NY Knicks: Analyzing Tom Thibodeau’s history with player development

Thibodeau Player Development: Karl-Anthony Towns

Back in 2017, one year into Tom Thibodeau’s tenure as the Minnesota Timberwolves’ head coach, NBA executives picked Karl-Anthony Towns as the best player to start a franchise with. Fast forward a year, and Towns did not earn a single vote in the yearly poll, raising questions.

It is difficult to decipher whether the NBA believed Thibodeau stunted Karl-Anthony Towns’ growth or if the NBA caught up to Towns’ game and realized that an offensive-minded center, who refuses to play a lick of defense, is not a player you can build around. Judging from that description, it is no question that Towns was not the traditional Thibodeau big man and that the relationship between the two was far from ideal.

To be fair, Karl-Anthony Towns made his first all-star game under Thibodeau in 2018 and made the all-star game in 2019, a season where Thibodeau coached the first 40 games. Towns put up ridiculous stat lines under Thibodeau, and there is no question that Thibodeau got a lot out of Towns, despite not being a traditional big in his system.

However, it begs the question if Towns is a winning player and if his stats are a case of empty calories. There is no disputing that Towns is a horrendous defender, and in the only winning season of his career, he averaged his lowest amount of points, field goals attempted, and his lowest usage percentage since his rookie year.

That question is percolating among NBA circles, and according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, NBA executives regard Towns as a “selfish” player.

The issues with Thibodeau in Minnesota were more concerning, but they’re also not all his fault. Word is Thibodeau was fine with Andrew Wiggins but the problem was Karl-Anthony Towns, who is gaining a reputation of being a selfish player less concerned with winning. It’s not surprising that his personality didn’t mesh with the demanding Thibodeau.

Thibodeau was heavily critical of Karl-Anthony Towns to the media, and what might have been said behind closed doors must have been way worse. Thibodeau is the same guy who got into it with Joakim Noah and Jimmy Butler, cursing and yelling at them in practice. However, those guys took it and embraced it as Thibodeau’s coaching philosophy. Deep down, they knew that Thibodeau was doing that to push them.

However, Thibodeau’s demanding philosophy would not relate well with Karl-Anthony Towns, who was critical of his former head coach’s development of young players following his firing, per WOCO:

"“And that’s a disrespect and a slap in the face to their development, you know, and I want to make sure that they develop not only as players but also as human beings. And, uh, you know, that’s what we’re here to do. And in Minnesota, the thing, one of the biggest things where Ryan and with me is like, we have to make sure our culture is not based on just basketball. This is a family atmosphere. Everything we do here in Minnesota has to be able to have a family. A family backing and a family thought process. And building people’s personalities, characters and showing them more of themselves. And you’re more than basketball.”"

To add fuel to the fire, according to the New York Post, Jimmy Butler and Tom Thibodeau believed Towns’ work ethic could go up a notch and that Towns felt jealous when the Wolves traded for Thibodeau favorite Jimmy Butler.

The relationship between Towns and Thibodeau was a lousy match from a personality and basketball basis. Towns and Thibodeau never clicked as Thibodeau had with his young core in Chicago. Towns’ play style drew Thibodeau into hysterics, but there is no question that Towns played good basketball under Thibodeau. Towns was a significant contributor to a Timberwolves team that broke their 13-year playoff drought and hung around the 3rd seed before an injury to Jimmy Butler ended the Wolves’ dreams for homecourt.

Thibodeau certainly got production out of Towns, and he contributed to Towns’ two all-star campaigns. Thibodeau’s only indictment was his inability to relate to Towns, who represents a new generation of hoopers.