Why The Wolves Coaching Staff Begs To Differ On A Young Team

Typically, young teams do not make it far into the NBA playoff's, or even the playoff's at all for that matter.

Usually, it's due to a lack of development and maturity.

Last season featured a young team that was a force to be reckoned with, the Portland Trailblazers.

But other young teams such as the Timberwolves, and the Oklahoma City Thunder struggled for wins, and though the Trailblazers are a young team, the Wolves and Thunder etc. have enough talent to justify more wins than one would see on their standings sheets.

That got me thinking.

Why is it that the Portland Trailblazers, the Atlanta Hawks, and the Philadelphia 76ers win games with their talent, and the Timberwolves don't?

It's not a lack of talent, because if you put certain team's on paper, one could see that players can be matched player for player, or close to it.

So what could it be?

I then thought about the coaching staff, and how it can affect the way that players play.

The Portland Trailblazers have amazing young talent, backed up with a great coaching staff. Now, the Timberwolves can say that with the addition of Ramon Sessions, the Wolves too have got a great coaching staff.

Kurt Rambis is now the official head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves. He brings championship experience from being Phil Jackson's right hand man, and an era of greatness being an essential part of the "showtime" Lakers.

Kurt Rambis officially sought out his assistant coaches a couple days ago, and named former Sacramento Kings head coach Reggie Theus, WNBA's Detroit Shock head coach Bill Lambier, and Dave Wohl, who brings over 30 years of coaching experience to the Timberwolves.

In other words, there's no doubt that the Timberwolves coaching staff can mould these puppies into the vicious Wolves that they can be.

This coaching staff can excel in player development, and discipline.

But also, the most important factor in this is that these Timberwolves are going to respect these coaching staff.

Before Kurt Rambis, the Timberwolves staff was a joke, and that's no joke. Kevin McHale was great as a coach for development, but when it came to set plays, defense, clutch situations and matchups, Kevin McHale totally lacked any kind of nous.

Randy Wittman was a complete jerk, and did not understand player development, and did not let his players play to their strengths. He often tried to manipulate physical nature, or potential in game situations that would often get the Wolves blown out by teams like the Clippers.

With Kurt Rambis, he has already earned the respect of Captain of the Timberwolves; Al Jefferson.

Al Jefferson: "The number one thing I like about him is, he just left a championship team and in maybe two, three years he would have been the head coach in LA". "I like his ideas and I like how excited he was," Jefferson said. "He left a great job to come here and that meant a lot to me."

Bill Lambier adds a whole new element to the Timberwolves, and that's toughness. He has coached young women instead of young men, and won three WNBA titles with the Detroit Shock. One thing can be said for that: "Winning a title coaching women, is harder then winning a title coaching men".

This is simply because getting women to be tough, is harder than getting men to be tough. You really have to have a tremendous respect for that, regardless of your gender.

I can only think that Bill Lambier's toughness rubbing off on the Wolves will intensify because of the gender change, which will be good for them.

Dave Wohl brings so much NBA experience, on the court and off the court, and Reggie Theus brings some head coaching experience, along with some serious player development.

I love the Timberwolves coaching staff, and if I'm a Timberwolves player, it's just going to make me work harder, knowing that there's a possibility that it will be heading in the right direction.

Maybe Kurt Rambis can get Al Jefferson to commit to defense? Maybe Bill Lambier can show Ryan Hollins how to be a "bad boy" on offense and defense? Maybe Reggie Theus can whip Corey Brewer into shape?

There's endless possibilities with this staff, and it just took my favourite team in the whole wide world to get a respectable coaching staff to make me realize, "Just how valuable coaches can be". Kurt Rambis for MVC?

Thanks for reading!