FNG wrote:Normally I would agree that a coach should be evaluated based on how he works with assets he has. But the Wolves situation just seems so extreme. They are a team totally dependent on one of their max players, because when that max player is out, the team regularly gets outscored by double digits whenever the other max player is on the court. My God, the team is 2-2 when Towns plays (with one loss in OT) and now 3-14 when he doesn't...and the same thing happened last year! I would argue that there is no player in the league more valuable to his team than KAT because of the drop off when he is out. And no other coach has managed to turn DLO into a plus player during his 5 years, so I don't know why we would expect Ryan to...especially since he was given a roster with no proven PF. I think it would be enormously unfair to cut a coach given the circumstances. I don't think even Phil Jackson would be successful coaching a team made up of DLO and pieces.
But if KAT returns and the team can't go at least .500 without him, it would be time to evaluate whether we have the right coach or not.
If it was just this year with just this roster I would understand. There is just way to may other things going on with him. In Ryan Saunders first year the Wolves were the 14th rated offense in the NBA and the 16th rated defense, with a net rating +.3 in the games Thibs coached, in games Ryan coached the Wolves were 13th in the NBA in offense so no big difference from Thibs but the Wolves were terrible under Ryan on defense 27th in the NBA in defense. For a net rating -3.5 (21st in the NBA), so 3.8 pts worse per 100 possessions once Ryan took over. Also had a worse record after Ryan took over that year.
Year 2, Ryan Coached a team to the 3rd worst record in the NBA, that includes multiple 10+ game losing streaks and one of those streaks included Kat, so that can't be an excuse of him. He had his all nba player and they lost a lot.
Year 3, Wolves have the worst net rating in the NBA, the Wolves have the worst record in the NBA. He has used his challenge 4 times. He continues to play Dlo and Rubio down the stretch in games even though they are the 2nd worst 2 man combo the wolves have this year.
This all comes on the back of Ryan was hired to be the youngest coach in NBA history, he has not NBA playing experience. He came from the Thibs, Mitchell, Flip, Whittman and Tubby Smith. All come from the long 2, old school approach. Ryan does not have a good coaching tree. He also has 0 HC experience at any level before this, he was also never a main assistant at any one of his stops. He got hired because his last name is Saunders. Also it goes with Kat has a better win % when he is coached by anyone not named Ryan.