In just his second season as head coach, Tom Thibodeau has built the Minnesota Timberwolves into a playoff contender, but genuine questions about his coaching remain.
I know, I know, I know. The Minnesota Timberwolves are on pace for 50 wins this season and look primed to snap their historic 13-year playoff drought. And Tom Thibodeau deserves a lot of the credit for assembling the pieces around Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns.
That still doesn’t mask the fact there are undeniable questions about his coaching scheme and style.
Thibodeau spent 20 years in the NBA as an assistant coach (even starting in Minnesota) and made his mark as a defensive genius. He was the think tank behind the Boston Celtics’ that saw them finish first, third and fifth respectively in defensive rating from 2007-2009. That same defense also propelled them to an NBA Championship in 2008.
He was then rightfully given the opportunity at a head coaching gig in Chicago where his elite defensive principles carried over. Chicago’s defensive rating never fell out of the top five until 2014-15 which also happened to be Thibs last year.
His falling out with the Bulls’ upper management was as ugly and public as they come. Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf threw his head coach under the bus in their press release stating:
"The Chicago Bulls have a history of achieving great success on and off the court. These accomplishments have been possible because of an organizational culture where input from all parts of the organization has been welcomed and valued, there has been a willingness to participate in a free flow of information, and there have been clear and consistent goals….Unfortunately, there has been a departure from this culture."
After the firing, the prickly coach took a year off from the NBA altogether.
When Minnesota fired Sam Mithcell after just one season at the helm they found themselves turning their attention toward Thibs. They were ready to give him the world and hand over the entire organization in an effort to regain contention in the Western Conference playoff hunt.
With the acquisition of the defensive guru, pundit’s expected Minnesota’s 107.1 defensive rating in 2015-16 to immediately improve. Unfortunately, the opposite happened and the Timberwolves rating jumped up two whole points to 109.1.
Patience, his biggest supporters preached. The young guys have had new coaches every year and need time to learn the system. It will get better in year two especially after the acquisitions of veterans such as Jimmy Butler and Taj Gibson.
Well, those advocates were right. Sort of.
Through 13 games in 2017, Minnesota’s defensive rating sits at 108.4, 26th in the league. They’ve also given up 115 or more points in six of those games. Yuck.
If stats don’t tell you the defense sucks this year, your eyes definitely should. The lack of effort displayed by some of Minnesota’s best players is frightening. Here, Towns shows no eagerness to step out on the screen for the best shooter of all time:
Some may look to place blame on players such as Towns, Wiggins or Jeff Teague for their lack of interest on that end of the floor and they wouldn’t be wrong. However, it ultimately falls on the head coach to generate passion.
On a team that lacks good defenders at all five positions, Thibodeau may want to look at tweaking his system that relies too heavily on an individual’s ability. A failure to do so may ultimately prevent Minnesota from going any further than a first-round playoff appearance. After all, the best coaches adapt to their personnel instead of asking their personnel to adapt to them.
Thibodeau’s reliance on crashing the offensive glass has also come back to haunt his team. The Timberwolves give up 14.2 fastbreak points per 100 possessions (23rd in the NBA) and often times fail to get back on defense, even after made buckets:
Besides the defense, Minnesota already has a number of bad losses on their resume and we’re only mid-way through November. A home-court drubbing at the hands of the Indiana Pacers, an old-school beatdown in Detroit and a loss at the lowly Phoenix Suns already stand out as eye-sores less than a quarter of the way through the season. If that trend tells us anything, it’s that we can expect another handful of bad losses before the season’s through.
It’s fair to put the onus of Minnesota not being prepared in those games on Thibodeau. After all, it’s his duty to ensure his team is ready to roar night in and night out and they simply didn’t look engaged.
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Now we throw in the clutch shooting by Wiggins against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Jamal Crawford against the Utah Jazz there’s an argument to be made the team is lucky to be above .500.
Even with the winning record, Minnesota’s play leaves a lot to be desired. It’ll take time for their Big Three to gel and understand how to play together, but so far their offense has been uncreative and boring.
Far too often, Thibodeau runs basic motion to get a post-up or iso for Wiggins, Towns or Butler, as the Timberwolves rank fourth in the NBA by running an isolation play 10.3 percent of the time. This may have been a good strategy a decade ago, but we are seeing more and more efficient offenses that lean on ball movement and off-ball cutting.
Leaning heavily on these inefficient post-ups leads to less engagement by the rest of the team and difficult shots for his stars.
In the spirit of beating a dead horse, the biggest concern with Thibodeau has been his rigidness with his rotation. He leans far too heavily on his starters and fails to give his bench much run.
We can go through all of the injuries to players like Derrick Rose or Joakim Noah and how the wear-and-tear of Thibodeau ended their seasons and, ultimately, affected their career outlooks. However, it’s a real concern as just last season another player, Zach LaVine, suffered a serious injury while carrying a heavy minutes load.
It may be okay this season or the next, but how long until the 7-footer Towns injures his foot or suffers another serious injury? It’s impossible to play the game living in fear, but when a big man is seeing the floor as often as the former Kentucky Wildcat it’s only natural to be worried.
It’s especially frustrating when players such as Nemanja Bjelica and Tyus Jones are playing very good basketball yet only see the floor for 15 minutes per game. The best coaches ride the hot hand and adapt on the fly, something Thibs has failed to do during his short tenure in Minnesota. This heavy reliance on the starters makes me wonder if Thibodeau’s goal is simply to get to the playoffs instead of advancing once he gets there.
Next: The Timberwolves are consistently inconsistent
For now, Thibodeau will survive as the head coach simply because the talent on the floor will cover up a lot of the schematic flaws. However, if he wants to survive the NBA gauntlet long-term, he must evolve or find himself extinct like the many coaches who were too inflexible to adapt.