NBA
Tom Thibodeau: Scape Goat Or Real Problem For The Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves young season has been a rocky one. It has had some great moments, like the max contract extension to young allstar Karl-Anthony Towns. It has also had some of the darkest points in the teams recent history with the whole Jimmy Butler trade debacle. With all that’s been happening around the team, one person has been a central piece in all of it. That’s head coach and President of Basketball Operations Tom Thibodeau .
Thibodeau has almost full control of the team minus being GM and owner. Both of those roles are filled by completely invisible people in Scott Layden as GM, and spineless cheap owner Glen Taylor. Thibodeau has taken full advantage of the control and bullied and barked his way to it. Every move player and coaching wise has been all his.
The question for the Timberwolves with this shaky start is this- Is coach Thibdoeau to blame? Yes, he brought the franchise to the playoffs for the first time in 14 years, but was it worth all of the moves and turmoil?
Personnel Issue
This is Thibodeau’s third year into his five year contract as both coach and President of Basketball Operations, and his first few years have come with much scrutiny. The first big move he made after his first season was trade athletic freak Zach Lavine, third year product that had limited playing time Kris Dunn, and lottery pick Lauri Markannen for Jimmy Butler and rookie Justin Patton. This move tore the fanbase apart. People who loved Lavine and wanted to see more of Dunn, and the people who liked the trade to switch the team to a win now team with Butler.
The Jimmy Butler trade set the Timberwolves franchise back
That trade blew up in Thibodeau’s face. He gambled on Butler because Butler was first coached by Thibodeau in Chicago. Butler wasn’t pleased to being traded to Minnesota, so Thibodeau had to really convince Butler to stay once his contract was up. Butler, being the diva he can be, did not budge and instead made his issues with the team national news.
Thibodeau was forced to trade Butler to the Philadelphia 76ers for Robert Covington, Dario Saric, and Jerryd Bayless. That trade also involved Justin Patton, who had become injury prone and never had real action with the team.
That trade was arguably not even the best option the Timberwolves had. Thibodeau had a tantalizing offer from the Miami Heat that surrounded around young rising star in Josh Richardson and a first round pick, and another trade involving 4 first round draft picks from the Houston Rockets. He waited too long hoping for bigger trades to be offered because Butler’s antics made his trade value drop.
Some players as of late have even shown some passive frustration with him like starting point guard Jeff Teague. On multiple occasions this year and last, Teague has criticized Thibodeau’s player rotations, limited bench use, and minutes distribution. The players at times seem to be tuning him out since he’s constantly barking up and down the sideline and never letting his players play. He treats his adult players like an overly-competitive AAU dad coach with his teenage players.
Coaching Issues
The NBA landscape has changed immensely since Thibodeau had serious success with the Bulls in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s. It has switched to an even faster paced game with a heavy 3-point shot usage. Thibodeau has been resistant for the longest time on changing his coaching schemes. He also puts heavy minutes on starters and rarely uses his bench (except his former Bulls and current Timberwolves player Derrick Rose).
His offense is archaic and relies on isolation plays, limited ball movement, and lots of long inefficient 2-pointers. That is partially due to players, but that’s what happens when you have both Butler and Andrew Wiggins on the court who play the exact same style of offense. He has had 3-point specialists in Covington, Saric, and Anthony Tolliver, but Tolliver has lost his role in the rotation as of late. Luckily Towns and Wiggins have had great years from deep especially since the Butler trade.
Thibodeau was supposed to be a defensive guru. He was the head assistant coach and defensive mastermind to that 2008 Boston Celtics Championship squad that suffocated the league. His Bulls team sat in the top 5 in overall defenses almost every year he was there. For the Timberwolves though that defensive genius seems to not be there. Yes, some of that falls onto the players and their effort on that side of the ball, but even with defensive hound Butler on the squad last season they had the 27th ranked defense in the league.
To Blame Or Not?
It’s hard not to blame him. Yes, he got the Timberwolves to the playoffs last season, but that was more off of sheer talent with players like Butler, Wiggins, and Towns. The overall coaching scheme wasn’t responsible for it. He was also the guy who put this squad together pretty much now. The only players from before him are Towns, Wiggins, back guard Tyus Jones, and back up center Gorgui Dieng. The latter two he has been trying to trade though. The rest of the squad was him.
He’s made is painfully clear that it’s either his way of the highway. Also at some points during the year it almost looked like he was purposely sabotaging the team. Trying to force Glen Taylor to fire him and still pay him for the last few years on his contract. Taylor, though being a pushover, cheap, and borderline looking like he doesn’t care for the franchise, is resisting firing him. He still believes Thibodeau can still turn things around despite their so-so relationship.
Playoffs are still the goal for the team. Them being 8-11 doesn’t sound horrific, but being in the wild Western Conference they are sitting 14th in the conference. They’re only ahead the lowly Phoenix Suns who are 4-14. Only a couple games separate them from the playoffs luckily. With Thibodeau dictating the direction of the squad though, it seems to be a bumpy ride.
Photo Credit
Nerdsfun via Flickr
