As the Minnesota Timberwolves walked off the court at halftime in Dallas trailing the Mavericks by a dozen points, 55-43, Friday night, the temptation to criticize coach Tom Thibodeau for his team’s shiftless performance became overwhelming.
Prior to the Mavericks game, the Wolves had dispatched a pair of opponents riven with injuries — the Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs — with notable vigor, for the most part cinching up the holes in their defense, moving the ball around for choice buckets and spreading the teamwork among the starters and the bench. It was a multi-pronged display of cohesion and efficiency, a crystallization of talent and shared philosophy that is the prerequisite of a truly formidable ballclub. Watching it happen, let alone being in the group as it happens among you, produces endorphin chunks of hope and satisfaction.
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Yet it is at precisely those times where Thibs emphasizes vigilance over praise, pulling out his rhetorical hammer to play whack-a-mole with the slightest emergence of complacency. The tone and cadence as well as the content of his responses to victory seem designed to tamp down uplift with a business-like mantra, diverting any stray, playful urges into a rote embrace of the grind.
Thibs had splatted out those cautionary notes after the Wolves won five in a row and were heading out for a three-game road trip last week. When his team was routed by Golden State after holding their own in the first half, the breakdown could be spun as a superior opponent imposing its will. But the only take-away from the defeat in Phoenix was that the Wolves had fulfilled their coach’s baleful warnings, playing with a disheveled temperament that invited a mixture of arrogance, indolence and desperation to corrode the joyful essence in their confidence.
The backsliding continued a troubling pattern. All last season, Thibs preached a hand-over-hand hoisting up the rope to team competence, drilling his troops with the understanding that hard-won gains provide a more permanent growth. Meanwhile, his team was all over the map, especially on defense, taking two steps forward and then four steps back. January was the only winning month (8-7), in large part because the defense had its lowest month for opponents’ true shooting percentage and points per game. But then the Wolves lost six of eight with shoddy defense to begin February.
After the All-Star break they had their best defensive stretch of the season, winning six of nine to actually foster faint playoff hopes. The bottom fell out when Nemanja Bjelica got hurt in a blowout in Boston versus the Celtics. Thirteen losses in 16 games later, the season mercifully ended, along with Thibs’ increasingly silly mantra about staying the course so you can improve every day.
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This year, Thibodeau drastically overhauled the roster via hand-picked veterans who could echo his words in the locker room and demonstrate his schemes on the court. And yet the loss to Phoenix felt too familiar — the Wolves seemed to play with a checklist, intent on committing every sin in the Thibodeau catechism. Now here they were down a dozen to the 2-13 Mavericks at halftime.
I began to buy in to the notion that old-school Thibs couldn’t forcibly shoehorn his science into the skulls of millennials like team cornerstones Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. On Twitter, I proclaimed that the “numbing consistency” of his message wasn’t getting through.
Then the Wolves came out and blitzed Dallas at both ends of the court, erasing the Mavs’ lead in just over six minutes of the third quarter, then steam-rolling to a rout with a 37-15 final period. After it was over, sideline reporter Marney Gellner asked Jeff Teague why the Wolves looked like a totally different team in the second half. “Honestly, Thibs got into us in the locker room,” Teague replied.
Later, Jimmy Butler clarified further. “Do you want an exact quote?” he asked, then sort-of provided it. “Do your fucking job, play with fucking energy, and a lot of other f-words.”
Bruised fruit
The 111-87 thumping of Dallas puts Minnesota’s record at 10-5, tied for the best 15-game start in the 29-year history of the franchise. For Wolves fans, it is a disorienting experience — the last time this team was even five games over .500 was nearly twelve years ago, in December 2005.
But it is not just the success that feels funny. In Towns and Wiggins, the Wolves have a pair of dazzling talents, the kind that draw fans to come watch them on the road. They have added Butler, a three-time All Star. You look at the roster on paper — including notable newcomers Teague and Jamal Crawford — and you can easily imagine how they might be 10-5.
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Except the Wolves aren’t as much “fun” as you’d imagine. The star-studded wing tandem of Wiggins and Butler have been first-class bricklayers thus far, each with an eFG% — higher than simply FG% because it factors in the added value of three-pointers — of 50 for Wiggins and 43.2 for Butler. Per the website basketball-reference.com, the average eFG% for the NBA in 2017-18 thus far is 51.4.
