Last Wednesday, the Minnesota Timberwolves announced the hiring of former Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau as their new Head Coach and President of Basketball Operations.
A position that was left vacant with the death of Flip Saunders, just a couple of days before the 2015-16 regular season was set to tip-off. The then associate Head Coach Sam Mitchell took over as the Interim Head Coach for the remainder of the season.
"We are extremely excited to welcome Tom Thibodeau back to the Timberwolves," Taylor said in a statement issued by the team. "Through this process we quickly identified Tom as the best leader to shape our talented team and help them realize their full potential."
Multiple reports surfaced over the past week about interviews the Timberwolves management was conducting to fill up their vacant Head Coaching position. Sources told ESPN.com, that former Golden State Warriors Head Coach Mark Jackson and former New York Knicks Head Coach Jeff Van Gundy were candidates that were interviewed and considered for the job. Ultimately, however, the organization decided upon appointing Thibodeau.
"I started my NBA career with the Minnesota Timberwolves and it is an incredible opportunity to rejoin the organization at a time when they have what I believe to be the best young roster in the NBA," Thibodeau said in a statement. "Together with a great owner in Glen Taylor and a terrific basketball partner in Scott Layden, I look forward to building a winning culture that Minnesota sports fans can be proud of."
Scott Layden is a veteran NBA executive, who had been working as an assistant General Manager to R.C. Buford in the San Antonio Spurs organization for the past four years.
This past season on his year off, Thibodeau got to visit the training camps of many teams. During one such visit to San Antonio, he reacquainted himself with Layden. Layden and Thibodeau knew each other from their New York days in the early 2000’s when Layden served as the GM and Thibodeau was an assistant Coach for the Knicks.
Tom Thibodeau’s resume
There are a few countable Head Coaches in the NBA who are also the President of Basketball Operations for their respective teams. Few examples being Gregg Popovich (San Antonio Spurs), Doc Rivers (Los Angeles Clippers) and Stan Van Gundy (Detroit Pistons). A common feature among all these personalities is the considerable amount of experience each of them has of coaching at the highest level.
Now Thibodeau might have just five years of Head Coaching on his resume but he was, without doubt, the best Head Coach available in the market when the Timberwolves agreed to a contract with him on Wednesday.
Also read: Blazers' guard C.J. McCollum named 2015-16 KIA NBA Most Improved Player
Over a 21 year span from 1989 to 2010, Thibodeau has been an assistant Coach on as many as six different NBA teams – the Timberwolves, Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics, San Antonio Spurs, New York Knicks and the Houston Rockets.
In the five years at Chicago, beginning from 2010, Thibodeau took the Bulls to the Playoffs every single year, something the franchise hadn’t achieved since the end of the Michael Jordan era in 1998. In just his first year he improved the team’s record by 21 wins to 62-20, which led to him being named the NBA Coach of the Year.
Thibodeau perfect Coach for young talented Timberwolves squad
The Minnesota Timberwolves’ talent pool is so rich and young at the same time, it gives Thibodeau a whole lot of room for improvement, given the disastrous season the team recently wrapped up.
He is known across the league as a Coach who makes his players work hard in practice and is among the best in helping players realize and reach their ceiling. If his five years with the Bulls were any indication, he seems to know the fundamental qualities a team requires to compete for a championship – Defense, a dependable productive bench and a system that is suitable to the roster available.
Also read: NBA players Seth Curry, Robin Lopez head to India to promote basketball
Just look at what Jimmy Butler (2014-15 NBA Most Improved Player of the Year) has become from being drafted 30th overall in the 2011 NBA Draft. He was always known as a good defender but with Derrick Rose’s recurring injuries, Thibodeau thrust the ball into Butler’s hands, forcing him to lift the load and improve his offensive game for the betterment of the team and himself.
In Minnesota, Andre Wiggins, the 2014 number one overall pick, can play the role Butler did. For the Timberwolves, Wiggins currently functions as a pure scorer and his defense is average, to be honest. He doesn’t have defensive lapses like James Harden that make it to a number of viral videos but he isn’t Kawhi Leonard either.
Making Wiggins’ defense better individually shouldn’t be an issue for Thibodeau, even if it is he could at least make him a player who could defend well within the team’s system.
During the last three years of his time in Chicago, Thibodeau’s superstar player Rose missed a ton of games, 182 of a possible 243 regular season games to be precise, due to knee issues yet not in any of those seasons did the Bulls give up. Each one of those three seasons, Chicago recorded a winning record and made it to the Playoffs.
Thibodeau achieved this impossible feat by adapting his team’s style of play around his high IQ center Joakim Noah. Noah, a 6 foot 11 inches center, was an excellent passer and a nasty worker on the glass. Thibodeau used both of these qualities to his advantage.
On offense, he would position him at the elbow and run plays which would involve him making the final pass to the cutter or an open shooter. Noah was a magnificent post defender, which allowed the rest of his teammates to focus on their own man, since they did not need to double team his.
For the Timberwolves Karl-Anthony Towns, the 2015 number one overall pick, could play the role similar to that of Noah, which could be even more effective.
Towns has an incredible ball handle for his height (7 foot), he is a good passer and unlike Noah he has an offensive post game to show for in his arsenal. At the other end of the floor, he can hold his own and has averaged 1.7 blocks per game this past season.
In players like Gorgui Dieng, Zach Lavine, Shabazz Muhammad the team can build a reliable core of role players. Going by his track record, Thibodeau will find other ways as well to strengthen the team’s support system around Wiggins and Towns.
Unfortunate situation in Chicago avoided in Minnesota
The constant bickering with the front office over his style of Coaching, specifically the excessive minutes he would play some of his players, eventually cost Thibodeau his job in Chicago despite five wonderful years. Through many adversities, he still led his team to a 65% winning percentage in the five seasons.
The situation that forced the break-up in Chicago was very cleverly avoided in Minnesota by the franchise’s majority owner Glen Taylor. Making Thibodeau the head coach and the front office allows him to make his own decision. It also makes him answerable to only the owners, which makes his job a lot easier.
