Timberwolves Notes: Peterson on TrueHoop, Thibs presser

As the Timberwolves off-season begins, there are is still a trickle of season wrap-up news that is out there for consumption by Wolves fans.

The Timberwolves did not have an overall successful season in what was Tom Thibodeau’s first campaign at the helm of both the front office and the bench. A two-in improvement on last year certainly wasn’t he had in mind, and fans are understandably restless.

Thibodeau completed his end-of-season obligation in conducting a postseason press conference late last week. Hopefully you had a chance to give it a listen, but if not, our friends over at Canis Hoopus took the time to transcribe it in it’s entirety.

A couple quotes of note…

"With that consistency on defense that you’re looking for how much of it can be attributed to ‘hey these are just young guys that need to learn that’ and how much of it was just something else not sinking in?That’s a big part of it. When you look at the age of our starting lineup, it’s very young. And so, alright. The big part of this, I think, is to also look at they’re young and they can get better and they have to get better. It has to be a commitment, it has to be important to them, and they have to understand what we have to do in order to win.…When you look at point differential, I think we finished at -1.1 and the eighth place team in the West is -0.5. And so it tells you you’re close, but you’re not there. You can’t assume that you’re going to make that step the next year without putting the work in because every team is going to try to improve going forward. So you have to be ready to make more of a commitment to get it right. As I mentioned, the big question in the organization is ‘what can I do differently.’"

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Thibs first acknowledges that the team is young, and that indeed contributed to the struggles on the defensive end of the floor. But he also brings up the fact that the team was relatively unlucky in terms of point differential and actually wasn’t that far off from reaching the (albeit mediocre in terms of record) eighth-seed in the Western Conference.

"Do you plan on taking a similar approach to free agency this year where you have a few guys you have targeted and if you get them great, if not, maybe you’re a little more conservative with not wanting to misspend again?No. I think for us right now what we have to do is we have to plan. The immediate task is to study, prepare, and look at all the opportunities whether it be through free agency or trade … all things are open. Whatever way we can improve the club, that’s what we have to do."

Thibodau and general manager Scott Layden would love to make a splash this off-season, that much is for sure. But if last summer is any indication, they’ll be smart and extremely careful with how they allocate their resources.

"Did [Rubio’s] progression change your view of what his role can be for this organization in the next few years?And again, I always thought he was a good player. Until you get around him, like with all players until you coach them you don’t really know them. You have a perception of them from competing against them or coaching against them of who they are. And I can see why Ricky has improved, it’s the way he works. I think that he was healthy for the most part after that initial injury. And then I think he gained a lot of confidence from the work he put in."

There were four consecutive questions regarding Rubio, and Thibodeau praised the Spaniard each time. The most glowing comments from the difficult-to-please coach regarded Rubio’s work ethic, which no doubt has endeared the Wolves starting point guard to his coach.

Head on over to Canis Hoopus to read the transcript in it’s entirety. If video is more your speed, here’s a chunk of the presser via the Timberwolves twitter feed.

Elsewhere, the Wolves fantastic television color commentator, Jim Peterson, joined ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz on the TrueHoop Podcast at the end of last week. They covered a variety of topics and it’s a great listen if you have an hour or so.

Next: The Five Worst Games Of The Timberwolves Season

We’ll have a ton of off-season content this week as you enjoy the NBA playoffs, and we aren’t far from wall-to-wall draft coverage, either…