Towns has been typically glorious on offense, but the Wolves have a defensive rating of 109.8 points allowed per 100 possessions when he is on the court. That is worse than any of the other starters and three points per 100 possessions more than the overall team mark of 106.8, which still mires them down at 22nd among the 30 NBA squads.
The Wolves are eighth in three-point accuracy but shooting fewer treys than any team but Sacramento. They are a relatively quick team that ranks 23rd in fast break points per game. Instead, they sport the fifth-best offensive rating by excelling in the craft of banging for scores, ranking seventh in offensive rebounding percentage, sixth in second-chance points, and second behind only Houston in points via free throws.
Gone from the scene is last year’s aesthetically delightful backcourt of Ricky Rubio and Zach LaVine. Rubio’s tenure in Minnesota minted him as a precious passer whose shiniest dimes were also the shrewdest investments for the moment, the mustard indistinguishable from the meat. LaVine was a gym rat fantasizing about an astral playground, giddy with hops enough to win a pair of dunk titles and increasingly able to utilize those pogo-stick hamstrings to levitate from 24 feet out and bury the trey with a perfect shooting form.
But if you wanted to construct a reliable winner, the status quo of Rubio and LaVine was a dicey proposition. Rubio’s long history of wretched shooting has been the cud of endless debates over his value, but only a fool would deny it is a flagrant liability. LaVine remains in strong contention to be the worst defender I have ever seen consistently get starter’s minutes on the court.
So Tom Thibodeau ditched them both. Thus far, in a fascinating way, the new Rubio has been Butler, an outspoken grinder enabling his teammates even as he clanks a distressing amount of his own shots; and the new LaVine has been Teague, a frustrating matador on the defensive end who is becoming the starter you most want to see with the ball in his hand behind the arc.
But experience with winning and a veteran perspective makes Butler-Teague an upgrade over Rubio-LaVine. More to the point, they better fit the Thibs blueprint, one that is less “fun” only if winning is not your top priority. It’s bruising, but, thus far at least, very fruitful.
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The frontcourt logjam
Like any coaching philosophy, the “Thibs blueprint” is necessarily an amorphous and evolving phenomenon based on prevailing circumstances, but one thing that is pretty clear after the first 15 games is that it is embodied by Taj Gibson.
Coming into the 2017-18 season, it was not at all evident that the Wolves needed Gibson on the team. The frontcourt is destined to be anchored by Towns for as long as the franchise can make it possible. Even as KAT flaunted Thibs’ detailed schemes by proclaiming during his Media Day comments that he would follow his instincts on defense — and then proceeded to do just that, with disastrous results — Thibs very rarely went full-foghorn on him, and never messed with his minutes.
Meanwhile, Gorgui Dieng had been part of a relatively successful tandem beside Towns the past two seasons. In 2015-16, the pair had the highest plus/minus (+78, in 1,128 minutes) of any two-player grouping on the Wolves. Last year, they were +89 in 2,159 minutes together, second only to the Tyus Jones-Andrew Wiggins mark of +95 in a mere 312 minutes on the court together. Put it together and KAT-Gorgui were a combined +167 on the court together during a two-year period when the Wolves were a -381 overall. That is certainly one reason why the Wolves awarded Dieng a 4-year, $64-million contract last season that kicked in this year.
Granted, neither Dieng nor Towns was quick and/or diligent enough to meaningfully contest shots from stretch power-forwards out by the three-point line and still scramble back well enough to grab defensive rebounds. But before he was injured in March, Bjelica showed great promise in that area — indeed, Thibs frequently cites Bjelly’s absence as the reason for the team’s collapse down the stretch.
So, why fork over $14 million to Gibson each of the next two seasons, especially when wing depth remains a gaping hole on the roster?
Certainly one reason is because Gibson is a paragon of calm industry. Even as he works non-stop, Gibson gets the lay of the land on the court and in the locker room. He emulates water, seeking to flow along to the level of the situation at hand — peaks, valleys, dams, rapids.
He knows that his industry itself will improve the environment. If someone — teammate, reporter, coach, stranger — wants to talk, Taj will not only talk, the advice will be sound, the perspective valuable, the viewpoint honest and simple. If a crunching pick is needed, the opponent will feel the impact in the morning. If an opposing matchup double-teams his more prolific teammates and dares Taj to shoot, Taj will shoot — and if not accurately enough, he’ll spend the late-night hours honing the skill.
