Thibodeau plotting Timberwolves’ rise
After year out of game, ex- Bulls coach takes reins of young, talented squad
Of all the stops that Tom Thibodeau made in his sabbatical last year — 14 visits with 10 different teams and a trip to the Sloan Conference in Boston — Napa, Calif., was the turning point.
The NBA’s most famous workaholic had become its most popular tourist, learning from organizations such as the Golden State Warriors as a way to improve his mental database. But it was springtime in California’s famous wine country, and Thibodeau— the yeller, the brooder, the maniacal man who felt so far fromall that acrimony he had left behind in Chicago the year before — was too tranquil for his own good.
“When you’re relaxing and you’re in Napa in themiddle of basketball season, and you’re like, ‘ OK, this is just not normal.’ It was ( surreal),” Thibodeau, who is single and without children, told USA TODAY Sports recently. “Last year was great for me, but what you do miss is you miss the camaraderie of being around a team with a group, with your staff. You miss the competition.”
Enough with the aging process, in other words. It’s time to stomp grapes again.
TALL TASK AHEAD
To say Thibodeau’s new basketball life is different from the old one is like saying the Minnesota Timberwolves are amildly interesting group. He is their new coach and president of basketball operations, a 58- year- old who has the sort of freedom and influence he never enjoyed with the Chicago Bulls, and has been tasked with putting an upstart team back on the map.
It has been 12 years since Minnesota made the playoffs ( the NBA’s longest drought), one year since coach Flip Saunders died and put a hole in the organization’s collective heart and six months since Thibodeau was given a five- year, $ 40 million deal to replace Sam Mitchell and help with healing. But the bliss that Thibodeau felt on that peaceful day in Napa has only swelled since, what with this halcyon landscape that lies before him.
This, perhaps more than any other job in the NBA, is the stairway to hoops heaven.
The T’wolves have a dynamic young core, wildly talented sponges such as big man Karl- Anthony Towns, fellow No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins ( upside galore) and resident Slam- Dunk champion Zach Lavine ( who can shoot threes, too) who are learning to handle his hard- driving ways.
They have room to grow the roster: $ 10million in salary cap space even after Thibodeau added depth by signing Brandon Rush, Cole Aldrich and Jordan Hill in the offseason, and the facilities that— in addition to the allure of playing with their young stars — should help attract free agents in the future ( a $ 25 million practice facility that opened last season and $ 128.9 million in renovations scheduled for Target Center to be done by next year).
Before the regular season started — and before USA TODAY Sports came to town— ESPN, Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report had all come through to chronicle the tale of a team that went 29- 53 under Mitchell last season. This Christmas, in another surefire sign they’re playing with the big boys, the T’wolves will be part of the league’s featured holiday lineup ( vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder) for the first time.
True to form, Thibodeau has no time for the talk of his team being labeled the next big thing.
“The hype and stuff like that, I think that’s for you guys to talk about,” he said. “For us, it’s to understand what we have to put into each and every day and what goes into winning to make the commitment to improve.”
RECAPTURING MAGIC
Try as Thibodeau might to manage the lofty expectations, there’s nothing he wantsmore than to generate the kind of excitement he saw here when the franchise was born.
In that inaugural season of 1989- 90, when BillMusselman’s expansion squad was led by the likes of Tony Campbell, Tyrone Corbin and Pooh Richardson, the T’wolves set a season record for attendance that still stands ( 1,072,572). “And we were a 22- win team,” said Thibodeau, an assistant coach on that team.
Contrast that against the Timberwolves’ attendance mark last season — second worst in the league at 14,175 per game — and it’s easy to see why Thibodeau left the vineyards to head for the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Thibodeau said. “We were 12 games out of an eighth spot last year, so we know that we have to commit to our improvement, we have to put the work in to it each and every day, and I think we have a willing group. We have some really good, young players that are hungry to win, but there’s a price that we have to pay, and we have to learn and grow.”