NBA: Grading first-year head coaches for the 2019-20 season

Ryan Saunders, Minnesota Timberwolves

The hope entering the 2019-20 NBA season was that the Minnesota Timberwolves were going to turn a new leaf after the departure of Tom Thibodeau and Jimmy Butler (almost a year removed from that entire fiasco). However, despite their solid start to the season, the Wolves hit a bit of a rough patch in December and January – and that’s putting it lightly.

The Wolves had two extended losing streaks during those two months (11, December; 13, January). In fact, the team went  7-34 from Dec 1 – March 1. That all but disqualified them from being any type of competitive in the Western Conference this season.

At the hiatus, the Wolves stand with the fifth-worst record in the NBA, at 19-45. The only fairly good news that the team did enjoy during the season was the fact that the Wolves finally traded Andrew Wiggins at the NBA Trade Deadline. They also landed D’Angelo Russell.

To say that Ryan Saunders had a rough first season as head coach of the Wolves would be an understatement. He’ll get a clean slate soon enough. Hopefully, he’ll be able to turn it around. But 2019-20 was certainly a year to forget for Minnesota.

Grade: D