Two and done for Taylor, who walked off with three-pointer
It’s the nature of pro basketball. Players come and go. Ryan Taylor played two games for the Lightning. One was bad. The other? He hit the game-winning shot in a game the Lightning clinched first place.
Ryan Taylor plays some questionable defense against the KW Titans Apr. 23, 2022. Later in the game, he hit the game-winning 3-pointer. Then, he was gone. Off to New Zealand after a two-game London Lightning career. (Photo: Dan Congdon).
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How will history remember the Ryan Taylor era with the London Lightning?
When he signed with the team on April 18, Taylor looked like a midseason godsend, a 6-foot-6-inch point guard with a Big 10 and NBA G League pedigree coming in to settle the backcourt after the suspension and release of All-Star point Chris Jones just days before.
It was the kind of break that drives other fanbases nuts – Devil Lightning Magic strikes again.
Taylor made his Bolts debut against Windsor on April 22 as the team was coming off a 118-110 loss to Sudbury a week earlier. His performance could easily be summed up in a single word.
“Ryan was terrible in his first game – terrible,” Lightning head coach Doug Plumb said.
Taylor’s line for that game was 18 points, 1 rebound, and 0 assists in 42 minutes of play. Not bad in black and white. Not great, either. More was certainly expected. His 6-19 shooting from the floor, including 4-12 from 3, was not what Plumb had wanted – neither was his muted effort on both ends of the court. The guy simply wasn’t busting his ass the way Plumb demands of his lineup. The team lost its second straight game that night, 110-92. It was the Bolts’ first loss of the season to the Express.
More than the loss, however, it was Taylor’s performance that bugged Plumb more than anyone.
“I don’t just go sign these guys on a whim after watching a one highlight tape. I really dig into a player,” the coach explained. “That’s a 10-12-hour job. It’s watching highlight tapes; it’s watching college tapes; it’s digging into his stats and figuring out if this is someone I want. It’s calls to the agents, calls to him, calls to make sure his character references check out.
“I have lots of questions I need answered: Do they cut hard? Do they run the floor hard? Do they defend? Do they have great second efforts? Do they screen well? Are they a good teammate? How do they react to adversity? You can find it in film if you really look. So, I do my homework.”
When it came to Taylor, Plumb was jazzed to land him. Taylor was “perfect – this is the guy.”
And then, Taylor was, as the coach said, terrible.
That night, Plumb couldn’t sleep. He was up until 3:30 a.m. Everything was rattling around in his head: How could he have missed so badly on a player? The team was 4-4 in its last eight games. They were reeling and facing a game the next day where they were going to have seven (maybe) healthy players to take the court against the KW Titans in a few hours.
“I was like, ‘Dude, what happened? I don’t ever miss. I was really distraught,” Plumb said.
The next day, Taylor walked into the coach’s office and announced that he got another gig with a team in New Zealand. A deal with the Canterbury Rams in Christchurch had materialized during the previous few days. Taylor’s effort suffered on the court because he had one foot out the door.
To the 27-year-old American’s credit, however, he offered to play that night for the shorthanded Lightning.
In a normal situation, that’s a hard ‘no’ from the coach. Even short players, how can you trust someone already divested from the squad? But Plumb was going into the second game of a back-to-back with an already thin crew – he had very little choice.
“He said, ‘What do you need from me?’ I said, “I need you to hit eight 3s.’ Then he goes out and plays his ass off and hits the game-winner. I looked at Mark (Frijia, Lightning GM) and Vito (Frijia, Lightning owner) on the bench and said, ‘I told you this guy was good.’”
Taylor was better than good – he was lights out against the Titans, flipping the script completely from the previous night. He led the team in scoring with 24 points on 8-14 shooting from the floor, including 6-10 from 3. His game-winning three, with time winding down, lifted the Lightning to a 106-103 victory – and clinched first place for London, guaranteeing them home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
“It doesn’t help us much as he’s out the door, but I thought that was really professional of Ryan,” Plumb said. “Obviously, the situation is not ideal, but at the end of the day it is a business and guys gotta do what’s best for their career, as it’s a very short window. I completely understand. But I thought it was professional of him to do that for us. We really needed that game. The way that we won that game was more than a win for us; it was like a real bonding experience for our guys and a good morale booster.”
Around the Perimeter: London and KW are the final two teams standing. It’s experience vs. youth; Will Lightning match the Titans’ energy?; Will defense decide this matchup? Read our series preview …