Timberwolves Notes: New hires, official word on Pekovic

In advance of Monday afternoon’s media day, the Timberwolves announced a litany of front office and coaching hires, as well as releasing an official statement on center Nikola Pekovic.

Timberwolves fans have more or less known what new head coach Tom Thibodeau’s coaching staff would look like in 2016-17, but it had not yet been made official.

Now, we know the names that will (and will not) be present.

The Timberwolves issued a press release on Sunday that included the names of some previously-leaked hires, such as former Chicago Bulls/Thibodeau assistants Andy Greer and Rick Brunson, as well as some new names, including the team’s new shooting coach.

Greer was with the Toronto Raptors last season and is widely-regarded as a rising star of sorts in the coaching ranks. He leaves a conference finalist north of the border to rejoin Thibs in Minneapolis with a roster that most certainly has a higher ceiling than the Raptors, but is likely a couple of years behind where coach Dwayne Casey’s squad is today.

Brunson did not coach in the NBA last year but was with Thibodeau in Chicago from 2010-12. Fans may remember his playing career, which lasted nine seasons and just ended in 2006.

In that same press release, the Wolves announced the hiring of shooting coach Peter Patton, Special Assistant to the President of Basketball Operations Daisuke Yoshimoto, and the promotion of Vince Legarza, who was with the Timberwolves last year, to Player Development Coach. The statement also made official the retaining of Ryan Saunders as an assistant coach.

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Patton, according to the team’s release, has been “teaching basketball for over 20 years”, and has been learning under San Antonio assistant and renowned shooting coach Chip Engelland. Yes, this year’s staff has a decidedly Spursian feel to it, does it not?

Yoshimoto was with the Nuggets last season as a video coordinator and previously worked with Thibodeau in Chicago for four seasons. Legarza was on the Wolves staff last year in an assistant/video coordinator role.

While it’s interesting that the Timberwolves essentially waited until the eve of training camp to make all of their moves official, it seems to be a great batch of new hires. There’s a ton of experience, and while there is a lot of Bulls/Thibs familiarity here, it’s hard to make a blanket statement that that’s a bad thing.

The Wolves also announced a ton of front office hirings, which included the already-leaked additions of Noah Croom as Assistant General Manager and former Spurs executive Bryan Pauga as Director of Player Personnel.

There are also some familiar names, as Calvin Booth stays on as Director of Pro Personnel and Matt Bollero, the former analytics person under the old regime, is now a Pro Personnel Scout.

Lastly, we should pass along the Timberwolves press release regarding Nikola Pekovic officially being out for the remainder of the season. We’d heard as much already and he’s still officially on the roster, although the team mentioned in the release that “a determination about future seasons will be made at a later date.”

Ominous, sure, but I think we all know where this is (unfortunately) headed.

Next: Top-5 Kevin Garnett Games With The Timberwolves

We’ll have full media day coverage on Monday evening. In the meantime, enjoy the last day before Timberwolves basketball officially returns.