When the Minnesota Timberwolves hired Tom Thibodeau as President of basketball operations and head coach, a new era in Twolves basketball began. A little over a year ago the foundation appeared to be set for franchise resurrection. Stalwart of Minnesota Basketball Nation Flip Saunders had returned to hold the PBO position and after the retirement of Rick Adelman, he added the position of head coach. It was as if Coach Saunders couldn’t hold himself back from taking a seat on the bench again. Now His fingerprints are all over this roster. To review, in his first year, he picked up Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng in a draft night trade exchanging undersized PG Trey Burke. The next year, shortly after he drafted the inexperienced and springy combo-guard Zach LaVine, he shipped away Kevin Love for the prize of Andrew Wiggins. In that trade he also managed to exchange the under-performing Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Alexey Shved, for capable veteran Thaddeus Young, who was then eventually flipped for the only name larger than Saunders in the modern Minnesota basketball lexicon: the recently retired Kevin Garnett. Follow that up with the level of excitement he expressed as his team secured the #1 overall pick, and took that opportunity to draft Karl-Anthony Towns.
After all of that, poetry and romanticism would have preferred that Coach Saunders was still at the helm. The story of the new era of this franchise would be written like great epic with him in a heroic role. Envision him holding the reins of the great dog sled lead by the pack of young Timberwolves he hand picked, with a trio of his favorite old canines nipping at their heals (last year’s trio of Tayshaun Prince, Andre Miller and KG). In the Iditarod of the NBA, I envision this having great effect.
But cancer sucks. We all know the tragedy that fate handed us roughly one year ago.
Suddenly the reins were thrust into Sam Mitchell’s hands and the sled of the Twolves franchise hit a drifty section of course. The dawning of a new age took a detour, if only because the voice of the musher didn’t sound the same. It’s a shame that Flip’s unique vision for the roster is lost forever. Still, Mitchell did admirably and I believe he taught the young wolves a thing or two (or twelve or twelve hundred) about life, both with regard to NBA basketball and otherwise.
Nonetheless, the moment Mitchell was let go, however sudden it may have been, marked what I consider the second most surprising move made by Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor. The most surprising to me was the hiring of Coach Adelman. Which, if you think of Glen Taylor as a ruling Monarch in Minnesota Basketball Nation, the hiring of Adelman was like bringing in the military general of one of the few armies King Glenn’s nation ever defeated. While that metaphor might be somewhat backwards due to Adelman having been the King in that 2003-04 season, with the exception of this signing, Taylor rarely took a step outside of the cautious. He’s mostly stayed within his comfort zone of what some have come to refer to as the Timberwolves Country Club. For the sake of this geopolitical metaphor, call this a select elite, forming a sort of oligarchical system where only a trusted group would ever be considered. If anyone can think of another front office or coaching choice (I’ve decided to never mention the name Kahn again) that sticks out from this framework please share in the comments. But now with Tom Thibodeau, it was as if Glenn Taylor flipped to one of the last pages of his Timberwolves Country Club Rolodex.
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Nearly twenty seven years ago the inhabitants of Minnesota Basketball Nation descended upon the east side of downtown Minneapolis, to gather, under teflon, for something that hadn’t occurred since 1960. Now there’s no telling how many people in the Metrodome that day would have any actual recollection of the golden era of Minnesota Basketball Nation. Even then, the 50s and George Mikan were a long time ago. Now in 1989, the product was different. Compared to the Lakers of the 50s, Minnesota Basketball Nation’s new Timberwolves franchise left quite a bit to be desired.
Nonetheless, Minnesota Basketball Nation embraced their new franchise. During that 1989-’90 season, the fan base was there, frequently sitting a ways up in the Metrodome’s lower bowl. In fact, with the help of the massive number of available seats, the Wolves lead the league in attendance in their inaugural season. Even the year later, and after quite a dismal first season, the franchise still finished third overall. This video shows that caliber of crowd filing into the shiny new Target Center. Especially take a listen to the roar of the crowd when the hometown team makes a play. (The YouTube Channel that posted this didn’t want it embedded on other pages, so please copy the following url into another window to watch for a few moments):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIFVz0QWI8o&feature=player_embedded
Of course this game is against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls so they have their own natural attendance draws, but attendance isn’t the main point of sharing this video. If you already watched the first few minutes, you may have caught it. If not, watch from the 2:10 mark and look in the top right of the screen. After the starting lineups are announced, the commentators move on to profile Bill Musselman, the first coach of the Timberwolves. While the commentators are expressing Musselman’s defensive coaching acumen, there, peeking into in the top right corner of the screen, is Tom Thibodeau. At the time a he was just a young second year assistant on a struggling team, but now twenty six years later, he will be back on this bench at the Target Center, right where he started.
