5 reasons Minnesota Timberwolves must hire Tom Thibodeau
By John Buhler
2. The NBA’s preeminent defensive guru.
Thibodeau’s greatest strength as a coach is also the Timberwolves’ biggest weakness: defense. Minnesota went 29-53 in 2015-16 due in large part to their awful defensive play. The Timberwolves allowed 106.0 points per game, 20th in the Association.
They also were terrible in team defensive rating, allowing 110.1 points per 100 possessions. That was good enough to be 28th in the league. It could have been so much worse if Mitchell would have had his team playing with any skip to their trudging pace. Minnesota finished 20th in pace, averaging 95.2 possessions per game.
Of the five years that Thibodeau was the head coach of the Bulls, their worst team defensive rating came in 2014-15, allowing 104.3 points per 100 possessions. Thibodeau’s Bulls finished sixth or better defensively in his first four seasons in Chicago, including the best team defensive rating in 2010-11 (100.3). His 2011-12 and 2013-14 teams finished second in the league in that category.
Could Thibodeau turn a porous Minnesota defense into a top five unit in 2016-17? That might be a stretch, but he will inherit the athleticism needed to orchestrate a massive turnaround on that end of the floor. Minnesota, in the first year of the Thibodeau, should finish in the top 10 defensively fairly easily. Anything less than top half would be deplorable given his acumen on that side of the ball.
Next: 1. Will get Minnesota into the Western Conference Playoffs.