monsterpile wrote:lipoli390 wrote:My concern is that Thibodeau is the one we have to depend on to come up with ideas and negotiate. He wants to win now for obvious reasons. Taylor is f'ing up once again by not terminating him and turning the process over to someone else.
What I've always found interesting about the Thibs Layden tenure is that they have never gone all in on winning now. There are always some moves that show they have had an eye towards the future. Both guys are likely working for their jobs under an owner that's as involved as ever. I'd guess they get something of use for the future whether they are likely to be here for that future or not.
Nothing here ideal. Butler needs to be traded ASAP I think I'd rather have Thibs and Layden on board for now than Glen doing a panic move (he is in a bad spot) and basically pick some guy...that...the more I think about it frightens me quite a bit.
Monster, I agree with you in two respects. First, I agree that the Thibs/Layden tenure hasn't gone ALL in on winning now inasmuch as they haven't traded away all our picks and young talent. Second, I agree that the notion of replacing them both in a rush right now is scary.
But my concern with keeping Thibs to head our front office through the Butler deal is two-fold:
First, as head coach, Thibs will likely be even more concerned with winning right away to preserve his coaching tenure and he's shown recent signs of serverly impaired judgment and what I'd consider malfeasance. It's telling and downright scary that Thibs failed for months to address what he had to know was a serious developing problem with Butler and then, after Butler's trade demand, had to be forced by Glen to relent on his "I'm not trading Butler" position. I don't think the Wolves organization can trust him being involved in, much less heading up, the effort to trade Butler.
Second, he has very little credibility left and his presence in light of what has just happened casts an even darker shadow over the team than the one cast by his dark, negative personality. Therefore, I can't see keeping him around this organization as head coach and, if not here as head coach, I can't see how he stays as PBO.
To address our fear of turning the organization over to someone even worse in a panic, I would fire Thibodeau but not Layden. I'd make Layen acting PBO and have him manage the Butler deal under close supervision by others in the organization. As you know, I've never been a big fan of Layden, but I think he can be trusted to faithfully serve the long-term interests of the franchise. I think he could be trusted to pursue a deal for Jimmy without any conscious or subconscious proclivity to favor deals focused more on winning now at the expense of the team's long-term interests.
Right now Layden reports to Thibodeau and he's shown he'll be loyal to Thibs as long as Thibs remains his boss. And Taylor can't be on every call or in the room for every conversation. So Glen can't know for sure what Thibodeau is telling other teams GMs, what possible deals he's slamming the door on and which ones he's encouraging. There's a serious trust issue here -- not because Thibs is an inherently dishonest guy, but because he's likely in full self-preservation mode and seems to bend reality to fit his goals as he did ignoring the serious internal issues developing for many months between Butler and others in the organization. So for me, having Thibs remain here with any role in handling the front office generally or the Butler deal specifically is the scariest thing of all.
