The Minnesota Timberwolves, who are known for having the best and brightest young talent in the NBA, have hired coaching guru Tom Thibodeau. Thibodeau has been very highly-regarded from his time as an assistant coach in Boston to his head coaching gig in Chicago. Thibs has high praise for some of the young talented players in Minnesota. From Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune:
“I thought [the Timberwolves] improved, I thought they had some good, solid wins,” Thibodeau said. “You start looking at it and you’re just impressed.”
Those favorable impressions begin with 20-year-old Karl-Anthony Towns, 21-year-olds Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine and 25-year-old point guard Ricky Rubio.
Thibodeau’s discussion about each player began with praise of their talents and ended with needed improvements, particularly defensively.
• On Towns: “It’s pretty amazing for a first-year guy to come in and do the things he did. There’s obviously room for growth. But his skill set is very unusual. He has the potential to be very good defensively, with his rebounding, his shot blocking. The way he plays the game, the way he sees the game, he has the ability to make other players better. He had a very impressive first year, but it’s just the beginning. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to move the group forward.”
• On Wiggins: “He impressed me the way he scored against us when I was still coaching. He made it look easy. I think the challenge — not only him but for his teammates — is there’s going to have to be dramatic improvement defensively. You have to make a commitment in that area. The players are too good in this league to guard individually. You need to have five-man defense in all aspects. If one guy’s not doing his job, the group is going to look bad.”
• On Rubio: “All players have their strengths and weaknesses, and Ricky has established himself as a very good player. So we’re excited about that. The point guard position is such an important position in the way the team functions. You need to have a good understanding where guys like to get the ball, who has a good matchup, what’s going on in the game and keep the team organized and I think Ricky’s really strong in those areas.”
• On LaVine: “I thought he improved a lot. I’m excited at what he can do. He improved his shooting, his defense and his rebounding as well.”
Thibodeau sounds excited, and confident that he can help the Wolves improve. He had high praise for those four, and I’m sure he’s also excited about the rest of the young guys on the team, such as Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng.
