If Tom Thibodeau only trust veterans, why no Cole Aldrich?

Tom Thibodeau has long been known as a coach who always plays veterans over young talent. The Minnesota Timberwolves need to look for new contributors, as many fans have been calling for, and Cole Aldrich deserves a look.

The Minnesota Timberwolves sit at 38-28, a record that  has them sitting at fourth in the Western Conference. Four games separate No. 3 through No. 10 in the West, so every game is extremely important from here on out.

Timberwolves president of basketball operations and head coach Tom Thibodeau has been extremely stubborn with his rotations all year. Minnesota’s starting five is still the most-played lineup in the NBA, having played 284 more minutes than the second-most played lineup.

Ahead of Minnesota’s March 8 matchup with the Boston Celtics at the Target Center, Thibs and the rest of the coaching staff will be looking for adjustments to keep the team afloat. They have the 13th-toughest remaining schedule in the league, per Tankathon.com. I’ve ran out of ways to say Thibodeau needs to play more players. Cole Aldrich is a player that can help now.

Under Thibodeau, the Timberwolves have regularly played nine-man rotations (kind of old school for the regular season), but occasionally they have employed eight-man rotations (yuck). Sure enough, in Minnesota’s most recent loss to the Utah Jazz, Thibodeau played eight men, with Marcus Georges-Hunt only receiving two minutes and 55 seconds of playing time.

Cole Aldrich should be the ninth man in the rotation. In Minnesota’s last five games, they’ve gone 2-3. The Timberwolves lost the three games in which they had the lower offensive rebounding percentage. Two of the games saw the battle on the offensive glass hit the most extreme outcomes.

More from Minnesota Timberwolves

• 5 NBA players everyone should be keeping a close eye on in 2023-24
• Ranking the 4 riskiest boom-or-bust NBA teams in 2023–24
• Ranking the 10 championship-less NBA teams by closeness to title
• 1 Crucial skill that every Timberwolves star must work on this summer
• 3 players in line for a big raise during the 2023 NBA offseason

Minnesota’s most recent game was an eight-point road loss to the Utah Jazz. Utah had an offensive rebound percentage of 30.6 percent, 25 percent higher than the T-Wolves. Minnsota is not a 3-point shooting team, and despite having Thibodeau as their leader, they are not a defensive team. The Wolves win by protecting the ball, getting to the free throw line and hitting the offensive glass hard. This team is in need of a some energy off the bench, and Aldrich can provide it.

Yes, Nemanja Bjelicia is a good rebounder. He is currently third on the team in defense rebound percentage, but Thibodeau played him 45 minutes in the game, a figure that made my blood boil. Bjelicia only went 2-for-4 from the 3-point line. A big reason for his lack of offensive output was the energy spent trying to help keep Rudy Gobert off the glass.

Cole Aldrich has a 19 percent career rebounding percentage. This season he leads the Timbrwolves with 3.5 offensive rebounds per 36 minutes. In the recent loss to the Jazz, Aldrich would’ve been a big body to put on Gobert and he would have at least made the defense account for him as a rim-runner/pick-and-roll threat.

The video below is from two years ago during a stint with the Los Angeles Clippers, but it shows exactly how Aldrich uses pump fakes and good touch around the rim to score.

On top of being an active rebounder, and efficient scorer (career 52.8 percent shooter), Aldrich is a decent free throw shooter at 74.4 percent. This is a huge deal. Something that has killed Minnesota all year is how one-dimensional some of its talent can be.

Andrew Wiggins has made small improvements on defense, but he still has not improved his rebounding numbers, and his free throw percentage has fallen to a career-low 63.5 percent. Aldrich can help fill in the gaps for Thibodeau’s Wiggins-dominated lineups (A.K.A. all of them) by simply being active on the glass and being average at the charity stripe.

Next: The 50 greatest NBA players of all time (updated, 2016-17)

Cole Aldrich has a skill-set that would perhaps help one of the league’s weakest defensive frontcourts. There is only so much Taj Gibson can do to cover for the negative net ratings of Gorgui Dieng (-4.9) inside and Jamal Crawford (-5.2) on the perimeter. Aldrich can at least help out on the glass, and find efficient ways to score. At this stage of the season, a net positive player is all you can ask for.