The Minnesota Timberwolves suffered another defeat on Saturday, as they fell to the Philadelphia 76ers 118-109.
Following the disappointing loss, Wolves superstar Karl-Anthony Towns admitted that one of the biggest reasons the team has been struggling of late is due to their inability to completely adjust to the mid-season coaching changes that took place within the team.
“We’re doing a lot of things out of muscle memory,” Towns told John Krawczynski of The Athletic. “It’s a little different, what (Thibs) was asking and what (Saunders) is asking. It causes a little confusion. There are so many different things with Dario (Saric) and Jerryd (Bayless), we’re thinking in a Thibs format and they’re thinking in a Ryan Saunders format or a Brett Brown format. Sometimes that leads to miscommunication. … That’s what we’re missing right now because he haven’t had the time to sit down and fix everything up.”
Minnesota sacked former head coach and general manager Tom Thibodeau a couple of months back and replaced him with a young and inexperienced Ryan Saunders. In his defense, the 32-year-old coach has done relatively well given the circumstances, but unfortunately, the Timberwolves have yet to fully imbibe his system.
Towns had a so-so evening against the Sixers, scoring 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting along with seven rebounds, a couple of assists, and a block. However, his +/- rating was simply terrible at -16, as he was unable to take advantage of the absence of opposing big man Joel Embiid (rest).
