Minnesota Sports Forum

What do you think our record would be right now in this scenario?

-Ricky Rubio and Josh Okogie don't play a single minute this season

-Instead of Ryan saunders, whoever you view as the most average coach in the NBA is now our coach

-Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels don't get any increased minutes

Where do you think we would be sitting at right now?

BloopOracle wrote:What do you think our record would be right now in this scenario?

-Ricky Rubio and Josh Okogie don't play a single minute this season

-Instead of Ryan saunders, whoever you view as the most average coach in the NBA is now our coach

-Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels don't get any increased minutes

Where do you think we would be sitting at right now?

Wolves are currently 6-20, if the Wolves had a league average coach i think the Wolves would be about 13-13. I think Ryan consistently kills us night after night. We wouldn't have lost 3 games where wolves were 99% probability to win. So that's 9-17 right there and I think a better coach wins us 4 more games

We need to frame the question to really answer it. KAT would still be out for most of the games, and Culver and DLO would be missing several. And J-Mac is limited in the number of games he can play, so without Rubio and Josh there would be some several games in which our rotation would be:

PG: Edwards/Nowell
SG: Beasley/
SF: Layman/Vando
PF: MacDaniels/Juancho
C: Reid/Davis

We would still never have our 2 max players in at the same time, but the lineup would be at least be better than the above disaster with either KAT or DLO in there.

To answer your question now that I think about who really would be out there much of the time, I would say a league average NBA coach would lead this team to a 4-22 record. We might steal a couple games, but I don't see enough talent in those 9 guys to win more than 4.

BloopOracle wrote:What do you think our record would be right now in this scenario?

-Ricky Rubio and Josh Okogie don't play a single minute this season

-Instead of Ryan saunders, whoever you view as the most average coach in the NBA is now our coach

-Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels don't get any increased minutes

Where do you think we would be sitting at right now?

No clue. We got our wish when Saunders stopped playing Juancho and Layman so much. What's happened? We've just kept on losing anyway.

I'm kind of with Abe that I don't think a coach makes a ton of difference except for the really, really elite ones. May be we win two or three more games with a Rick Carlisle or Mike Malone. But I don't agree with Kek that we'd be .500.

I think because we focus so much on our own players, we forget just how damn good the rest of the NBA is. There are like 25 or 30 guards that could just go nuts on any given night like Rozier did tonight and it's just not a big deal anymore.

Beasley - who we think of as easily our 2nd best player - is a solid starting SG in this league. I mean, 5 guys like him at the other positions get you to may be .500. It's just weird for us to see a SG for Minnesota shoot so well because it's been such a rarity over the years. But he's not all that special these days unfortunately.

Q12543 wrote:

BloopOracle wrote:What do you think our record would be right now in this scenario?

-Ricky Rubio and Josh Okogie don't play a single minute this season

-Instead of Ryan saunders, whoever you view as the most average coach in the NBA is now our coach

-Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels don't get any increased minutes

Where do you think we would be sitting at right now?

No clue. We got our wish when Saunders stopped playing Juancho and Layman so much. What's happened? We've just kept on losing anyway.

I'm kind of with Abe that I don't think a coach makes a ton of difference except for the really, really elite ones. May be we win two or three more games with a Rick Carlisle or Mike Malone. But I don't agree with Kek that we'd be .500.

I think because we focus so much on our own players, we forget just how damn good the rest of the NBA is. There are like 25 or 30 guards that could just go nuts on any given night like Rozier did tonight and it's just not a big deal anymore.

Beasley - who we think of as easily our 2nd best player - is a solid starting SG in this league. I mean, 5 guys like him at the other positions get you to may be .500. It's just weird for us to see a SG for Minnesota shoot so well because it's been such a rarity over the years. But he's not all that special these days unfortunately.

21.0 ppg
5.2 reb
2.4 apg
45.6% fg
39.3% 3fg

vs.

20.1 ppg
4.0 reb
3.0 apg
49.0% fg
45.0% 3fg

That's Beasley vs. Rozier. Then you look at the importance each guy has on their respective teams this season. Some might argue Beasley has been the Wolves best player with Towns out.

Rozier is a clear #3 for the Hornets.

Beyond that... the Wolves are young. SUPER young. All young players make mistakes. Imagine a rotation with SEVEN first or second year players. Imagine that same super young team with two guys (Beasley/Russell) with checkered pasts on doing little things wrong leading the way.

And then add in the only "smart, seasoned veteran" falling off a cliff athletically and mentally and playing the worst ball of his career... by far.

That's the 2021 Timberwolves so far.

By all means, blame the coach. We always do. And Saunders deserves to be ripped. He deserves to be fired. He's overmatched.

