After more than a month of hearing rumors about malcontent inside the Timberwolves’ locker room, head coach Tom Thibodeau finally addressed the concerns during his pre-draft press conference on Wednesday.
“When you look around the league there’s rumors everywhere,” he said. “You don’t want to respond to every rumor. When you go down a path where you’re trying to change things to improve, there’s going to be some bumps in the road.”
Thibodeau said bumps in the road are “not uncommon things” and that disagreements are part of the process of turning a losing franchise into a contender.
When there is a disagreement: “You communicate, you map out your plan and you move forward,” he said.
There have been two big reports suggesting internal issues exist, including Karl-Anthony Towns’ reported unhappiness with the front office, specifically Thibodeau, and Jimmy Butler’s disdain for Andrew Wiggins’ work-ethic and approach to playing defense.
Drama around the Timberwolves?
– Report: Jimmy Butler “uncertain” he wants to play with Andrew Wiggins.
– Jalen Rose would be “shocked” if the Wolves don’t trade Towns or Wiggins.
“It’s a lot of misinformation, so how do you determine what you respond to and what you don’t respond to?” Thibodeau said. “We all know from inside what’s actually true and not true. We’d be up here all day. You have stuff that’s out there that couldn’t be further from the truth, and you just feed into it by responding to it.”
He also said his relationship with Towns is hunky-dory.
“Yeah, yeah. He’s doing quite well. I love KAT. He’s had a terrific start to his career.”
Thibodeau concluded by saying that if there is a problem he will address it privately.
