To no surprise for those who have been following news on the Timberwolves’ front, Ed Pinckney has been added to the Timberwolves’ Coaching Staff as an Assistant Coach.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, December 2, 2016
Ed Pinckney Added to Tom Thibodeau’s Staff as Assistant Coach
Minneapolis/St. Paul – The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced that Ed Pinckney has joined President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach Tom Thibodeau’s staff as Assistant Coach. Pinckney joins Andy Greer, Ryan Saunders and Rick Brunson as Assistant Coaches on Thibodeau’s staff.
Pinckney rejoins the Timberwolves after serving as an Assistant Coach in Minnesota from 2007-09. He spent last season as an Assistant Coach with Denver, and spent the previous five seasons with Thibodeau in Chicago. The 10th overall pick in the 1985 NBA Draft by Phoenix, Pinckney spent 12 seasons in the NBA, playing for Phoenix, Sacramento, Boston, Milwaukee, Toronto, Philadelphia and Miami.
Ed Pinckney is another highly respected coach that will further round out the coaching staff and provide another voice that will likely emphasize defense. Pinckney is also another former colleague of President of Basketball Operations Tom Thibodeau.
While the Timberwolves front office does not still have the “country club” running the show, it is pretty obvious that Thibodeau is much more comfortable working with staff that he already has close relationships with rather than mining the field for new hires. This is understandable as Thibodeau is taking on a completely new position for which he has no experience, as he previously was only responsible for coaching in the NBA. It makes sense that he would want to gather a circle of trusted and respected assistants rather than building from scratch, at least in the first year.
The Wolves will be beginning their second full week of training camp today and we shall hopefully be getting more interesting tidbits coming out of camp throughout the week. For now, hopefully everyone can appreciate Ricky’s new haircut.
NBA News
The NBA is officially back. This weekend brought a few NBA preseason games along with it, as well as the Warriors first official (preseason) loss. The highlights of the game included the one and only JaVale McGee, which was worthy of the first Free Dawkins Highlight video of the season.
The Houston Rockets took on the Shanghai Sharks and the Rockets featured James Harden at point guard for the first time. It is unclear if Harden will be fully transitioning to point guard during the regular season, as while he has been running the offense for the past several years in Houston he has not operated as the de facto point guard before. However, he seems to be taking to the position so far, at least against the Shanghai Sharks.
Further details have come to light regarding Ben Simmons’ injured foot. He is currently projected to miss three months of play after an upcoming surgery. However, this broken bone in his foot is the fifth metatarsal bone, which is a problematic injury that created lasting problems for Yao Ming, Bill Walton, and Brook Lopez. More recently, Kevin Durant suffered the same injury in 2014 and re-injured his foot upon return to play, after of which he later opted for a bone graft surgery.
It is becoming clear this is possibly a serious injury, as this particular bone break has waylaid the careers of Hall of Fame players and if treated improperly can leave lasting complications. The 76ers would be prudent to treat the situation carefully.