NBA: Midterm reports for first-year head coaches
By John Nassif
Ryan Saunders, Minnesota Timberwolves
Ryan Saunders was hyped up during the Summer League as the face of the next generation of great young NBA coaches. Those accolades seemed to be confirmed through the first two weeks of the season while Karl-Anthony Towns was putting up NBA MVP type numbers.
All that came to a halt during their 11-game losing streak in December. Saunders is still showing promise through his staunch commitment to analytical offense and posting the best defensive rating in the league over the last 10 games.
Despite a tough season, Ryan Saunders is certainly looking the part of a solid head coach and has the Wolves just two games out of the final playoff spot in the West.
Good Stat: Efficient Shot Selection – 4th highest FG Attempts that are layups (31.9%) and 3-pointers (43.0%)
Bad Stat: 3-point shooting – 2nd worst Percentage at 32.3%