Why does Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders keep his hardest-working reserve chained to the bench?
 Saunders says: "If Reggie Jordan had a [reliable] jump shot, he'd be Michael Jordan, just about" Photo By David Kern |
Two nights later against the Dallas Mavericks, it's déjà vu. The underachieving Wolves are down by two when Jordan enters the game with less than a minute to go in the first quarter. Over the next 12 minutes, neither of Dallas's premier outside shooters, Michael Finley or Hubert Davis, scores a point when Jordan is guarding them. Meanwhile Reggie gets four rebounds and two assists, and he even chips in seven points before leaving the game just before halftime with Minnesota enjoying a ten-point lead that eventually results in another Wolves win.
Yet over the first 41 games of a Wolves season marred by injuries and disrupted by a constant turnover in personnel, Jordan has logged just 284 minutes. After Stephon Marbury was traded and shooting guards Anthony Peeler and Malik Sealy got hurt, the Timberwolves went out and acquired Dennis Scott and James "Hollywood" Robinson rather than give Jordan, who knows Minnesota's system and always gives 100 percent, appreciably more playing time.
"Hey, I love Reggie Jordan," coach Flip Saunders says when asked why Jordan hasn't seen more action. "You've got to love him because of what he can do defensively, and that he provides unbelievable energy. If Reggie Jordan had a [reliable] jump shot, he'd be Michael Jordan, just about.
"But because of his shooting, Reggie's a situational player," Saunders continues. "He has to play in the backcourt with someone who can shoot from the perimeter, like Terrell [Brandon] or AP [Anthony Peeler]. Otherwise teams go and trap Kevin [Garnett] or Joe [Smith] down low, and our spacing isn't good enough to stretch the [opponents'] defense. You say with the injuries we've had that Reggie should be playing more, but in fact the injuries have hurt him, because the people who have gone down, like Brandon and Peeler, are the ones he is most effective playing with."
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Shooting Pains Sports, 3/31/99
Void Processing Sports, 3/17/99
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