But a new coach isn't changing those problems above. They have not been anywhere close to a .500 team with Towns out.

Think of it this way... the Timberwolves have reached .500 once in 16 seasons. And people think THIS team without Towns was playing .500 basketball?

No.


No.

BloopOracle wrote:What do you think our record would be right now in this scenario?

-Ricky Rubio and Josh Okogie don't play a single minute this season

-Instead of Ryan saunders, whoever you view as the most average coach in the NBA is now our coach

-Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels don't get any increased minutes

Where do you think we would be sitting at right now?

A little worse at 4-22.

As bad as Rubio and Okogie are on offense they help a little on defense compared to whoever is getting those minutes.

Then you are replacing Ant and JaMac's minutes with someone even worse.

Q12543 wrote:

BloopOracle wrote:What do you think our record would be right now in this scenario?

-Ricky Rubio and Josh Okogie don't play a single minute this season

-Instead of Ryan saunders, whoever you view as the most average coach in the NBA is now our coach

-Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels don't get any increased minutes

Where do you think we would be sitting at right now?

No clue. We got our wish when Saunders stopped playing Juancho and Layman so much. What's happened? We've just kept on losing anyway.

I'm kind of with Abe that I don't think a coach makes a ton of difference except for the really, really elite ones. May be we win two or three more games with a Rick Carlisle or Mike Malone. But I don't agree with Kek that we'd be .500.

I think because we focus so much on our own players, we forget just how damn good the rest of the NBA is. There are like 25 or 30 guards that could just go nuts on any given night like Rozier did tonight and it's just not a big deal anymore.

Beasley - who we think of as easily our 2nd best player - is a solid starting SG in this league. I mean, 5 guys like him at the other positions get you to may be .500. It's just weird for us to see a SG for Minnesota shoot so well because it's been such a rarity over the years. But he's not all that special these days unfortunately.

Players play the game and GMs acquire the talent, I get that.

But coaches choose how much players play, who touches the ball, draws up plays for the right hand, when to sub who in and who out, when to call timeouts.

Saunders sucks.

It's hard not to conclude that Saunders is a below-average NBA head coach. We also have a below-average head of basketball operations named Gersson Rosas. He has squandered multiple assets and opportunities in his effort to build an adequate roster around Towns. So it's a combination. There's no question in my mind that this team would have won more games thus far with a better head coach, but the Wolves would still end up on the outside looking in on the playoffs at the end of the season.

I think our roster is a bigger problem than our head coach, although both are problematic. For example, I think having Julius Randle instead of Rubio would have made a bigger difference than a better head coach. That's something Rosas could have done and it's just one of many examples.

lipoli390 wrote:It's hard not to conclude that Saunders is a below-average NBA head coach. We also have a below-average head of basketball operations named Gersson Rosas. He has squandered multiple assets and opportunities in his effort to build an adequate roster around Towns. So it's a combination. There's no question in my mind that this team would have won more games thus far with a better head coach, but the Wolves would still end up on the outside looking in on the playoffs at the end of the season.

I think our roster is a bigger problem than our head coach, although both are problematic. For example, I think having Julius Randle instead of Rubio would have made a bigger difference than a better head coach. That's something Rosas could have done and it's just one of many examples.

My counter is Randle has been considered a negative in his career, as a ball hog and bad defender. Now that he has a good coach in thibs and he is a positive for his 1st time in his life. Just something to think about. Rubio is having his worse year of his career coming off a career year. Why is that? Just some thought. Not trying to defend Rosas

kekgeek1 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:It's hard not to conclude that Saunders is a below-average NBA head coach. We also have a below-average head of basketball operations named Gersson Rosas. He has squandered multiple assets and opportunities in his effort to build an adequate roster around Towns. So it's a combination. There's no question in my mind that this team would have won more games thus far with a better head coach, but the Wolves would still end up on the outside looking in on the playoffs at the end of the season.

I think our roster is a bigger problem than our head coach, although both are problematic. For example, I think having Julius Randle instead of Rubio would have made a bigger difference than a better head coach. That's something Rosas could have done and it's just one of many examples.

My counter is Randle has been considered a negative in his career, as a ball hog and bad defender. Now that he has a good coach in thibs and he is a positive for his 1st time in his life. Just something to think about. Rubio is having his worse year of his career coming off a career year. Why is that? Just some thought. Not trying to defend Rosas

Julius Randle is another great example of a very talented, very gifted player that has been stuck playing for bad teams most of his career. But when he did have competent players and coaching around him he has been good, specifically being that year in New Orleans and this season with New York. I'm happy for him and would have been excited about acquiring him this off-season. Another one of those "oh well" moments for me as a Minnesota sports fan.