Why does Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau hate Nemanja Bjelica? More importantly, why does he hate the country of Serbia and all its people? Bjelica is shooting career-high percentages right now, he’s basically a perfect stretch four, and he’s in his prime, yet he only gets fifteen minutes per game. I get that Taj Gibson is basically the exact kind of defensive-minded, no-nonsense power forward that you want to pair with Karl-Anthony Towns, but we’re talking about Serbia here. Serbia. Taj Gibson is not from Serbia. Bjelica is.
You could argue that Thibodeau actually harbors no animosity for Serbia and the Serb people, and that Bjelica’s low minutes are simply a result of Thibodeau running his starters into the ground. That would be false. You can tell from the way that Thibodeau and Bjelica interact that Thibodeau hates Serbia and will resist, when possible, having to include Serb players in his rotation.
Here’s what I think: I think that Bjelica should get traded to the Clippers because Doc Rivers has shown that he will give Serb players the minutes they deserve. Plus the Bjelica-Teodosic tandem would probably be unstoppable.