After that 1990-91 season, in which the Twolves finished with 29 wins, Bill Musselman and was let go in Minnesota, ending Thibodeau’s initial Minnesota Basketball Nation experience. After a year out of the league, Thibodeau ventured out world of NBA basketball at large, where he had great success as a defensively focused assistant coach and eventual head coach of the Chicago Bulls. When it comes to Thibodeau’s track record, the high winning percentage of teams he’s coached is quite impressive. Of the twenty five season he coached at the NBA level, an incredible eighteen of them ended in the playoffs. Another incredible feat, is that since 1996 Tom Thibodeau coached teams only missed out of the top 10 in defensive rating three times. This includes the 2014 Bull season where most of his top contributors were out for significant portions of the season due to injury. That team still managed to finish 11th in the league in defensive rating. In his seasons as an assistant, it’s not very measurable how much of that success had to do specifically with his coaching, but his time with the Bulls is telling. It shows Thibodeau knows how to lead a team, and he knows how to win. His teams defend, and they do so effectively. If there’s a defensive bone in a player’s body, he’s going to find it and activate it. That player either gets it and works his butt off, or that butt will remain on the bench.
Most NBA fans have heard of the somewhat ugly split between management in Chicago, and Coach Thibodeau. In this narrative Thibodeau was accused of pushing his players too hard. To say it in brief, I don’t think Thibodeau is riding his players too hard. I think he’s a product of a different era. In 1996 Anthony Mason average 42 minutes per game. That year even 33 year old Patrick Ewing average 36 mins. Thibodeau is driven to win to the extent that he’ll do whatever it takes.
Returning to the Twolves now, Thibodeau brings more years of NBA coaching experience than most of his players have total years of living consciousness. He gets to coach some exceptionally talented young players and groom them into a defensively focused unit. This should be extremely exciting for Minnesota Basketball Nation. Now after the 2015-16 Timberwolves finished 29-53, much like the Timberwolves team that let Thibodeau go after the 1990-91 season, and after another year out of the NBA like Coach Thibodeau had during the 1991-92 season, he too is entering a new era. There’s some pretty tasty nuance there.
But back to the King Taylor again for a moment, in hiring Thibodeau he’s brought in an experienced general who’s succeeded on fights on both hemispheres of the NBA Basketball world. He’s seen successful basketball played in different ways. He has coached an insane number of individual NBA players. The basketball battle tactics he will teach, have been time tested and his track record proves their effectiveness. In order to seal the deal of the alliance between Thibodeau and the Timberwolves, Taylor offered political power in addition to the tactical.
President of basketball operations is a role that Thibodeau had never been in before. He’s always been the coach, in the moment, making game time decisions. The PBO role requires that long term vision. Coaching looks at what’s best for the now, but PBO looks to see where the reinforcements will come from in the future. Some fans were disparaged over giving Thibodeau so much power. They feared he would sacrifice some of what the Twolves have now, and in the future, to go get the guys that he’s most comfortable with. This has not been the case. Just as ruinous was brought in the wolves also hired Scott Layden, another high experience NBA guy to join him on the management front.
A quick review of Layden’s credentials reveal a lot of NBA experience. Work with the Knicks left mixed results and makes Layden look like significantly less of a home-run candidate than his running mate Tom Thibodeau. Nonetheless, Layden’s with the San An-freaking-tonio Spurs front office show, like Thibodeau’s time as an assistant, that Layden was surrounded with success and effective basketball management. Maybe too much is made of the Spurs successes, but if any of their scouting/roster management strategies can be found in Scott Layden’s head, a Twolves fan should be exceedingly grateful.
Now at the dawning of this new age, what is it that Timberwolves fans can expect from the Thibodeau/Layden administration?
