Should the Timberwolves hire Scott Brooks as head coach?

By Drew Mahowald | May 6, 2015

After the Oklahoma City Thunder failed to reach 50 wins for the first time in six years, their head coach Scott Brooks was fired. During his time in Oklahoma City, Brooks was able to mold a few freakish young talents in Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden into superstars.

I came across an article today from Aaron Mah over at HoopsHabit that explains the many reasons why Brooks would be an excellent fit to be the next coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Frankly, Mah put together a pretty good argument in his article.

Brooks was able to build the Oklahoma City Thunder up from a bunch of raw and inexperienced talent into Western Conference champions. His ability to help young talent grow into stars has definitely been proven. With all the young talent on this Timberwolves roster, it all seems to make sense. Andrew Wiggins has superstar potential, much like Kevin Durant did. Zach LaVine is extremely raw but has also shown star potential, as have second year players Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng (Interestingly, these four players all played in the Rising Stars Challenge during All-Star Weekend). Additionally, the Wolves have a guaranteed top four pick in the upcoming NBA Draft that should award them another special young talent.

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The sad part about this is that Flip Saunders will much more than likely be the head coach next season. As part-owner and president of basketball operations, Saunders can basically decide when he wants to be done coaching. In his end of the season press conference, Saunders told the media that he plans to be the coach until he feels the team needs to move in another direction. This doesn’t bode well for those in favor of Brooks.

In my personal opinion, Scott Brooks would indeed be a great candidate to “usher in a new era” as Mah put it in his article. He has more than proven himself in this league and was probably fired for unfair reasons. The Thunder dealt with plenty of injuries (namely, last year’s MVP Kevin Durant) and many different players went through the roster. Any coach will struggle with the kind of turmoil Brooks dealt with this season.

Brooks’ experience building the talent in Oklahoma City would be a huge benefit in Minnesota, which is a situation very similar to the situation he was in when he first started coaching in Oklahoma City. While Saunders does deserve credit for the way he has developed Wiggins and LaVine this season, it would be pretty cool to see the Timberwolves make a run at hiring Scott Brooks this offseason and show that they want to win as soon as possible.

Let’s not forget that Brooks took the Thunder to the NBA FINALS. His team was in the playoffs year after year until the previous league MVP missed basically the entire season. The Thunder have been regarded as contenders for the last few years. Remind me, when’s the last time the Timberwolves even made the playoffs?

Yeah, that’s what I thought. It’s time for the front office (and that includes Saunders) to seriously consider Scott Brooks as a candidate for the Timberwolves head coaching position.

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