Characteristics of A Good NBA Organization

[Shumway]

Good thread Lip.

As much as we all know that the Wolves have been a terrible NBA Organisation, I still want to argue with you and stand up for my team. Perhaps it's like standing up for your child even if they're not the smartest or best athlete in class - we still feel compelled to stand up for them if anyone insults them.

Perhaps it's the blind optimism of a Wolves fan, but I'm sure I can convince everyone that we are on our way to turning the corner towards being a good franchise. You've noted above that every team has good luck and bad luck and teams just have to be able to take advantage of their fortune.

The Wolves in recent times have seemed to take advantage of their good fortune. They selected KAT when they had the #1 pick. Flip was patient enough with Love to then trade him for Wiggins after Lebron signed with the Cavs. We finally seem to have selected a good player that others passed over in Lavine. Perhaps when we look back in the coming years we'll add Thib's patience last offseason as a key move.

So now we're in a position where I feel like the hardest part has been accomplished - getting hold of some elite talent. That's still a long way from being an elite team, but some of the talent is there. Now we need to piece it together in a complimentary fashion.

I'm probably just delusional, but I'm still hoping that in 5 years time, Blazers fans will be writing on their message boards about how we're now considered a good NBA organisation.

[Monster]

Portland is completely capped out why isn't this mentioned? They have a young core trio of two wings and big who don't play defense just like us except they have locked themselves into multiple bad contracts and look like a prime contender for being stuck in the yearly 8 seed with no money or high pick to push the team up a level.

I'll bet the Blazers extracate themselves from those bad contracts. And honestly, I think Crabbe's contract seems like the only really bad one, yet even he's a productive player with trade value. Just watch -- they'll parley their three first round picks and a player or two into significant net gains. I hope I'm wrong, since they're a major rival of ours. But I'm less concerned about what Portland does or doesn't do and I'm not too intersted in evaluating the Blazers. I'm interested in seeing our front office make some impressive decisions that materially improve the team over the short and long term. I'm looking for Thibs and Layden to shine so it won't matter what Portland or any other rival does.

Turner's and Leonard's contracts are far worse than Crabbe's. Crabbe is young and still improving player whom is a terrific outside shooter in era when outside shooting is more important than ever before for team's success. I'm pretty sure, Portland could trade easily Crabbe at least for late 1st round pick. Trading Turner would require adding 1st round pick before any team would consider it.

Agreed. I think the Blazers misstep was signing Turner to that contract when they had all those wings already. If they had signed him to say 12-13 million per that would have been less terrible but they didn't. IMO signing Leonard is more defendable. It's a pretty cheap deal and at the time they didn't have their big man situation figured out they had some guys be he had looked promising at times and was still just 24. Even if he does suck his contract will end up being small enough they could end up moving it in some deal at some point.

The good news for the Blazers is they have a good roster and they have some pieces they can move if they want to plus those first round picks 2 of which they could even just have in the d-league all year of they wanted. Their owner has the money of they HAVE to pay that lux tax this year. They can always move a player/players during the season to get cap relief. Getting Nurkic was huge for them especially if he keeps being the guy he showed playing for them last year he was VERY good.

Personally I'm looking at the end of their roster and seeing if any of those guys they may not have room for would be worth adding to our roster. I've read that the Pat Connaughton has the Orioles willing to offer him plenty of cash to come play baseball. I'm interested in him as a basketball player of the Blazers let him go as his contract isn't guaranteed. He can jump out of the gym and profiles as a good shooter and had some good do shit stats as a college player and he is still only 24. We need to stay creative and find some guys other teams didn't have an opportunity for an add them to our roster. Connaughton might not be the next Aminu or Harkless type player that the Blazers got for nothing but what if he is a Wayne Ellington level guy that we are able to get for cheap? That has plenty of value and the type of player this team could really use because it needs shooting.

[BloopOracle]

Flip needs more credit for his spectacular tank to get Towns in the first place, what was it 15 straight losses including one to the Knicks to end the season one game worse than them? Add that to his gutsy Lavine pick and how he stubbornly held out for Wiggins when the NBA media was SWARMING us saying we had no leverage whatsoever. NBA circles seemed almost offended that Flip wouldn't accept a poo poo platter for Love it was a frustrating time. I'll just assume he traded for Payne because he didn't want to make rival GM's look any worse >__>

[Lipoli390]

Good thread Lip.

As much as we all know that the Wolves have been a terrible NBA Organisation, I still want to argue with you and stand up for my team. Perhaps it's like standing up for your child even if they're not the smartest or best athlete in class - we still feel compelled to stand up for them if anyone insults them.

Perhaps it's the blind optimism of a Wolves fan, but I'm sure I can convince everyone that we are on our way to turning the corner towards being a good franchise. You've noted above that every team has good luck and bad luck and teams just have to be able to take advantage of their fortune.

The Wolves in recent times have seemed to take advantage of their good fortune. They selected KAT when they had the #1 pick. Flip was patient enough with Love to then trade him for Wiggins after Lebron signed with the Cavs. We finally seem to have selected a good player that others passed over in Lavine. Perhaps when we look back in the coming years we'll add Thib's patience last offseason as a key move.

So now we're in a position where I feel like the hardest part has been accomplished - getting hold of some elite talent. That's still a long way from being an elite team, but some of the talent is there. Now we need to piece it together in a complimentary fashion.

I'm probably just delusional, but I'm still hoping that in 5 years time, Blazers fans will be writing on their message boards about how we're now considered a good NBA organisation.

