NBA 2020-21 reg season 1st half thread

whoa

Chris Finch is becoming the new Timberwolves head coach on a full-time basis, not as an interim, sources said. The Timberwolves fired Ryan Saunders tonight after loss to the Knicks in New York. https://t.co/HFVdycuEUv

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 22, 2021

finch was actively working as an assistant with the raps as far as i can tell? i know he's been a guy that's been talked about anytime there's a head coaching vacancy for a while now but i can't remember an assistant for another team being hired into a fulltime role in the middle of a season before.

Uhhh ... 😅😅😅 pic.twitter.com/LZkHZGAyFa

— #RingerNBA (@ringernba) February 22, 2021

the wolves are a very messy org

hire flips son for sentimental reasons but then also fire him half a season later for basketball reasons

gersson roasas has been the worst executive in basketball since he got hired so good luck from here i guess

Make it make sense. Respectfully. https://t.co/4crtNzWV0W

— CJ McCollum (@CJMcCollum) February 22, 2021

huh
I'm just really surprised Vanterpool wasn't made interim, locally on sports talk it was kind of assumed that's what would happen if Ryan got fired

based on dame and cj's reactions you aren't the only one

uh it seems more than a little messy for some players to get involved with the front office decisions of another team

this was the first step if the wolves have any hope of turning it around w/ this group of players. there was no evidence that saunders had any qualifications to be a head coach for any franchise except the one who employed his dad

Just saw a stat that dlo kat and beasley have only played like 100 minutes together

afaik vanterpool has been considered a qualified head coach candidate for a while now, so it's not amazing for his team to go poach another team's white assistant coach for a guaranteed job in the middle of a season.

useful thread

I'm curious the last time a team hired a person from totally outside their organization to coach the team mid-season. Knicks did it a long time ago, back in 1990, just before Riley took the reins.

— Chris Herring (@Herring_NBA) February 22, 2021

it's kind of insane how bad gersson rosas has been... what's the best move he's made since taking over? i can't even think of one. signing naz reid to a 2 way?

getting beasley is the only useful thing he's done and that's like a B- move

the Wiggins Russell trade would have been okay if dangelo played much and they also didn’t throw in one of the more valuable possible assets in the league

getting beasley is the only useful thing he's done and that's like a B- move

I mean, we all know the history of the Wolves but this stat is really striking

Timberwolves have had 13 head coaches w/ 82 games (full season’s worth) or more. Ryan Saunders’ .314 winning % places him exactly in middle — 7th best or worst, take your pick.

— Reusse (@Patrick_Reusse) February 22, 2021

the worst winning pct in nba history

oh I'm sure, just something striking about half the team's coaches being worse than Ryan Saunders.

at this point I'm not even sure an owner who was trying to do the Major League "be bad on purpose" trick could have done worse

Giving Beasley that extension after his offseason behavior and after picking Edwards gives me Donald Sterling Clippers vibes. They’re the team that drafts and trades for head cases with no real rhyme or reason.

Edwards? he's been the opposite of a headcase

like people can't stop talking about what a good teammate he is, the only bright spot this season

Beasley is an amazing talent but how could this be the right situation for him? That’s what the clippers did, just drafted the most obviously talented guy who would impress Sterling

Edwards is a nice guy who thinks basketball is a joke. That’s probably still a better fit for them than LaMelo

You're basing that off of one bullshit pre draft storm in a teacup quote. watch him play. he's infectious, he has fun, he's talented. it's kind of sick how these kids get a "bad reputation" off nothing.

well, he did tell ESPN on the record that he doesn’t like basketball that much and would rather play in the NFL. it’s not exactly what you want to hear and i think increases the burden of proof wrt whether he will fulfill the promise of being a no 1 pick. but i wouldn’t call him a headcase he’s clearly a likable kid

Javale’s a fun guy

ok skip

feel like edwards was prob just goofin off about the nfl and whatnot he even said some funny stuff at the same time

i mean he could be in the nfl if he wanted to

he is known to goof off as well

anyway he seems like he might be very good at basketball at some point in the future

as good as lonzo ball? not nearly impossible but i would not bet on it

that's the wolves paradox though...if lamelo had been drafted by the wolves, he would probably look worse so far and people would be saying edwards was better

“Doesn’t really like basketball” may not be a headcase situation to you guys but it’s the Anthony Edwards situation and there’s a long history of it being a problem with players. In general you want people who love basketball.

that is true but im not ready to rule that he doesnt love basketball in fact watching him play it seems like he might like it

Javale has fun out there

here's quotes you like quotes

https://theathletic.com/2393635/2021/02/17/the-lessons-and-the-leaps-for-anthony-edwards-as-he-assumes-russells-role/

“Last time I played versus the Lakers, I played very bad. I feel like as a team, we played very bad,” Edwards said. “We was scared, we was intimidated, so I just took it personal and took it upon myself to show that I don’t care who I’m going against, I’m still going to play the same way that I played against somebody that’s not the Lakers. I kind of took it personally to come out and try to uplift my team and keep us in the game as much as I could.”

........

“He’s special,” Rubio said. “Like I said the game before, he kept our spirit up all season long. It’s something that you gotta give him credit for. And tonight he show it again. He’s not afraid of anything. And tomorrow he’s gonna come with the same attitude and that’s why we love him.”

.........

As Edwards’ game grows and he gets more experience, he will learn about how to empower his team’s best player in those moments so the Wolves could send James home with a loss instead of just a little extra sweat on his brow. He is ready to learn.

....

“Not just about me scoring a lot of points, it’s about the team just being out there playing and not being scared because they’re the defending champs and they’ve got Bron on their team and AD and all these guys,” Edwards said. “So that’s all I was trying to do.”

....

“I just tell my teammates to trust me, because I’m a willing passer, no matter what,” Edwards said. “No matter if I’m knocking them down, I’m still a willing passer, so I just tell them to trust me, stay ready. Don’t ever think, ‘Oh, Ant is going to shoot.’ It’s never that. It’s ‘Ant is going to make the right play for the team’s sake.’ And I just try to keep that in the back of their minds as much as we’re on the court.”

......

“I don’t really feel pressure, no matter what’s the circumstance or any situation,” Edwards said. “So no, I don’t feel pressure. It’s basketball. I love basketball. It’s what I get paid for. Well, I just started getting paid for it. But it’s what I’ve been doing all my life, so therefore it’s no pressure. It’s fun, it’s love.”

oh just to beat you to the punch - javale said things and had other people say things about him

we're talking about 3-time nba champion javale mcgee, here?

at the very least, "does he love basketball" is below "picked primarily to assuage the egos of KAT and d'angelo russell" and "averages 2.5 assists per game" on the anthony edwards red flags chart

otm

the candor he had in the interview admitting/joking that he doesn't like basketball very much is inseparable from the effervescence of his personality which has endeared him to his teammates. combined w/ his raw talent and athleticism he's a fascinating player, kinda old school pre-robotic NBA in a way

by old school i mean like late 90s/early 00s lol

yeah holding that against him is kind of like when people excoriated Vince Carter for going to his college graduation. Like you can give your all to basketball without pretending (or actually believing) that it is the be all end all of life

what if instead of judging him for his comments we LISTENED and found a way to better incorporate disrespect in to the game of basketball

i think the difference is that the bar to be great as no 1 pick is very high, if edwards was the fifth pick (as vince was) i don't think it would be such a sticking point. but also edwards being the no 1 pick has as much to do w/ random circumstances as anything else

prob wouldve gone like 5th in this years draft, btw all the top 3 picks are looking pretty great in that supposedly awful draft