The Timberwolves officially hired Tom Thibodeau as head coach and president of basketball operations and Spurs assistant GM Scott Layden as their new GM. The pact will pay Thibodeau approximately $8MM per season over five years, while Layden is reportedly set to earn $2MM annually. Thibodeau had plenty of on-court success in his five seasons with the Bulls, who had given the longtime assistant his first NBA head coaching job. He went 255-139 in the regular season, winning the 2010 Coach of the Year award, though he was just 23-28 in the playoffs. Chicago parted ways with Thibodeau last May.
“We are extremely excited to welcome Tom Thibodeau back to the Timberwolves,” team owner Glen Taylor said. “Through this process we quickly identified Tom as the best leader to shape our talented team and help them realize their full potential. Tom’s resume speaks for itself. He is a proven winner, leader, and one of the most well-respected NBA head coaches over the last decade. His teams have annually been among the league leaders in defense and we are excited about the approach and mentality he will bring to that side of the ball. The future of the Minnesota Timberwolves has never been brighter and we are very pleased to have Tom as our basketball operations leader moving forward.”
Here’s a look back at more of the notable events from around the NBA this past week…
NBA Draft News
Underclassmen Entering
- Ege Arar, PF/C, International
- Jaylen Brown, G/F, California (freshman)
- Conor Clifford, C, Washington State (junior)
- Charles Cooke, G, Dayton (junior)
- Isaia Cordinier, SG, International
- Moustapha Diagne, PF/C, Northwest Florida State (freshman)
- Ilimane Diop, C, International
- Tyler Dorsey, SG, Oregon (freshman)
- Josh Hawkinson, PF, Washington State (junior)
- Nigel Hayes, PF, Wisconsin (junior)
- Juan Hernangomez, PF, International
- Ike Iroegbu, PG, Washington State (junior)
- Dedric Lawson, SF, Memphis (freshman)
- Kennedy Meeks, C, North Carolina (junior)
- Aleksej Nikolic, PG, International
- Marc-Eddy Norelia, PF, Florida Gulf Coast, (junior)
- Georgios Papagiannis, C, International
- Adam Pechacek, PF, International
- Malachi Richardson, SG, Syracuse (freshman)
- Kenan Sipahi, PG, International
- Rolands Smits, F, International
- Ethan Telfair, PG, Idaho State (junior)
- Berk Ugurlu, PG, International
- Andrew White, SF, Nebraska (junior)
- Guerschon Yabusele, PF, International
Underclassmen Withdrawing
- Antonio Blakeney, SG, LSU (freshman)
You can keep track of all the early entrants for the 2016 NBA Draft here.
Miscellaneous News
- The Nets hired Kenny Atkinson as their new head coach.
- The Wizards reached an agreement in principle with Scott Brooks that would make him the team’s new head coach.
- The Suns removed the interim tag from Earl Watson‘s title and formally named him head coach.
- The Nets named Ronald Nored as head coach of the team’s new NBA D-League affiliate, the Long Island Nets.
- The Nuggets announced a number of title changes for their front office personnel. Denver named Jared Jeffries as the team’s director of pro personnel, Tommy Balcetis was named director of analytics, Scott Howard was named director of college scouting and Steve Hess will now hold the title of director of performance/assistant coach and head strength and conditioning coach.
- Brandon Bass will reportedly turn down his $3.135MM player option for next season and become a free agent this summer.
- Quincy Acy has reportedly decided to turn down his minimum-salary player option for next season and hit free agency this summer.
- Seth Curry reportedly intends to decline his player option worth $1,015,696 for 2016/17 and become a restricted free agent this summer.
Awards
- For the second consecutive season, the Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
- Jamal Crawford won the Sixth Man of the Year award for a record third time.
- Trail Blazers shooting guard CJ McCollum won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.