Game Report - Wolves v Charlotte
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2020 10:32 pm
I've been re-energized to start writing game reports again. Great crowd tonight and a terrific first half from the team. I liked what Naz brought and I liked the way Beasley competed. Otherwise, I there isn't anything positive to report.
H-Gomez is really soft and Russell is too slow for my taste, although I still see DLO as an upgrade over Wiggins. I like Beasley, Okogie, Naz and Johnson. And clearly the team would have won tonight if KAT had played. But the Wolves still should have won this game tonight. Losing to a team like Charlotte at Target Center with a big energized crowd after building an 18 point lead at halftime is unacceptable.
The real story behind tonight's loss was Ryan Saunders. Charlotte's head coach made adjustments at half time and Ryan was like a dear in headlights after that. The Wolves shot poorly in the 2nd half, but most of that was the inability to get good shots out of the offense. Ryan went way too long with a really bad second unit in the 3rd quarter and into the 4th. He finally used a challenge, but in this instance he used it when it was only worth one point. There's more, but I won't go on. Ryan is either a bad head coach or he's in on a front-office strategy still focused on tanking. It's really hard to believe the latter after the recent trades. It would be incredibly dumb to continue a tanking strategy in front of a big crowd after re-energizing the fan base with major trades intended to remake the roster for the future. So I come back to the reality that Ryan is in way over his head as an NBA head coach. I just hope that Rosas and his front office colleagues see it and have the fortitude and freedom under Glen to act on it before next season.
H-Gomez is really soft and Russell is too slow for my taste, although I still see DLO as an upgrade over Wiggins. I like Beasley, Okogie, Naz and Johnson. And clearly the team would have won tonight if KAT had played. But the Wolves still should have won this game tonight. Losing to a team like Charlotte at Target Center with a big energized crowd after building an 18 point lead at halftime is unacceptable.
The real story behind tonight's loss was Ryan Saunders. Charlotte's head coach made adjustments at half time and Ryan was like a dear in headlights after that. The Wolves shot poorly in the 2nd half, but most of that was the inability to get good shots out of the offense. Ryan went way too long with a really bad second unit in the 3rd quarter and into the 4th. He finally used a challenge, but in this instance he used it when it was only worth one point. There's more, but I won't go on. Ryan is either a bad head coach or he's in on a front-office strategy still focused on tanking. It's really hard to believe the latter after the recent trades. It would be incredibly dumb to continue a tanking strategy in front of a big crowd after re-energizing the fan base with major trades intended to remake the roster for the future. So I come back to the reality that Ryan is in way over his head as an NBA head coach. I just hope that Rosas and his front office colleagues see it and have the fortitude and freedom under Glen to act on it before next season.