Although the Timberwolves did catch a few bad breaks last night against the New Jersey Nets, a loss is a loss. The Wolves are now two games below 0.500, Kevin Garnett is in a shooting slump, Mike James and Ricky Davis are consistently inconsistent and Randy Foye is still learning.
Of course, a decent amount of the team’s lackluster play is on the shoulders of Coach Dwane Casey, but he has shown growth in the past week. Casey has now developed enough confidence to pull struggling Mike James and insert Foye at a much quicker rate recently. Showing he would much rather take his lumps with a developing rookie over a struggling veteran can be a risky move, but in this case is the correct one.
The problem right now is that he still will not bench Ricky Davis when he is not playing defense. In my article for SPM Sports on Marko Jaric, I spoke with Coach on his seemingly short leash on Marko Jaric. Jaric stated that he was not happy with his role and has more to give this team, if only given the chance. As stated before, when Davis is rolling he certainly helps this team, but when his shot is not falling, thus causing his defense to suffer, he can lose a game for Minnesota on his own. This seems to be the obvious time to insert Jaric.
To a certain degree, it may seem as if I'm obsessed or harping on this point. I feel very strongly that this would help the team significantly.
Hopefully, Coach Casey can figure this out soon. It is great to see his ability to go with Foye over James lately, but he still has another adjustment to make before full credit can be given.
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