first play of overtime and wasted the game-tying possession to lose the game.

He's learning the hard way and I guess it's good for his future development, but it sure hurts now.

Also, we ran a play to win the game where KAT didn't get to touch the ball. Fail. You give the ball to KAT and you know the whole defense is going to gravitate towards him, opening up a pass to a wide open teammate. Russell got the ball, defense didn't flinch, Russell shot a highly contested rainbow. Russell was ice cold: 7 of 22.

Finally, 23 minutes of Juancho and 12 minutes of Vanderbilt is just stupid.

[Sugarless]

Clueless is exactly the word to describe Edwards, like Heimdal said. He's going to commit rookie mistakes like the three he had at the end of the game in a span of 5 seconds (not dunking, turning it over with a terrible pass and not fouling), but what you can't do is have him bring the ball up and eat up 16 seconds off the clock while he dribbles the ball out of air. That's on him and that's on Saunders. I just can't stand it.

I can't stand either watching how Rubio is spoon feeding guys left and right, being the best guard on the floor the first three quarters, and then the 4th and OT come and he goes back to a corner and maybe setting screens for Russell (wonderful 7/22 shooting line, especially with KAT back and Beasley on fire) and Edwards.

Anyway, right now this is one of the teams with the lowest BBIQs in the league both on the court and on the sidelines. It's no surprise they lost the way they did.

[Sugarless]

There are things that are becoming more clear with every passing game.
2. Russell and Rubio together doesn't work.

It clearly doesn't work. Mostly because Russell on the court doesn't work.

Through 9 games:

Rubio on, Rusell out: -3
Rubio on, Russell on: -48
Russell on, Rubio out: -83

[Dual]

Damn, if he dunks it there's close to 7.5 seconds left

Ricky being a leader again said this. Bench not helping the rookie this time also hurts.

Read on Twitter

[Dual]

There are things that are becoming more clear with every passing game.
2. Russell and Rubio together doesn't work.

It clearly doesn't work. Mostly because Russell on the court doesn't work.

Through 9 games:

Rubio on, Rusell out: - 3
Rubio on, Russell on: -48
Russell on, Rubio out: -83

I don't think it don't work, through last games you can see some chemistry growing in them, with good passes leading to easy baskets. Sadly they didn't convert it most of the times. It will come.

[PharmD]

There are things that are becoming more clear with every passing game.
2. Russell and Rubio together doesn't work.

It clearly doesn't work. Mostly because Russell on the court doesn't work.

Through 9 games:

Rubio on, Rusell out: - 3
Rubio on, Russell on: -48
Russell on, Rubio out: -83

I don't think it don't work, through last games you can see some chemistry growing in them, with good passes leading to easy baskets. Sadly they didn't convert it most of the times. It will come.

Agreed. Mostly i was thinking it'd be a good pairing because DLo could run off screens like KMart/Lavine/Booker/Mitchell and Rubio would do that thing where he hits them with perfect accuracy and timing every single time leading to points. But that hasn't really been the case because DLo doesn't really run when he doesn't have the ball. So it's been awkward. But in this game the Wolves pulled out the interesting wrinkle of running horns sets with Towns and DLo playing as the "horns" and i liked it. It gives Ricky the option of getting the ball to either guy, both of whom can create, and it allows DLo to start his attacks nearer the rim.

[Sugarless]

It clearly doesn't work. Mostly because Russell on the court doesn't work.

Through 9 games:

Rubio on, Rusell out: - 3
Rubio on, Russell on: -48
Russell on, Rubio out: -83

I don't think it don't work, through last games you can see some chemistry growing in them, with good passes leading to easy baskets. Sadly they didn't convert it most of the times. It will come.

Agreed. Mostly i was thinking it'd be a good pairing because DLo could run off screens like KMart/Lavine/Booker/Mitchell and Rubio would do that thing where he hits them with perfect accuracy and timing every single time leading to points. But that hasn't really been the case because DLo doesn't really run when he doesn't have the ball. So it's been awkward. But in this game the Wolves pulled out the interesting wrinkle of running horns sets with Towns and DLo playing as the "horns" and i liked it. It gives Ricky the option of getting the ball to either guy, both of whom can create, and it allows DLo to start his attacks nearer the rim.

But that's the thing, it could work if Russell adapted to the role of off-ball scorer with some pnr action here and there, but that's not the case for a number of reasons:

- The guy on the sidelines who's calling the plays is putting the ball in Russell's hands most of the time, instead of Rubio's, who we know can't operate off the ball on a consistent basis.

- When Rubio is running a play Russell has no impact on the game, cause he just stands around doing nothing for the most part.

- When Russell operates as the PG he's still too focused on scoring, regardless of how tough a shot is. He doesn't care if it's a deep-3, a deep-2 or a forced layup through traffic (the few times he enters the paint). His numbers come first, not the team.

Maybe Russell would change if he had the right coach pushing him (and pulling him) on the sidelines, or maybe not (I don't have much faith having watched him since his days at OSU), but in any case I just don't think Taylor or Rosas have any interest in bringing in a guy who will keep players accountable and install a team-first mentality, so I have a hard time thinking things will eventually work out naturally as these two spend more time on the court together.

