Minnesota Timberwolves: Best coaches to pair with Karl-Anthony Towns

The Minnesota Timberwolves need to make sure that they get their head coaching hire right in order to get the most out of Karl-Anthony Towns as he heads towards his prime years.

With the NBA playoffs moving into the second round, the offseason for the teams that missed out on the postseason or have already been eliminated is heating up. That, of course, includes the Minnesota Timberwolves.

All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns is coming off arguably his best and most complete season as a professional. The fourth-year center averaged 24.4 points, 12.4 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game and showed marked improvement on the defensive end of the floor.

While Towns made his second-straight All-Star team and solidified himself as one of the game’s brightest young stars, his fabulous season didn’t keep his team from disappointing.

After making the playoffs last year, the Wolves fell back to Earth to the tune of 36 wins this season. Their already rocky season got even more unsteady on Jan. 6 when the organization fired head coach Tom Thibodeau.

After assistant coach Ryan Saunders took over for Thibodeau as the interim head coach, the Wolves finished with just a 17-25 record the rest of the season.

While head coach might be the most important decision of the offseason, finding a new president of basketball operations will be the first domino to fall.

Minnesota will choose between four candidates: Chauncey Billups, Calvin Booth, Trajan Langdon, and Gersson Rosas.

Once the POBO job is hired, there are many different factors that go into choosing the next head coach. One of the biggest things to look for should be which candidate will pair best with Towns, and help him become the superstar he is destined to become as he enters his prime.

The front office very well could decide to keep current interim Ryan Saunders, and there have been indications that they may be leaning that way.

It’s important to note that under Saunders, Towns flourished. In 37 games, Towns averaged 26.8 points and 12.4 rebounds. Saunders seemed to unlock something in Towns that had been missing last season with Thibodeau calling the shots.

The second half of the season saw Towns become a much better passer and overall playmaker. While 37 games isn’t exactly the biggest sample size, if it is any indication of what the two can do together, it is a good start.

Another candidate that could help take Towns’ talent to superstar level is former Sacramento Kings head coach and Minnesota native Dave Joerger. Joerger was fired after leading the Kings to a surprising 39-43 record and had them in playoff contention for most of the season. Our own Ben Beecken already made the case for Joerger following his dismissal from Sacramento.

This season, Joerger helped young players such as Buddy Hield and De’Aaron Fox have breakout seasons, while Marvin Bagley III had a nice rookie year under his coaching. Joerger also led DeMarcus Cousins to one of his best season as a King in 2016-17 before the big man was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans.

Before taking over the Kings job, Joerger was the head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies for three seasons, guiding them to the playoffs in all three years, and winning 55 games in 2014-15 before they lost in six game to Golden State in the conference semifinals.

That year, he also coached Marc Gasol to his best overall season in the league when he averaged 17.4 points and 7.8 rebounds per game while making one of his three All-Star appearances and made the All-NBA First Team in the process.

Joerger has the pedigree of working with young stars and big men that could get Wolves fans excited for the future.

Another possible candidate who could do wonders with Towns is Monty Williams. Williams coaches the New Orleans Pelicans for six seasons from 2010-2015 where he went 173-221, making the playoffs in 2011 and 2015.

Williams presided over the first three seasons of Anthony Davis’ career. Davis went to two All-Star Games and was named to the All-NBA first team while under Williams. Additionally, Williams was reportedly a candidate for the Timberwolves’ head coaching opening back in 2016 when Tom Thibodeau was hired.

Of course, a downside to hiring Williams is that in six years as a head coach, he only won two playoff games and zero while he had Davis on the roster.

The Wolves could go out of the box for their hire, but Saunders, Williams, and Joerger are all strong candidates who, if hired, would pair nicely with Karl-Anthony Towns and each could unlock his full potential as he heads into the prime of his career.