Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
When Ryan Saunders took over for the fired Tom Thibodeau as the Minnesota Timberwolves’ interim head coach earlier this season, it seemed to be a less-than-ideal situation.
Ultimately, Saunders has led Minnesota to a decent 17-24 record heading into Wednesday’s season finale. Not a great performance from the struggling team. But it was enough for the powers to be in Minneapolis to decide to keep Saunders over the long term.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Wolves are finalizing new deals with both Saunders and general manager Scott Layden.
The son of late-great former Wolves head coach Flip Saunders, this young man has been rising up the coaching ranks. It was a surprise that Saunders earned his first head coaching job at the greenish age of 32.
With that said, it appears that Minnesota is going to be relying on Saunders to turn things around big time. The team missed out on the playoffs this season after earning a surprise postseason performance in 2017-18.