From the end of last season, when Minnesota reached its first postseason since 2004, the tides had turned against Tom Thibodeau, the coach who got the team there. Despite the 47 wins, reports leaked out of Minnesota that star guard Jimmy Butler was unhappy after just one season with the team, and that stars Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins weren’t so pleased, either.
A tumultuous autumn led to a 4-7 record and the trading of Butler. The Wolves have gone 15-14 since, including a two-game winning streak that has brought them within two games of a postseason spot. Despite all that, the Wolves gave Thibodeau his walking papers on Sunday, firing him unceremoniously after a win over the Lakers.
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Ryan Saunders is the temporary guy. But going through potential candidates for this job, he’s also a strong possibility to hold onto the spot on a more permanent basis.
Here’s how the list of Thibs replacement shapes up...
Ryan Saunders (interim head coach)
The long-held belief in Minnesota is that Saunders — son of late Timberwolves coach and GM Flip Saunders — has been groomed to eventually take over this job from Thibodeau.
He has been elevated to interim coach, and the smart money is on him keeping the job on a permanent basis. He has the trust of owner Glen Taylor, and if he is not made head coach, he is likely to get a front-office position.
Fred Hoiberg
If Saunders is not kept on as head coach, it probably will be because Hoiberg has decided to take the job.
It’s a safe assumption that, somehow, both Saunders and Hoiberg will land with the organization, but it’s just a matter of whether Hoiberg wants the daily grind of coaching after his mostly miserable experience in Chicago, or whether he’d prefer to run the team from the front office.
Sam Cassell
Cassell has been an assistant coach for 10 years now, and because what happens next in Minnesota is influenced in part by how Flip Saunders might have viewed potential candidates, you’d have to consider Cassell a serious candidate.
Saunders gave him a crack at coaching with Washington in 2009, and Cassell was critical to pushing the Wolves to contender-hood during his brief, two-year tenure with the team.
Monty Williams
Williams has been seeking to dip his toe back into head-coaching waters after taking time off following the death of his wife in a car accident. He had been in the Spurs front office, but he moved to an assistant’s role with Philadelphia last year and is still a highly respected players’ coach.
If Ryan Saunders is deemed unready to take the head-coaching reins, Williams would be a good interim gamble.
Sam Mitchell
Should the coaching search veer off from the Saunders-Hoiberg duo, Mitchell would be a sensible candidate. He played for the team, helped to groom Kevin Garnett and was among Flip Saunders’ most trusted allies.
He did not distinguish himself as a head coach during four-plus seasons with Toronto, or as a fill-in for Flip Saunders after his untimely passing, but Mitchell is a Timberwolf, through and through.
Tom Izzo
Saunders had made a strong pitch to hire Izzo three years ago, but Izzo resisted. It is a long, long shot that Izzo can be pried from Michigan State, but it could be worth the effort for the Wolves to investigate.
Eric Musselman
Musselman’s father, Bill Musselman, was the first coach in Timberwolves history, and Eric was part of his staff. Musselman also worked closely with Flip Saunders in the CBA and remained close with him throughout his career.
Musselman had an up-and-down career in the NBA coaching the Warriors and Kings, but he has had a rebirth as the head coach of Nevada. He’s unlikely to leave a program he’s built into the No. 6-ranked team in the nation, but he has the right connections to the Wolves as a franchise.
Stan Van Gundy
Van Gundy never got a strong foothold during his tenure with the Pistons, and he has no real connection with the franchise, but he is the most accomplished free-agent coach on the market. And when it comes to replacing Thibodeau, credibility should matter.