According to multiple reports, John Lucas III will be a member of the Timberwolves coaching staff this season. Lucas III has a long history with Tom Thibodeau, playing for him in Chicago, and then again briefly last season with the Wolves, when he made the team out of training camp, but was eventually cut after appearing in five games.
Lucas III will have a player development role for the Timberwolves.
The Wolves are also poised to add Tim Buckley to their college scouting staff. Buckley was an assistant at Indiana under Tom Crean. This comes days after the announcement of Scott Roth as head coach of the Iowa Wolves of the G-League.
In player news...we wait. The Pelicans traded Quincy Pondexter to the Bulls, which gives the a bit of salary to play with that they might be planning to use to entice Dante Cunningham to return to New Orleans. Cunningham is a Wolves target as well, and they were hoping to land him with a minimum deal, but the Pels are now in a position to offer more.
There were murmurs yesterday that Shabazz Muhammad is considering the Lakers, whose GM is his former agent Rob Pelinka. Again, players are waiting to see if teams can generate more than minimum offers at this point, as the Pels did yesterday.
Eurobasket is in full swing. Finland upset France yesterday behind Lauri Markkanen’s scoring surge in the 4th quarter and overtime. Spain gets underway today against Montenegro at 9:45 am CDT, with all games streaming through WatchESPN.
This evening, USMNT resumes their qualifying effort for next summer’s World Cup. They host Costa Rica at Red Bull Arena in an absolutely critical match for their qualifying chances.
The game is on ESPN, and no matter how cynical you are about the USMNT, or international soccer in general (and I don’t blame you,) you should watch because Christian Pulisic will be playing, and he’s worth your time.
Anyway, have a great Friday.