For the past several years, the Minnesota Timberwolves have always been in the discussion on the topic of teams coming of age. When they sent Kevin Love to Cleveland in exchange for the number one overall draft pick Andrew Wiggins, it was expected that the Twolves would be contending for a playoff spot…they didn’t.
A year later the Twolves landed the number one overall pick and drafted the highly skilled big man and reigining rookie of the year, Karl-Anthony Towns; while making strides such as the recently mentioned rookie’s of the year, KAT and Wiggins averaging 18 points and ten boards, and 20 points with a field goal percentage just under 50%, respectively, the Timberwolves still were 24 games under 500. But it seems the franchise is finally ready to take that next step, the hiring of Tom Thibodeau, a former assistant coach for the expansion team that is the Minnesota Timberwolves, and former coach that led the Chicago Bulls to the playoffs every season he coached there. Thibodeau’s rigid and militant style of coaching may have its pluses and minuses depending on how the players react but it has proven to get results, and has head of basketball operations, rumors have surfaced that Thibs may be going after his former all star center, Joakim Noah, this summer.
Noah is a defensive power house with good playmaking abilities who not only thrived and came to prosper under Thibodeau’s high energy and rigorous defense first play style, but also has suffered without the “monkey on his shoulder” that was Tom Thibodeau. The Timberwolves starting center piece, Nikola Pekovic, scored a total of only 54 points this season due to an injury; while Pekovic is no scrub, Noah would be a huge improvement on the defensive side of the floor, as well as having another skilled passer on offense and a veteran presence who is familiar with the new coaches idiosyncrasies. And even though its been said many a time in the off season, the Minnesota Timberwolves have finally arrived; a franchise that has been built the correct way, over time getting young developing players in each position, not the least promising would be hyper athletic shooting guard and back to back dunk contest winner, Zach Lavine, whos elite athleticism will no doubt be maximized by Tom Thibodeau.
Minnesota has handed a skilled liter of puppies to a no nonsense, shop till you drop, pack leader in Tom Thibodeau and will be a rising threat to the Power House that is the Western conference for the next decade.
