Tom Thibodeau, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ coach and president, was abruptly fired on Sunday night — after a 22-point victory.
Following a 108-86 rout at home against the LeBron James-less Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota announced that it had ousted Thibodeau with two and a half seasons left on his five-year contract, and less than two months removed from the trade of the longtime Thibodeau favorite Jimmy Butler to the Philadelphia 76ers.
Ryan Saunders, son of the former Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders, was elevated to interim coach with the Wolves at 19-21 — two games behind the eighth-seeded Lakers in the Western Conference. Saunders, 32, will be the N.B.A.’s youngest coach.
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Thibodeau is the third N.B.A. coach to be fired this season, joining Fred Hoiberg of the Chicago Bulls and Tyronn Lue of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
It was widely presumed that Thibodeau would be in trouble at season’s end if he failed to secure a playoff berth after the headline-making deterioration of Minnesota’s relationship with Butler since the end of last season.
The timing of this change, though, suggests that the Timberwolves felt a need to create two prime vacancies before Hoiberg finds a new job.
The New York Times reported in December that the Wolves would probably be the only N.B.A. team to consider hiring Hoiberg to coach after his unsuccessful stint in Chicago, because of Hoiberg’s close relationship with the Timberwolves’ owner, Glen Taylor.
With Hoiberg also expected to be a serious candidate for U.C.L.A.’s coaching vacancy, Minnesota can now contend for his services.
ESPN reported Sunday night that the Wolves, though, are determined to keep the coaching and personnel roles separate in the future, meaning Hoiberg — or anyone else they hire — would have to choose one or the other.
Thibodeau’s dismissal leaves San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich as the only coach in the 30-team N.B.A. who also holds personnel power as team president. But even Popovich does not operate in that manner, delegating virtually all of his personnel power to the team president, R. C. Buford.
The Timberwolves ended a 13-year playoff drought last season by posting a 47-35 record, with Butler and the young center Karl-Anthony Towns emerging as All-Stars.
Butler, however, rebuffed Minnesota’s offer of a contract extension in July in the first hint of his discontent. He ultimately asked for a trade days before the start of training camp in September — despite a long association with Thibodeau dating to their days in Chicago.
Butler maintained that he had made his desire to leave Minnesota in free agency clear to the Wolves for months. But Thibodeau and his general manager, Scott Layden, did not begin to seek trades for Butler until training camp was underway and ultimately dealt him to Philadelphia on Nov. 12 for a package headlined by Dario Saric and Robert Covington. The team was 4-9 at the time.
“I said let’s let it go and see how things worked and I think now, we’ve gone up through halfway through the season and I don’t think we’re where we thought we would be or where we think we should be,” Taylor told The Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
“I’m just looking at the results. The results are that I don’t think we should’ve lost against Phoenix or Detroit or New Orleans or Atlanta. Maybe one of those games. We just lost against a bunch of teams that we’re a better team.”
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