The Minnesota Timberwolves went on a 10-0 run to start the fourth quarter last night, extending their lead to 82-72 after it was tied up at the end of the third. Coach Quin Snyder called a timeout, except — rather than rail against his team’s lack of effort — he didn’t say a word to his players before they again took the court. The tactic worked.
As Andy Larsen of Salt City Hoops describes, Quin’s wordless anger was enough to get stoke his players when they returned to the court. They went on an 8-2 run when they returned and finished the game on a 16-2 run for a 100-94 victory at home:
Quin Snyder said, and the players confirmed, that for one full timeout, Quin just said nothing and stared at the players. It worked.
— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) December 31, 2014
As Hayward said after the game about Quin's silent timeout, "He said it all with the look in his eyes." The whole locker room laughed.
— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) December 31, 2014
The move by Snyder isn’t the first time we’ve heard of a coach turning his back on his team as an incentive for them to work harder and play mistake-free ball.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich — considered by us, and others, to be the best coach in the game today — has pulled the same sort of move in a timeout.
Per Jeff McDonald’s Q&A with Popovich last season for the San Antonio Express-News comes news of Pop’s wordless stimulus plan for his troops (emphasis ours):
Q. How do you get players to take ownership of the offense? Is it a confidence thing?
Popovich: “That’s a good question. A lot depends on the competitiveness and the character of the player. Often times, I’ll appeal to that. Like, I can’t make every decision for you. I don’t have 14 timeouts. You guys got to get together and talk. You guys might see a mismatch that I don’t see. You guys need to communicate constantly — talk, talk, talk to each other about what’s going on on the court.
“I think that communication thing really helps them. It engenders a feeling that they can actually be in charge. I think competitive character people don’t want to be manipulated constantly to do what one individual wants them to do. It’s a great feeling when players get together and do things as a group. Whatever can be done to empower those people …
“Sometimes in timeouts I’ll say, ‘I’ve got nothing for you. What do you want me to do? We just turned it over six times. Everybody’s holding the ball. What else do you want me to do here? Figure it out.’ And I’ll get up and walk away. Because it’s true. There’s nothing else I can do for them. I can give them some bulls—, and act like I’m a coach or something, but it’s on them…”
Technically speaking, Popovich does talk to his players first to explain why he’s going mum, but it’s the same type of scheme employed by Snyder last night. Sometimes players just need to be held accountable for their own actions on the court, and no amount of sideline grousing will change what’s going down on the hardwood.
Plus, Popovich can get angry and he can rant and rage, but we’ve never seen him go full Exorcist like Snyder has:
Was this a good coaching move, or just lucky?
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