So far, if the first few moves by the new Timberwolves administration are any bearing on the future, the team appears to be in good hands. Quietly and frugally the Timberwolves have upgraded their bench with the additions of Jordan Hill, Brandon Rush, and Cole Aldridge. Followers of the wolves off season know that already, but the value is astonishing. Though these pick ups appear small, they fill needs on the bench. The bigs preemptively filled the holes in the roster left by the retirement of the legend Kevin Garnett and the loss of center Nikola Pekovic to continued foot injuries. Brandon Rush provides a team first mentality veteran presence with the skills of a three point shooter. These are three quality additions for much lower price than most acquisitions this off-season. Compare that to the contract the Lakers gave Timothy Mozgov (four-year, $64 million). Twolves are on the books for $19.02M for four contributing players, including the fifth over all pick Kris Dunn, while $16M of the Lakers cap is designated to solely Mozgov. In addition to that the only player paid more than Mozgov on the Lakers is their other free agent pick up Luol Deng, who signed an 4 year, $72M applying a huge $18M to their cap this season.
Listening to media day and training camp reports, Tom Thibodeau is excited what he sees on this roster. He sees players’ potential and what they bring to the table. He said, and I paraphrase, that while his intentions for this camp are to start by laying the fundamental foundation of his defense and offense, these systems will allow for his players to use their own unique gifts. A great example of this is what he has said about Nemanja Bjelica. For a 6’10” forward Nemanja has a unique skill set. He has legitimate NBA power forward size, with the ball skills and shooting ability of a guard. Thibodeau has already stated that he’s excited to work with these unique abilities. He mentioned running the 4/5 pick and roll with Bjeli on the ball. This is dangerous weapon and it’s fun to see Thibodeau so excited about using it.
It’s also key to point out to amount of knowledge that Thibodeau has about certain kinds of basketball players. First look at the list of big men he’s had the opportunity to coach. He’s worked with high caliber bigs in David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Yao Ming, Kevin Garnett, Joakim Noah, and Pau Gasol. They have different skill sets, but were all impeccably effective defensive players with Thibodeau as their coach. Even the next level down guys like Charles Oakley, Glen Davis, Kurt Thomas, Chuck Hayes & Taj Gibson, with Thibodeau they were really solid defensive players. It’s exciting to think of what he can do with multi talented bigs like Bjelica, Towns and Gorgui Dieng. Just the same Thibs has worked with guards and wings like Rafer Alston, Tracy McGrady, Jimmy Butler, Derrick Rose, Allan Houston, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce. It will be fun to see how he can help the likes of Ricky Rubio, Kris Dunn, Zach LaVine and Shabazz Muhammad develop their games and maximize their abilities. Maybe I’m getting out of control, but seeing how undersized guards like John Starks, John Lucas III, D.J. Augustine and Aaron Brooks found success on Thibodeau coached teams, what could a talented guy like Tyus Jones grow to accomplish?
The bottom line here is this. Tom Thibodeau is a really high caliber coach and basketball mind to have holding the reins of the Timberwolves franchise. Of all the possibilities, there are not many are been more in tune with the evolution of modern basketball than Tom Thibodeau. Not only this but he still has drive. Sometimes experienced coaches lack patience and competitive fire. Based upon the caliber of teams Thibodeau had been a part of it wouldn’t be surprising if Thibodeau thought he should have a few more rings. Chances are, like the rest of the Timberwolves and Timberwolves fans in Minnesota Basketball Nation, he’s salivating for the taste of rings in the near future. Considering Thibs’ Twolves connection from years ago and I can’t think of a better set up for someone to replace Flip Saunders, especially in Glen Taylor’s mind. Coaches Sanders and Thibodeau seem to have remarkably similar vision for this franchise. Not only for it to find success, but for it to focus on defense and allow players to play to their strengths. It’s exciting to think about what could become of this roster within the next few years. Hopefully with a little luck, and some wax on the metaphorical sled blades, Tom Thibodeau will be able to take the reins and lead Flips’ Timberwolves to triumph.
The 1950s were the the glory days of Minnesota Basketball Nation. While America was great in its ways back then, and still is great in ways right now, the Twolves really haven’t been all that great yet. Think however about the roar of that crowd at the Target Center back in 1990. Let’s follow “throwback” Thibodeau. Let’s get that energy back in the Target Center. Let’s make the Timberwolves and all of Minnesota Basketball nation great again!
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