Minnesota Timberwolves Roundup: New Iowa Wolves coach, players in Miami

The Minnesota Timberwolves have announced a new coach for the Iowa Wolves of the G League.

Also, a group of players are in Miami for pre-camp workouts as the offseason begins to wind down.

Minnesota Timberwolves announce Jeff Newton as new Iowa Wolves coach

It was just over two months ago that the Wolves announced their coaching staff for 2021-22, and there have already been several changes.

Those announced promotions included Joseph Blair’s new role. Blair was also set to coach the Wolves entry at Las Vegas Summer League, but on the day of the first game in Vegas, it was reported that Blair was leaving the organization for a role with the Washington Wizards.

That opened the door for Jeff Newton to take the reigns of the summer squad. He was fresh-faced enough that the ESPN and NBA TV broadcasts barely mentioned him, surely because they had no idea who he was.

Now, Newton will be the head coach of the G League’s Iowa Wolves, and undoubtedly at least partially due to the impressive job he did in Las Vegas. The Summer Wolves went 4-1 and played a tenacious, active brand of defense, and while the squad only included four players who are likely to see minutes with the Timberwolves this year, it was still a clear reflection of the coaching from Newton and his staff.

Newton started his career with the then-Charlotte Bobcats as a basketball operations intern before spending three years with the Houston Rockets in a variety of lower-level basketball ops roles. After three years as an assistant video coordinator with the Sacramento Kings, Newton was hired by the Wolves as the offensive associate/player development coach.

He has familiarity with both head coach Chris Finch and president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas from his time in Houston, but this is a notable story of a coach working his way up from intern to video assistant to assistant coach and beyond.

Minnesota Timberwolves players working out together in Miami

We’ve officially reached the point of the offseason during which the Timberwolves team accounts post photos of players having fun and working out and the social media sleuths try to interpret what each post means, based on who is (or isn’t) included.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s play the game.

https://twitter.com/Timberwolves/status/1435410589220810756

Pictured here is Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Okogie, Jarred Vanderbilt, D’Angelo Russell, Gersson Rosas, and what appears to be the side of Leandro Bolamaro’s face.

No surprise that Towns, Okogie, and Russell are together. But Vanderbilt and Bolmaro haven’t officially signed, so their presence is absolutely notable.

One more post:

There’s Towns again, along with Malik Beasley and two-way player and rookie McKinley Wright, neither of whom were pictured in the previous post.

Insert joke here about Jaden McDaniels being absent because he is preparing to be traded to Philadelphia in a Ben Simmons deal, etc., etc. Of course, these are entirely voluntary workouts, and there are no doubt players present who haven’t been pictured in a social media post.

So, speculate away. That’s what the offseason is for, right?