Dear Minnesota Timberwolves Majority Owner, Glen Taylor,
Please fire Tom Thibodeau.
Don’t just take away his President of Timberwolves Basketball Operations title or demote him to a position with less responsibility.
Please fire Tom Thibodeau.
On a shortlist of the top “I’m-washed-but-refuse-to-admit-it” figures in the NBA right now, Thibodeau is up there right below Carmelo “I’m very clear on my role” Anthony and above Dwight Howard. At least Howard is still a statistically productive player. Neither of the other two have the fate of an entire franchise in their hands, either.
Please fire Tom Thibodeau.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Thibs is a “bad coach,” per se.
Former Defensive Player of the Year and guaranteed Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett had glowing reviews of Thibs. When asked about Thibs on the cusp of his departure from Boston to Chicago, Garnett said “He’s a worker. He’s a guy that loves his job. He does it with passion. If he is not with us next year, he’s well deserving of it as well as anybody else on our coaching staff.” It’s a fair assessment. Garnett was integral to Boston’s 2007-08 league-best defense, but Thibodeau’s work as an assistant coach and defensive coordinator (a la Matt Patricia) was integral to creating the champions’ defensive system.
Most basketball fans are probably aware of Thibs’ reputation as a strong defensive coach. Jeff Van Gundy has cited him as a great developer of talent and an intelligent offensive mind. Under his tutelage, Derrick Rose became the youngest MVP in league history, Joakim Noah won a DPOY award, Luol Deng became a two-time All-Star, and Jimmy Butler earned Most Improved Player honors. He had multiple playoff runs and became the fastest coach to reach 100 wins in NBA history. Thibs earned his reputation as one of the best coaches in the league and joined the Wolves prior to the 2016-17 season.
Karl-Anthony Towns was coming off a ROTY season, and Andrew Wiggins was already showing bulk-scoring ability. The Wolves looked to Thibs to make a contender out of their young core. The main questions about both young stars surrounded their questionable defensive habits and instincts. On paper, Thibodeau was the perfect man for the job.
Then again, if we only looked at paper, we’d think the Wizards are good.
The experiment started off fine.
Minnesota continued their playoff drought but added two to their win total. Towns showed immediate improvement, averaging 25.1 PPG (up from 18.3 the previous season) and 12.3 RPG (up from 10.5), showing that he could sustain his statistical production with a 37.0 MPG workload.
Meanwhile, Wiggins improved from a 30% 3-point shooter to 35.6% and 20.7 PPG to 23.6. Heck, Zach LaVine (remember him?) was emerging as a legitimate third scoring option. The trio was shaping up to be the youngest trio to average 20 PPG over an entire season before LaVine tore his ACL. Sure, there were still concerns about their defensive effort and the team’s depth, and sure, resigning Gorgui Dieng to a four-year, $64 million deal might have been… questionable, but with time and patience, the Wolves could have one of the brightest futures in the NBA.
Then Thibodeau sped up the timetable.
On Draft Night, 2017,
Thibodeau sent a recovering LaVine, a slightly underachieving Kris Dunn, and the draft rights to Lauri Markkanen to the Chicago Bulls for his former favorite son of Jimmy Butler and the draft rights to Justin Patton (who played four minutes in the NBA last season, spent most of his time in the G-League, and struggled with various injuries).
At the time, it seemed to be a good trade for the Wolves. There was no guarantee that Markkanen would be any better than Dragan Bender. LaVine, as mentioned, had torn his ACL, and Kris Dunn was already 23 years old with little-perceived upside. Meanwhile, Butler brought veteran leadership, experience with Thibs’ defensive sensibilities, and a drive that elevated him from being a garbage-time player to a multiple-time All-Star, all qualities that should have positively influenced Minnesota’s youth.
In fact, most of Minnesota’s offseason moves seemed to be geared toward such veteran leadership. Trading away the injury-prone Ricky Rubio, Thibs brought on Jamal Crawford, Jeff Teague, Taj Gibson, and later Derrick Rose. Notably, many of the team’s acquisitions were former Bulls players that Thibs felt he could trust instead of the floor spacers the team so desperately needed. LaVine had been their best long-range shooter, averaging 38.7% from beyond the arc the season before. Without him, their best shooter from range was Towns, who has shot 47.3% from the corner over his career.
This brings into question how good old Tom chose to make use of his talent.
With Butler on board and poorly suited to an off-ball role and Wiggins getting about the same number of touches as he always did, it was Karl-Anthony Towns who dropped in usage rate and field goals attempted when his talent meant he should have had the offense built around him. It was Towns who was asked to space the floor while Wiggins and Butler dribbled out the clock and chucked up ill-advised shots. Frankly, this was a travesty of talent management.
Towns, a career 71.0% scorer from within three feet of the basket, went from taking about 85% of his shots from inside the arc to taking 24% from beyond. Among the eight players that played at least 60 games and had at least four post-up possessions per game last season, KAT had the best conversion rate and points per possession, beating out the likes of LaMarcus Aldridge, Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis, and Nikola Jokic. Among the same list, KAT also had the least post-ups per game with 4.1. The season prior, KAT had averaged 5.8 post-ups, actually converting at a higher rate.
