Former Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau. (Photo : Getty Images)
There are many coaching vacancies in the offseason but the hottest destination is a team that was often ignored.
The Minnesota Timberwolves do not exactly have a very impressive line of coaches and it is also not a big media market. However, it is the team that is attracting what is perceived to be the best coaching candidates.
Tom Thibodeau has been acknowledged as the best unemployed coach in the NBA. He is immediately the desired coach of fan bases once their coach gets sacked, and even before that. Thibs is still under contract with the Bulls and thus, at least from a financial standpoint, he was not in rush to sign with another team. Instead, he is looking for the perfect situation for himself.
For one thing, Thibs may have learned a lot from his experience with the Chicago Bulls, as ESPN noted that "Thibodeau certainly is looking for cohesion after being fired at the end of last season, in part, because of a broken relationship with Bulls executives John Paxson and Gar Forman."
Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy considers the T-Wolves "lucky" to score interviews with what he considered the top candidates, which are Thibs and Jeff Van Gundy.
Thus, there are also questions on whether Thibodeau or even JVG will ask for personnel control. Recently, coaches like Doc Rivers of the LA Clippers and Stan Van Gundy with Detroit has been given that privilege with tasks of turning the team around-usually with positive results.
Jeff Van Gundy believed that the Bulls management did not support Thibodeau. This season, the Bulls did not make the playoffs due to a disconnect between the coach's system and the team roster, which may prove JVG's point.
The biggest draw for the T-Wolves is their talent. With consecutive (possibly) rookie of the year awardees with Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns proving to be the most promising duo in the league, the future coach will have the potential to pad to their resume.
The Star Tribune of Minnesota has compared the two candidates, with their biggest strengths and concerns. Thibs' defense is still his main asset and the fact that he never missed the playoffs in five years with the Bulls even with Derrick Rose injured. Van Gundy is also a defensive coach and brought the New York Knicks to the Finals in 1999.
The knock on Thibs is that he tends to overwork his players, but he does have young physical specimens on the Wolves' team. He is considered the favorite because JVG, as his brother Stan points out, love his job as a broadcaster.