[Merc_Porto]

With experience or not 99% of the players in this league would do the same as Edwards did in the last play.

And if it was a veteran nobody was going to talk like it was a mistake. Is a rookie then is a rookie mistake and he's going to learn. Learn what?

[Sugarless]

With experience or not 99% of the players in this league would do the same as Edwards did in the last play.

And if it was a veteran nobody was going to talk like it was a mistake. Is a rookie then is a rookie mistake and he's going to learn. Learn what?

There wasn't anything inherently wrong with dunking the ball there given that there were nearly 8 seconds on the clock when he could have dunked it. That puts you 1 point down with plenty of time to foul or even force a 5-second violation and get another chance at tying or winning the game. The mistake was not dunking the ball when he was there all alone, and then turning it over with an ill-advised pass (plus not fouling, but there were 2-3 guys close to the ball and no one did). But you got to cut him some slack since he's a rookie, and moreso if everyone on the bench was shouting "three!". I'm way less worried about that than about all the ball pounding and forced action we've seen from him from the start of the season.

[Merc_Porto]

With experience or not 99% of the players in this league would do the same as Edwards did in the last play.

And if it was a veteran nobody was going to talk like it was a mistake. Is a rookie then is a rookie mistake and he's going to learn. Learn what?

There wasn't anything inherently wrong with dunking the ball there given that there were nearly 8 seconds on the clock when he could have dunked it. That puts you 1 point down with plenty of time to foul or even force a 5-second violation and get another chance at tying or winning the game. The mistake was not dunking the ball when he was there all alone, and then turning it over with an ill-advised pass (plus not fouling, but there were 2-3 guys close to the ball and no one did). But you got to cut him some slack since he's a rookie, and moreso if everyone on the bench was shouting "three!". I'm way less worried about that than about all the ball pounding and forced action we've seen from him from the start of the season.

Rookie or not pretty much everybody would do the same thing in this league. Heck, even Lebron would do that.

So for me is not a matter of him being a rookie. Like you say the whole bench was shouting three for a reason.

The problem was to not call a timeout.

[alabamawolf]

It’s time for Ryan to go. He’s not the answer as head coach. Ant showed his elite potential off multiple times this game. He made a mistake at the end by not finishing the dunk but everyone was telling him to shoot the 3. He’ll learn from it. I’m more concerned by D-Lo. He had plenty of opportunity to foul at the end too but he just stood there and let the clock run out. He’s supposed to be a leader on this team and lead by example. It’s becoming more clear with each game he’s not someone you can build a winner around

[thinktank]

Saunders is terrible.

He just is.

I’m confident that almost any other NBA head coach would’ve squeezed at least one or two more wins out of this so far.

Ie, Saunders will leave 5 or maybe even 10 wins on the table this year.

[minimus]

Just fire Ryan Saunders tonight. Enough of this 3rd year rookie head coach clueless every night.

DeRozan is killing us all night, how about put Jarred Vanderbilt on him. A 6’9 forward who can bother him with his length and size.

Last play of the game in OT, we have two timeouts! Use one and draw up a play!

How many more excuses will this guy get game after game, loss after loss.

Ryan Saunders coaching record is now 38-77.

Jarred Vanderbilt would have been absolutely brutalized by Demar Derozan, dude isn’t laterally quick enough for that assignment.

Yeah, that is naive assumption that IF Saunders puts Vando on DeRozan, SAS would not try to switch and get mismatch against other MIN players.

[minimus]

Ricky being a leader again said this. Bench not helping the rookie this time also hurts.

I am glad that Edwards has Ricky as a mentor. It's no coincidence that they both play together a lot.

[Heimdal]

Ricky being a leader again said this. Bench not helping the rookie this time also hurts.

I am glad that Edwards has Ricky as a mentor. It's no coincidence that they both play together a lot.

Rubio and Edwards have been a total disappointment for me. Again, blame Saunders. Rubio was supposed to be setting the table for Edwards: giving him easy looks, alley-oops, cuts to the basket, back doors, etc. Instead, Edwards runs the point Georgia style and Rubio watches. Then, after a bad play I guess Rubio "mentors" Ant. What a disaster.

Rubio did wonders for rookie Don Mitchell and veteran Devin Booker. This franchise is ran by incompetent people.

[minimus]

Ricky being a leader again said this. Bench not helping the rookie this time also hurts.

I am glad that Edwards has Ricky as a mentor. It's no coincidence that they both play together a lot.

Rubio and Edwards have been a total dissapointment for me. Again, blame Saunders. Rubio was supposed to be setting the table for Edwards: giving him easy looks, alley-oops, cuts to the basket, back doors, etc. Instead, Edwards runs the point Georgia style and Rubio watches. Then, after a bad play I guess Rubio "mentors" Ant. What a disaster.

Rubio did wonders for rookie Don Mitchell and veteran Devin Booker. This franchise is ran by incompetent people.

I can remember at least three moments in last two games when Rubio sent Edwards in fastbreaks or kicked out to wide open Edwards on perimeter. Not to mention multiple DHO to give Edwards opportunities to act within team offense.

But if you want to blame someone, go ahead.