What I like about the Minnesota Timberwolves and head coach Sam Mitchell is that they have the luxury of doing what’s right for the betterment of the young players. Something that we’re struggling to see in the purple & gold side of Los Angeles.
In a game against the Milwaukee Bucks, nearly four minutes into the second half, Sam Mitchell benched Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Tayshaun Prince and then Ricky Rubio a minute later. This was because of laziness on D. Only Tayshaun Prince got on the court again in that game, setting a statement from Mitchell to the young ones, and Ricky Rubio.
“I thought the guys who played in the second half played hard,” he began. “Played together, played with a type of intensity and energy we needed to. I thought some of the guys in the first group didn’t play that way. And they have to understand, every single night you have to earn it. You don’t get to sleepwalk your way through 20, 25 minutes of the game and then decide you gotta play. … So the guys that didn’t play in the second half, after we pulled ’em out, hopefully they understand that there’s two sides on the court. You have to play both sides.”
Now Ricky Rubio should be especially scolded because he’s been in the league long enough to know all this. For Towns and Wiggins, I hope they take this all in. This is a valuable lesson to any young player. There are two sides to every basketball game.
