Minnesota Timberwolves: Grading Tom Thibodeau
By Ryan Schaal
Tom Thibodeau had a mixed bag of results during his first year as head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Minnesota Timberwolves had a new coach for the fourth consecutive year. It was Tom Thibodeau who came in with his haunting defense and fiery passion. Thibs looked to change the culture of the Timberwolves.
The Wolves overall did not get off to a hot start to begin the year. They were still trying to find themselves halfway through the year.
They had to really buy into his defense as it is one of the toughest yet most successful in the league.
Thibs started rough at 8-19, but it all seemed to turn around in the game against Thibs old team.
It was a game against the Chicago Bulls, on December 13th, 2016. They came back from 21 in the first half and won 99-94. That’s the first time we saw Thibs defense in fruition.
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Thibs is often known to “run” his players into the ground. This year seemed to be no different. Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns were number one and number two in the league in minutes played.
Some say it was the cause to Zach LaVine’s season ending ACL injury.
Thibs overall grade: B-
Many of you may think “how can he get a B- leading his team to a rough record of 31-51?” It’s because of how well the Timberwolves played February and early March, if we play that good all the time we will be scary.
From March 1-10, we played four playoff teams, the Utah Jazz, San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors. The only team we lost to was the Spurs, 97-90 in overtime.
This is when Thibs offense and defense really worked. We averaged 101.75 points and were allowing only 92.5 per game.
We beat the Jazz in the first game of March 107-80. The Wolves held the Jazz to 38 percent shooting in this game. This is highly known as the best road win of the year for the Wolves.
A week later we held the Clippers to 91 points and made them commit 16 turnovers coasting to a 107-91 victory.
Then the next game at Target Center was soldout against the Golden State Warriors. We squeaked by with a 103-102 victory.
These stretches of games is how the Wolves need to play all the time. Thibs is coming back for a second straight year (the first returning coach for the Timberwolves in four years).
This is one of the most important off seasons for him and the Wolves in many years. Next year Tom Thibodeau looks to bring us into the Playoffs for the first time in 13 seasons. For us Wolves fans it is much needed.