Per the eye test, Towns isn’t a bad passer out of the post either. He’s shown vision and a willingness to let go of the ball uncommon for his age and position. As seemingly lackadaisical as his defense may be, Towns is one of the best offensive centers in the game. It was a complete misuse of his abilities to ask him to stand in a corner to watch the Butler/Wiggins show.
I get it, Mr. Taylor.
You signed Wiggins to a five-year, $148 million max contract. It’d be a shame if he wasn’t allowed to earn his money. But, let’s be real, your organization doesn’t have the best record of maximizing big men’s talent. The aforementioned Kevin Garnett languished for 12 years in postseason Purgatory before pushing his way out and purloining a championship with Boston. But you screwed up your relationship with him so bad he wants nothing to do with the Timberwolves in his very active retirement. Meanwhile, Kevin Love, despite being a double-double machine and a brilliant playmaker from the post, never made the postseason in his six seasons with the Wolves and was eventually traded to Cleveland for Wiggins.
Do you really want to see one of the greatest offensive big men in the league suffer from a similar fate? Because it seems like that’s what you’ll get with Thibs at the helm, who famously has blasted Towns’ defensive effort instead of letting him switch on defense like any other contending team in the league.
Thibodeau seemingly got the job done,
though. The team was on pace for being the third seed in the West before Butler missed 23 games to injury. The team ultimately made the playoffs, breaking a 13-year drought, but lost embarrassingly to the Rockets as Towns got completely outplayed by Clint Capela and Thibs was completely lost trying to counter the Rockets’ offensive scheme.
Not to mention, Thibodeau hasn’t exactly proven to be the most forward-thinking executive. Instead of pursuing range-y, switch-y players as is the norm these days, he’s gone for hard-nosed, bruising veterans. To be fair, it’s completely understandable. Basketball coaches are given a cast of players by their front offices and told to work with what they’ve got. Any coach given the opportunity to make front office decisions would want to gather players that they want to work with.
But Coach-Executives don’t work out.
We have the track record. Doc Rivers took a chance on his son. Stan Van Gundy took a chance on Blake Griffin and Luke Kennard. Mike Budenholzer was in charge of the Hawks until last year, but that means very little because they were the Hawks. Coaches don’t exactly have the time during the season to walk through salary cap breakdowns, scouting reports, statistical analyses, and character profiles to carefully consider the best moves for their team. They delegate the legwork and push the button on things they can justify to themselves.
The one exception to this would be the legendary Gregg Popovich. He understands the tunnel vision coaches in executive positions can possess. Instead, he shifts most of the basketball management responsibilities to GM R.C. Buford, to great effect.
Unfortunately, in the Wolves’ case, Tom Thibodeau isn’t Gregg Popovich. Minnesota’s GM, Scott Layden, was hired on an “advisory” basis, while Thibodeau is still the guy calling the shots. If recent history has taught us anything, this doesn’t work, and Thibodeau’s culture is so ingrained in the decisions that he’s made for the organization that any attempt to keep him in the role of head coach will maintain some level of tension and dissatisfaction.
Please fire Tom Thibodeau.
And, now Jimmy Butler wants out.
Whether it’s because he’s sick of KAT playing Fortnite as much as he watches tape or because he can’t convince Wiggins to play defense or because he actually has beef with Towns over his (ex?) girlfriend, Thibs’ boy no longer wants anything to do with Minnesota, which means Tommy’s left with the leftovers of the Timberbulls squad (Taj Gibson’s underrated reliable play notwithstanding). And Thibs, like a scorned lover, has begged Butler to stay, told teams Jimmy’s not available (despite the ownership’s comments to the contrary), and gouged prices so that no team in their right mind would actually bite the bullet.
Ben Simmons for Butler? Come on.
Look, I don’t know what went on behind closed doors.
I don’t know how much Thibs has to do with the obvious rift between Minnesota’s old guard and the young talent. I’m not sure if Towns and Wiggins’s respective work ethics would blossom with any other coach not named Brad Stevens or Gregg Popovich.
What I do know is that Butler has decided that Minnesota’s not right for him. He wants out. Maybe Tom Thibodeau can retain Butler’s services and forcibly extract a playoff spot from this team. But, the bottom line is that with Thibs running the show, KAT will be pigeonholed into at least another season of underachievement, Jimmy Butler will stay on the Wolves against his will, Taj Gibson will play too many minutes for his age, the Wolves will be trapped in mediocrity, and Thibodeau will continue to be disappointed by his young players. In short, with Thibs in charge, nobody really gets what they want, not even Thibs himself. Well, everyone except maybe Andrew Wiggins.
It’s time for all of us to move on.
Please, fire Tom Thibodeau.
Sincerely,
A Concerned NBA Fan
Wanna talk hoops?
Hit me up @realmrgame10