Good post, Shumway. You're absolutely right about the good things Flip did as our top front office executive. He also made some mistakes that I criticized a the time without the benefit of hindsight: (1) trading down and drafting Bazz instead of taking McCollum in 2013, (2) having decided to trade down, taking Bazz instead of the Greek Freak that year, (3) selling the 27th pick for cash in 2013 when he could have taking Gobert, (4) trading Miami's 1st round pick received in the Wiggins/Love deal for Thad Young, (5) trade a future #1 for Payne. Yet, on balance, there's no doubt that Flip's all too brief tenure as head of basketball operations was positive and that he has given us a solid foundation.

I wish Flip were still around, heading up the Wolves front office because I suspect he would have continued to make good moves and even improve over time. And he was also such a great guy to have around. But the question now is whether Thibs and Layden can pick up where Flip left off and do even better, completing the construction of a championship contender.

[Monster]

Good thread Lip.

As much as we all know that the Wolves have been a terrible NBA Organisation, I still want to argue with you and stand up for my team. Perhaps it's like standing up for your child even if they're not the smartest or best athlete in class - we still feel compelled to stand up for them if anyone insults them.

Perhaps it's the blind optimism of a Wolves fan, but I'm sure I can convince everyone that we are on our way to turning the corner towards being a good franchise. You've noted above that every team has good luck and bad luck and teams just have to be able to take advantage of their fortune.

The Wolves in recent times have seemed to take advantage of their good fortune. They selected KAT when they had the #1 pick. Flip was patient enough with Love to then trade him for Wiggins after Lebron signed with the Cavs. We finally seem to have selected a good player that others passed over in Lavine. Perhaps when we look back in the coming years we'll add Thib's patience last offseason as a key move.

So now we're in a position where I feel like the hardest part has been accomplished - getting hold of some elite talent. That's still a long way from being an elite team, but some of the talent is there. Now we need to piece it together in a complimentary fashion.

I'm probably just delusional, but I'm still hoping that in 5 years time, Blazers fans will be writing on their message boards about how we're now considered a good NBA organisation.

Good post, Shumway. You're absolutely right about the good things Flip did as our top front office executive. He also made some mistakes that I criticized a the time without the benefit of hindsight: (1) trading down and drafting Bazz instead of taking McCollum in 2013, (2) having decided to trade down, taking Bazz instead of the Greek Freak that year, (3) selling the 27th pick for cash in 2013 when he could have taking Gobert, (4) trading Miami's 1st round pick received in the Wiggins/Love deal for Thad Young, (5) trade a future #1 for Payne. Yet, on balance, there's no doubt that Flip's all too brief tenure as head of basketball operations was positive and that he has given us a solid foundation.

I wish Flip were still around, heading up the Wolves front office because I suspect he would have continued to make good moves and even improve over time. And he was also such a great guy to have around. But the question now is whether Thibs and Layden can pick up where Flip left off and do even better, completing the construction of a championship contender.

Oddly I think a big question about Flip if he was still around was coaching. It turns out Flip was uniquely qualified to be a basketball executive and while he was a good coach you wondered how far that would go. Based on a couple comments Glen has made you wonder if he would have pushed for Thibs as the coach here even if Flip was still around.

One thing that's a big switch is Flip was a guy that would talk to anyone and Thibs and Layden prefer to just do their jobs and do mostly what is required. Towns likely will be the outgoing part of this organization along with an assist from Lavine and any other players that step up or are added. You never know though after all these years it turns out Pop has a bit of a fun personality after all. Lol

[Monster]

I thought this was worth posting in this thread. It's not a huge deal but it's a positive.

https://twitter.com/nbata/status/865952827214004225

"Congrats 2 David Crewe of the @timberwolves for being named the 2016-17 NBATA David Craig Asst Athletic Trainer of the Year
#NBATA #twolves"

Here is an interview Ratke did with him in January.

http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/get-know-head-strength-and-conditioning-coach-david-crewe/#

[AbeVigodaLive]

The Wolves might not be able to win many basketball games or get near a playoff run... but having one of the best assistant athletic trainers makes up for most of that.

[TheFuture]

[quote=.

Good post, Shumway. You're absolutely right about the good things Flip did as our top front office executive. He also made some mistakes that I criticized a the time without the benefit of hindsight: (1) trading down and drafting Bazz instead of taking McCollum in 2013, (2) having decided to trade down, taking Bazz instead of the Greek Freak that year, (3) selling the 27th pick for cash in 2013 when he could have taking Gobert, (4) trading Miami's 1st round pick received in the Wiggins/Love deal for Thad Young, (5) trade a future #1 for Payne. Yet, on balance, there's no doubt that Flip's all too brief tenure as head of basketball operations was positive and that he has given us a solid foundation.

I wish Flip were still around, heading up the Wolves front office because I suspect he would have continued to make good moves and even improve over time. And he was also such a great guy to have around. But the question now is whether Thibs and Layden can pick up where Flip left off and do even better, completing the construction of a championship contender.

[Monster]

The Wolves might not be able to win many basketball games or get near a playoff run... but having one of the best assistant athletic trainers makes up for most of that.

Abe you clearly didn't look up Crewe's advanced stats like WORT and IGS.

[Papalrep]

PorkChop--Good organizations don't draft a euro stash ( basically) with the fifth pick and pass on the Steph Currys of the world. That's all that needs to be said there. Lol

I remember Curry commenting later on the Wolves. He refused to work out here, because we didn't even have a coach going into the draft. He had no idea what was going on here. Total incompetent chaos.