Wolves vs Blazers GDT

[Wolvesfan21]

You can explain the poor defense in a couple ways though. Again. No Butler, No Roco, no Taj, No Teague or Rose (meh). But those first few are good to great defenders.

Then you have the soft tank mode going on as well. Had the Wolves been in playoff contention, then yes, the players would likely be performing better with better effort.

Inexperienced players and no point in winning will lead to bad results. I do think Ryan could possibly be doing better, but I also can't blame him with the deck he was felt. It was a losing hand.

Should Glen consider other potential better options? Yes.

[thedoper]

A real GM should be hired who should have total freedom to hire the coach he wants. I don't think that is the case though. Taylor seems to want a GM that will work with Ryan seemingly from Jon K's reporting I have heard. Ryan should still be an assistant still from what I have seen. I think a great coach would have given us more of a fight even with our fucked up roster situation. I still think Ryan has potential, maybe even a head coach in a stable infrastructure. We're not that, we are the biggest joke in the league.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I don't think Ryan Saunders is terrible. And I don't think the Wolves are mailing it in (at least not compared to other Wolves tanking seasons).

But again... I caution against simply dismissing how consistently terrible this team has been defending the three point shot... something that's become THE point of emphasis in the NBA.

As noted... the Wolves aren't the only team with injuries. They're not the only team playing out the string. They aren't the only team in NBA history with an interim coach.

But they are the very worst of all time at defending the three point shot over at least 25% of the season.




I don't have high standards for this franchise. All I ask is that they're NOT the absolute worst of all time. And yet, they consistently miss even that low-water mark.

[Coolbreeze44]

[quote=@6583510]Comparing Thibs and Ryan Saunders thsi season IMHO this year is rational to do to try and make sense of the situation but I also think its probably not really a fair comparison either. Covington hasn't played a single minute for Ryan and then you have a slew of injuries which Thibs did have some injury issues to deal with also but not like this. Thibs a couple years ago consider a top level head coach and Ryan is an interim 32 (turns 33 later this month) old coach taking over a fairly disastrous season. Thibs wasn't good enough to keep the job. Is Ryan good enough to get this job and keep it? idk but comparing his record or team play to Thibs or whatever I don't really think it's actually a worthwhile endeavor all things considered. Keep in mind I tended to give Thibs the benefit of the doubt more than most here.

Also I'm sure Ryan is more warm and fuzzy or whatever than Thibs but the idea that he is over there never yelling at anyone and just being pals seems a bit unfair also. I think its telling that guys like Taj Deng and Rose who played for Thibs and are Thibs guys also love Ryan.

Monster, explain to me how it's rational to try and do so. To me it's totally irrational. And I'm not just exonerating Ryan. He needs to be judged on far different criteria than Thibs though.

Why though? Because he's not an ass hole he deserves different criteria. I'm not even talking X's and O's with Ryan being the problem. This team is not showing up to games ready to play. That doesn't require time to implement your own system. That is literally the bare minimum thing you can do as a new coach. Get guys to show up and play hard for you for 48 minutes. You literally don't have to do any actual basketball coaching to accomplish that.

The team just fired the most hated coach we've ever had, then the players were given a player friendly coach and they don't show up and play hard for Ryan. I'm literally evaluating him on the bare minimum I would expect a new coach to bring to a job and he's failing at that. Why is a new system implemented over the summer gonna get guys to close out harder? It's not.

The fact is that he should at a bare minimum be able to get effort out of them which would stop these complete tank job 1st quarters and actually give us a chance to win games, but he can't do that. That is absolutely something he should be criticized for. We're not the only team hit with the injury bug this year. That doesn't absolve not showing up and playing hard every night. You don't get down double digits every night because of a bad scheme in the NBA. You do that because you don't show up ready to bring the effort an NBA game requires every night.

Wiggins doesn't play hard for anyone, so forget that. KAT and everyone else do bring it, KAT has been crushing it under Ryan. Other guys it's a bit inconsistent at times like it's always been. Jim Pete has been saying the players have been playing hard, I tend to agree.

Giving up early leads doesn't always mean lack of effort, it could simply be that they are less talented.

So on your initial point I disagree.

My thing though is how fucked are we next year. I mean it's not like we are starting bums. We are starting possibly 4 of our 5 starters next year and the other guy is our young prospect.

I'm just more disappointed in Ryan. We are shooting the same amount of 3s in terms of attempts and frequency. We are playing at a slower pace than with thibs. We are 7 points worse per 100 possessions on D than with thibs. Wiggins stat line is the same across the board besides he has averaged 2.5 more rebounds. And we have had 13 plays last possessions and 0 have been given to Kat.

More disappointed that pretty much nothing has changed from thibs in terms of basketball philosophy besides demeanor.