Wolves Press Clippings

Wolves Press Clippings

After one season away from coaching in the NBA,Tom Thibodeau has agreed to a five-year contract with Minnesota Timberwolves to become the team’s coach and president of basketball operations.

The deal could pay Thibodeau as much $11 million annually, according to people with details of negotiations.

"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."

The Timberwolves also hired San Antonio Spurs assistant general manger Scott Layden as the T'Wolves general manager.

Thibodeau, who has been interested in full control of personnel, takes over a young team with some talent, starting with center Karl-Anthony Towns, who is expected to be named 2015-16 rookie of the year. Guard-forward Andrew Wiggins, guards Zach LaVine and Rick Rubio, forwards Nemanja Bjelica and Shabazz Muhammad and center Gorgui Deng give Thibodeau a foundation with which to work.

Thibodeau, who is also an assistant with U.S. men’s Olympic team, was dismissed as coach of the Chicago Bulls after the 2014-15 season. He had a 255-139 record in five seasons with the Bulls, taking them to conference finals in 2011 and the conference semis in 2013 and 2015.

Known as defensive-minded coach, Thibodeau is an underrated offensive coach. The Bulls were 10th in offensive efficiency in 2014-15, five in 2011-12 and 12th in 2010-11.

“We are extremely excited to welcome Tom Thibodeau back to the Timberwolves,” said Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor. “Through this process we quickly identified Tom as the best leader to shape our talented team and help them realize their full potential. Tom’s resume speaks for itself. He is a proven winner, leader and one of the most well-respected NBA head coaches over the last decade. His teams have annually been among the league leaders in defense and we are excited about the approach and mentality he will bring to that side of the ball. The future of the Minnesota Timberwolves has never been brighter and we are very pleased to have Tom as our basketball operations leader moving forward."

There’s no doubt Thibodeau will push this team, and his coaching, along with player development, could push Minnesota toward 40 victories next season after finishing 29-53 this season.

He also has a demanding style that wore on some players near the end of the time with the Bulls. He also clashed with the front office.

"You learn from everything you go through," Thibodeau told NBA.com in September, "and you want to put that experience to use."

He doesn’t have to worry about front-office battles now. He’s the president of basketball operations and will work in concert with a general manger of his choice.

Thibodeau missed the game. That is fact. This season, he spent time with various teams, including the Los Angeles Clippers, Sacramento Kings, Charlotte Hornets and San Antonio Spurs. He recently has appeared on ESPN as an analyst.

He told NBA.com that he wanted to use the season as a sabbatical.

The sabbatical is just about over. Unless negotiations fall apart in the 11th hour, Thibodeau is back in the NBA.

Wolves Press Clippings

Wait a second: Did the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves, long-time NBA losers, actually win the 2016 coaching derby?

The T-wolves can actually claim that they did, hiring one of their former assistant coaches, Tom Thibodeau, the best coach on the open market. And exactly the kind of coach the Lakers and Knicks were dumb not to make a move for.

The former Chicago Bulls coach, Thibodeau will also be getting a lot of power and a big title – President of Basketball Operations – to justify his $50-million contract over five seasons.

“We are extremely excited to welcome Tom Thibodeau back to the Timberwolves,” said Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor in a statement. “Through this process we quickly identified Tom as the best leader to shape our talented team TISI +% and help them realize their full potential. Tom’s resume speaks for itself. He is a proven winner, leader and one of the most well-respected NBA head coaches over the last decade. His teams have annually been among the league leaders in defense and we are excited about the approach and mentality he will bring to that side of the ball. The future of the Minnesota Timberwolves has never been brighter and we are very pleased to have Tom as our basketball operations leader moving forward.​”

The Timberwolves’ playoff drought extends to 2004, currently the longest in the NBA. They’ve had nothing but losing seasons since 2005.  As unglamorous as the job was from that standpoint, they didn’t have the fierce competition for Thibodeau as was initially expected.

The Lakers are sticking with Byron Scott for now, despite a 17-65 season that gave us Kobe Bryant’s swan song and little else. They were seen as a natural fit for Thibodeau. They need to develop several top young talents, including point guard D’Angelo Russell, who suffered through a poor rookie season, topped off by a late-season scandal when he secretly teammate Nick Young talking about women other than Young’s fiancé, Iggy Azalea.

What’s more, Thibodeau’s connection to Kevin Durant through Team USA, which Thibodeau serves on as an assistant coach, was expected to help the Lakers make a legitimate run at the Oklahoma City superstar who turns free on July 1.

The Knicks also could have used Thibodeau’s Team USA connections with some of the game’s elite players for free agency. As it is, he has a great relationship with Carmelo Anthony. But they were never in the Thibodeau sweepstakes because team president Phil Jackson is one stubborn son of a gun. Jackson is committed to the Triangle offense and is only going to hire a coach he knows and who will run the offense. On both counts, Thibodeau, who worked in New York as an assistant under Jeff Van Gundy, had no shot. All signs point to Kurt Rambis, who finished out the season as the team’s interim coach, losing 19 of 28 games. Here’s what Rambis, nearly 100 games under .500 as a head coach with the Lakers and Minnesota, has over “Thibs:” He fully embraces the Triangle and is one of Jackson’s most trusted lieutenants. Go figure.

Without the Lakers or Knicks coming after him and at least providing more leverage, Thibodeau still got the deal of a lifetime. The T-wolves are desperate to turn around their franchise and actually right now have the plum coaching job in the NBA. They last made the playoffs when Kevin Garnett was in his prime and won the NBA MVP. Since then, they’ve fallen off the NBA map, with 12-straight lottery finishes. But they boast two of the game’s top young talents in Andrew Wiggins, 21, and Karl-Anthony Towns, 20, a fact cited by Thibodeau when he issued a statement on Wednesday night about joining the team.

“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,” part of the statement read. “I look forward to building a winning culture that Minnesota sports fans can be proud of.”

So while other teams might not have been willing to give total power to a coach who has not gotten a team to an NBA Finals, Thibodeau, 58, found the T-wolves more than willing. In 2013 they thought they had their man when they brought back one of their most popular coaches and executives, Flip Saunders, to run the show as team president. But on the eve of this season, last October 26, Saunders, 60, died of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, derailing the entire operation. Saunders’ place on the bench was taken by Sam Mitchell and the T-wolves finished with only 29 wins.