With training camp set to begin this week, Wolves president of basketball operations and head coach Tom Thibodeau made official some changes to his staff and announced extensive additions to the basketball operations staff.
First, the coaches:
The Wolves officially announced the additions of Andy Greer and Rick Brunson as assistant coaches, announced the addition of Peter Patton as shooting coach and the promotion of Vince Legarza to player development coach.
Ryan Saunders – who coached the Wolves summer league entry – will be retained and Daisuke Yoshimoto will be the special assistant to Thibodeau.
Greer, whose hiring as Thibodeau's top assistant was reported by the Star Tribune in June, has a long history with Thibodeau; the two were assistants together under Jeff Van Gundy in Houston, and Greer was Thibodeau's assistant with the Chicago Bulls. Greer spent last season with Toronto.
Brunson, whose hiring was reported in July, is entering his third season working with Thibodeau. Among his stops as an assistant include Chicago, Denver and Charlotte. Brunson had a nine-year NBA playing career, playing for seven teams through 2006.
Legarza, entering his second season with the Wolves, was the player development assistant/player development video coordinator last season.
Patton has been teaching the game for 20 years. A graduate of DePaul, he never missed a game in college and set the school's single-season three-point percentage record as a junior (54.1 percent).
Yoshimoto spent last season in Denver as video coordinator. Before that he spent four seasons in Chicago as video coordinator under Thibodeau. He has also worked with the Nets and for the Ukranian national team.
Meanwhile, on the basketball ops side, Noah Croom was named assistant general manager, Brian Pauga as director of player personnel and John Carideo, Jim Eyen, Drew Nicholas, Scott Roth and Jim Todd as scouts.
Matthew Duhamel will be director of athletic therapy, Pierre Nesbit will be assistant athletic trainer and Troy Sutton will be assistant strength and conditioning coach.
Also, Calvin Booth will now be director of pro personnel, Matt Bollero will be pro personnel scout, David Crewe will be the head stretch and conditioning coach/assistant athletic trainer and Emmanuel Rohan will be director of basketball administration. Todd Checovich will be manager of basketball operations and Rachel Saunders will be manager of team services.
Croom was legal counsel and agent for Goodwin Sports Management since 2002 and has worked as an assistant GM with the Grizzlies. Pauga spent the last nine seasons in San Antonio, most recently as director of scouting. Carideo has been a scout in the NBA since 2001. Eyen has more than 26 years of NBA experience, most recently serving as an L.A. Lakers assistant. Nicholas won an NCAA title playing for Maryland. Roth, meanwhile returns to Minnesota after playing for the team in 1989-90, the Wolves' inaugural season.
