Minneapolis/St. Paul – The Minnesota Timberwolves today finalized their coaching staff by naming Kevin Hanson Assistant Coach/Director of Player Development, Jeff Newton Offensive Associate/Player Development Coach, Max Lefevre Video Coordinator/Player Development Associate and Greg Stiemsma Player Development Associate. In addition, Kwadzo Ahelegbe begins his fourth season on the Wolves staff and first as Associate Video Coordinator/Player Development and Cole Fisher begins his second season with the Wolves and first as Basketball Operations & Coaching Analyst as he incorporates coaching staff responsibilities to his role.
“We’re excited to add Kevin, Jeff, Max and Greg to our coaching staff in addition to giving new responsibilities to Kwadzo and Cole,” said Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas. “Our coaching additions have very diverse backgrounds and approaches which will strongly complement our current coaching staff. We’re confident that under Ryan’s leadership we have the best group in place to maximize our players’ success both on and off the floor.”
“We welcome Kevin, Jeff, Max and Greg to the Wolves family,” said Timberwolves Head Coach Ryan Saunders. “I feel great about the high-character group of coaches and people we’ve assembled on our coaching staff. Player development is a priority for our staff and I’m excited about the expertise we’ve assembled in this area as we aim to put our players in the best position to have success. Also, as we place more emphasis on using analytics to impact our decision making as a coaching staff, we’re excited about adding Cole and his expertise in that area.”
Hanson spent the previous eight seasons with the New Orleans Pelicans, the last five as assistant coach. He joined the Pelicans in 2011 as the team’s player development coach before being elevated to assistant coach. He was the team’s summer league head coach in 2018. Hanson joined the San Antonio Spurs in the summer of 2008 as an assistant video coordinator and was named the Spurs’ player development assistant in the summer of 2010. He served as an assistant coach for the Spurs summer league teams each of his last two seasons with San Antonio. Hanson played four seasons at the University of San Diego and after college spent five seasons playing professionally overseas in Argentina and Germany.
Prior to joining the Wolves, Newton served as an assistant video coordinator for the Sacramento Kings the last three seasons. Prior to that, he was with the Houston Rockets for three seasons, spending one year each as personnel scout, assistant video coordinator and basketball operations intern. Newton also served as a coach liaison for the Greece National Team in the summer of 2017.
Lefevre spent the last three seasons on Chris Beard’s staff at Texas Tech as the team’s director of player development. He also was on Beard’s staffs at Arkansas-Little Rock in 2015-16 as director of basketball operations and Angelo State from 2013-15 as a graduate assistant.
Stiemsma rejoins the Timberwolves after playing for the team during the 2012-13 season where he averaged career-highs of 4.0 points and 76 games. He also saw action in the NBA with Boston (2011-12), New Orleans (2013-14) and Toronto (2014-15). After completing his collegiate career at Wisconsin in 2008, Stiemsma played overseas in Turkey and Korea and in the NBA G League. He was the NBA G League Defensive Player of the Year with the Sioux Falls Skyforce in 2009-10.
Ahelegbe was an assistant video coordinator for the Wolves the past three seasons. Prior to that, he played professionally overseas for several seasons in Austria, Netherlands and Germany. Ahelegbe played collegiately at Northern Iowa from 2006-11, averaging 10.0 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 133 career games, and helped the Panthers reach the Sweet 16 in 2010.
Fisher joined the Timberwolves last season as basketball operations analyst. He began his NBA career as a basketball operations intern for the Toronto Raptors in 2017 and was a basketball analytics intern for the Sacramento Kings in 2018. In addition, Fisher has created a web application to help accurately predict future NBA success for current G League players, as well as other web applications.
