Timberwolves head coach Tom Thibodeau has never played a deep bench, or even given his second units many minutes at all. And because of that, his teams have suffered.
Dear Tom Thibodeau,
We all know and understand that you love to play your starters a lot of minutes, but you’re not helping anyone by doing so.
We’re not 100 percent sure that you playing the starters too many minutes is the reason we’ve seen Derrick Rose, Loul Deng, Zach LaVine and Jimmy Butler go down with significant injuries. But, it does seem like the constant minutes have taken a toll on their bodies.
It may have worked out in Minnesota’s favor (for now) that you were able to get Butler for beloved LaVine – while he was coming off an injury, but we don’t want to see long-term affects on Butler’s health, or that of cornerstone franchise players Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Losing our two most durable players to a devastating injury would almost seem to be the last breath of hope that Minnesota can become a true contender. For now, we’re going to pray that something doesn’t end up happening to anymore of our players while you’re under contract here.
Decreasing the minutes or workload would go a long way in securing the health of our players. Not to mention the fact that we could be going to the playoffs this year, or even become a major threat for years to come with our young talented core. We don’t want to jeopardize any of that. I’ll give you credit, however, you’ve decreased practicing and when you do practice, you’ve decide to do a smaller workload to help compensate for any fatigue.
Playing your bench more allows your starters to hopefully stay healthy, give needed rest and will allow them to have more energy when they come back in the game. But, you need the bench to be a successful team in the NBA.
We’re not asking you to play them 25-30 minutes, but it would be nice to see you give them a little more then say … 13.4 minutes? That’s dead last in the league. The next closest team is the Oklahoma City Thunder, at 16.3 minutes per game.
Would it really kill you to play them a couple more minutes? It’s not like we’re asking the world; it would just be nice to see you give the second unit more time.
Furthermore, the more you play your bench, the more confidence and better play you’ll see. We see it all the time in the NBA. When a player gets extended minutes, they usually will respond well.
For example … you remember Kris Dunn, right? Well, because you never gave him the confidence to play more minutes, the fifth-overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft has gone on to become quite a nice player for the Chicago Bulls. It would have been great to see you give him enough minutes, to the point where he could succeed but still not take away from the other players minutes/chance of winning.
I understand that the team doesn’t have that many supporting casters that will go out there and get you buckets, but they’re talented enough to deserve minutes. Tyus Jones will play hard, Jamal Crawford can score with ease, Nemanja Bjelica can spread the floor, Gorgui Dieng is a solid player and Marcus Georges-Hunt will play good defense.
These players may not be as sexy as say, Eric Gordon or Lou Williams. But, they’re players that can be of great help when you need to rest the starters.
Expanding a little further into what those players can do in extended minutes, we’ve seen that they’re productive when doing so.
- Dieng: Started all last season and showed us that he’s not a great player, but he’s definitely a solid player.
- Jones: When Teague is out, Jones has stepped up so incredibly well that many have debated whether or not he should be the starter.
- Crawford: They don’t call him “Forever 21” for no reason. He’s a three-time Sixth Man of the Year and is our instant offense off the bench.
- Georges-Hunt: You remember the game against the Toronto Raptors, right? He’s a key reason we were able to come away with a win.
So, as you can see, there’s definitely enough players that can help us out in games. One last thing before I let you get back to work … if you are looking for some extra help, than the G-League is a place you should look at.
Anthony Brown has shown he can be a “three-and-D” player. Amile Jefferson has been working hard, becoming and tenacious rebounder and finding good offense. We’ll give you a pass on Justin Patton since he’s still learning and recovering from his offseasn injury. It wouldn’t hurt to play them when they do get called up, however.
Sorry for the constant rant and nagging on you for the lack of bench play. Its just that, a lot us fans would like to see you give the starters a little more rest. Anyways, thank you for your time and I’ll let you get back towards getting us in the playoffs for the first time since 2003-04.
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Sincerely,
All of us Wolves fans