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It was fairly obvious that the Timberwolves needed an alpha presence like Jimmy Butler on the roster this season. It is now just as obvious that they needed a beta presence like Gibson too. Quietly diligent, exceptionally conscientious, and without an apparent self-righteous bone in his body, he is the chemistry teacher in the room.
Coming into the season, the expectation from the outside was that Gibson and Dieng would come relatively close to splitting playing time in the front court. Instead, Gibson is on pace for a career high in minutes, averaging 30.7 per game, while Gorgui’s time on the court has been whacked from 32.4 last season to 15.4, the lowest total since the 13.6 per game his rookie season under Rick Adelman.
Gibson has been in battles for playing time his entire career. He started 70 games as a rookie, and then Thibs arrived and acquired Carlos Boozer and Taj got just 32 starts combined the next four seasons. More often than not he was on the court at the end of games, however.
Sitting at his locker with his feet in ice water and icepacks on both knees after a recent game, Taj said he has always enjoyed sharing the position. “Been good for me, has kept my body fresh. That’s how I’m still able to guard one-through-five (every position on the court). You see a lot of guys moving like stiff old men, and they’re young.”
So is his career-high in minutes too much? He smiled. “Nah, I’m having a good stretch, I know the system and I’m happy in Thibs’ system. The main thing is I’m having fun.”
Asked if he’s had a chance to talk much to Gorgui about all this, Gibson immediately replied, “I talk to Gorgui every day. That’s my guy. He understands it too that you want to take care of yourself and be in this league a long time. It’s not about the minutes, it is about the production with the minutes you get. I tell him that you want that option where teams know you can start or come off the bench; that’s how you are a great teammate.
“I really want to help Gorgui. I’m getting older and I want to help guys get better. I tell him, ‘You can do everything your heart is set out to do, even with less minutes. You just have to help a team win.’ That’s when everybody is smiling and everybody gets a piece of the pie.”
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Gorgui Dieng is a proud man. I recall fellow backup center Ronny Turiaf laughing about how confident and sincere Gorgui was as a rookie. When I interviewed him during his third season, he told me his goal is to be the best African basketball player ever — which includes Hakeem Olajuwon.
He’ll never be that good of course. But he is seemingly destined to be perpetually underrated. Because he learned the game so late, in his middle teens, and because he is more of a dedicated student than a natural athlete, he moves with a painstaking deliberation that costs him open shots and late close-outs on occasion. On the other hand he is a great communicator, fundamentally sound on the grunt work of big men like screens and pick-and-roll subtleties.
Put it all together and it is hard to imagine him accept such a large cut in playing time. Until you talk to him.
“Yeah, it was tough at first. But we are a better team, and that is all that matters. Trust me I don’t say things I don’t believe,” he emphasized, catching the dubious look on my face.
“It is not my team, or Jimmy’s team, it is our basketball team. It is all about fit and timing. If it helps our team for me to come off the bench, I will do it.”
When I asked if he worried about being rusty, he got a little agitated.
“Let me get this straight: If I am out of shape when they call on me, that’s on me. I am going to get myself ready and that is my job. That is how I help my family and the people I want to help. So I will make sure I am ready every time I step on the court.” He flashed a big smile. “I’m a team guy.”
With Bjelica off to a phenomenal start this season, it seemed like a blessing in disguise when Dieng injured his right finger and was forced to miss three games recently — Dallas was his return to action. With Gorgui on the sidelines, Thibs could be more flexible with the frontcourt slots.
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Ironically, Bjelly didn’t receive that many more minutes as a result, and after beating San Antonio, Thibs unilaterally brought up the subject of how good it would be to get Dieng back in the rotation. Asked what he prized about Dieng the next day after practice, Thibs mentioned the good screens, the diligent attention to defense, his accurate shooting.
When Wolves fans look into the near future about how best to improve the roster — specifically the imbalance between the glut in the frontcourt and the lack of depth on the wing — the go-to scenario is usually trading Gorgui and his fat contract.
It makes sense. But it is hard not to remember that every spring, folks look up and see that Dieng has posted better numbers and been a better teammate at both ends of the court than people expected back in the fall.
Besides, if Gibson’s dawgs start barking at him before he can drop them in ice after the game, and if Bjelly can siphon some of those black-hole minutes at small forward from Bazzy Muhammad, Dieng may again become a pleasant surprise — and on a playoff team to boot.
(Top image: Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports)
