longstrangetrip wrote:I generally agree with slimcalhoun's take...I'm not too concerned with this news, and in fact find it mostly positive. Frankly, as I read world's headline, the part about Love weighing in at 240 seemed to be the most significant.
As for the chumminess of the other two moves, what executive doesn't want to hire someone that they have history with? To actually have gone into battle with someone provides invaluable information about them, much more than can be garnered from just interviewing someone or listening to another person's recommendation.. During my 30 years in the business world, I had to fill open positions numerous times, and my first move always was to look for someone that I had worked with previously and could trust. Call it country club if you want, but I think it's merely human nature.
I admit that I know almost nothing about Milt Newton...good or bad. But the fact that he survived several years working for Ernie Grunfeld tells me that he must be resilient, because it can't be pleasant working for him. But I do know a lot about Grunfeld, and any attempts to try to pin the infamous trade of the 5th pick for Foye/Miller on Flip or Newton I believe are misguided. Ernie Grunfeld is the consummate alpha dog and has never operated in a consensus fashion. Any Wizard moves during Grunfeld's stint as PBO are his and his alone. Perhaps Flip and Newton were given the chance to provide some input, but Ernie is always going to do what Ernie wants. So it's difficult for me to have an opinion on the Newton hire. Hopefully his front office experience will compensate for Flip's greenness.
I'm more upbeat about adding Bobby Jackson to the organization. He is in my top three of all-time favorite Gophers, and hopefully some of what he consistently displayed on the court will rub off on our younger developing players.
Great insight. Im one of those that wait until they do something wrong before I say anything negative about them. Hope these hirings will be able to help.
WildWolf2813 wrote:my only question to Lip is why are you upset that Flip didn't hire someone with the qualifications that Glen needed to find when he hired Flip?
Lol. Answer: For the same reason I was upset by Taylor's decision to hire Flip.
Lip knows what he's talking about here. He is absolutely justifiied in being concerned about some of the things that have transpired. Further, he's right when he says that he is more often positive than negative. But he's calling it the way he sees it and I tend to agree with most of what he says in this thread. Blind optimism is okay when you have a history of doing things right and a strong track record. However that is clearly not the case with this franchise and it will be a while before they deserve the benefit of the doubt.
I agree that the jury is still out on Flip. cool and lip...only the results on the court will determine how effective his first moves were. The real answer likely lies somewhere between the views of the optimists and the pessimists on this board. Even if the Wolves win 20 more games this year, it won't mean that Flip was brilliant...more that he came into a situation with a lot of upside potential. But it's not fair to condemn him for the many dreadful moves this franchise has made over the years. Those are on Taylor, McHale and Kahn. I'm just happy that we no longer have a former sportswriter and attorney making the key decisions for the team, but instead have a cadre of real basketball guys who have actually played the game. I'm much more confident moving forward with Saunders/Adelman than Kahn/Rambis.
While I don't view this hire of a gm as positive I would say the jury is out on Milt. Its difficult to know how good guys are that aren't the top dogs in an organization. Its now like the Wizards have done anything amazing fora number of years so there is no reason to get excited about this hire either. So what are the positives about this Milt guy? :)
Wikipedia shows a guy with some interesting basketball experience starting with playing for Larry Brown and being a significant player on their championship team. There are many guys in the league that came from the Larry Brown tree so thats a positive. Of course that doesn't mean he will be a genius but at least he learned under one. After college he played all over in lots of leagues and then got a job working for the sixers as a scout. Then the league hired him and he was one of the guys that helped setup the d-league. He also was heavily involved with team USA for a few years. He has been working so the wizards organization for 10 years so at least the guy has some legit experience.
Basically all I am trying to say here is while he doesn't look like an impressive hire I think he should also not be dismissed as some sort of incompetent buffoon either not that anyone has made that claim. As we all know one of the failings of this organization has been that it seems like it can never keep up building a true organization with all the pieces it needs. Flip is trying to make that happen. Will it work? Will he get the right guys? Idk but Flip has been on the job for weeks so yeah it gonna take some time.
longstrangetrip wrote:I agree that the jury is still out on Flip. cool and lip...only the results on the court will determine how effective his first moves were. The real answer likely lies somewhere between the views of the optimists and the pessimists on this board. Even if the Wolves win 20 more games this year, it won't mean that Flip was brilliant...more that he came into a situation with a lot of upside potential. But it's not fair to condemn him for the many dreadful moves this franchise has made over the years. Those are on Taylor, McHale and Kahn. I'm just happy that we no longer have a former sportswriter and attorney making the key decisions for the team, but instead have a cadre of real basketball guys who have actually played the game. I'm much more confident moving forward with Saunders/Adelman than Kahn/Rambis.
longstrangetrip wrote:I agree that the jury is still out on Flip. cool and lip...only the results on the court will determine how effective his first moves were. The real answer likely lies somewhere between the views of the optimists and the pessimists on this board. Even if the Wolves win 20 more games this year, it won't mean that Flip was brilliant...more that he came into a situation with a lot of upside potential. But it's not fair to condemn him for the many dreadful moves this franchise has made over the years. Those are on Taylor, McHale and Kahn. I'm just happy that we no longer have a former sportswriter and attorney making the key decisions for the team, but instead have a cadre of real basketball guys who have actually played the game. I'm much more confident moving forward with Saunders/Adelman than Kahn/Rambis.
Isn't it a bit misleading or manipulative to say Saunders/Adelman than Kahn/Rambis, when Rambis has been gone for two years and Kahn was the one who brought in Adelman?
Yeah, it's a little manipulative, sjm, because hiring RA was one of Kahn's good moves. But I was just trying to make the point that I feel much more comfortable with the current GM/coach combo than the one we had 2-3 years ago. Kahn was a laughingstock around the league, and even though Flip is still untested as a GM, having actually been involved with the game as a player and a coach has to put him light years ahead of Kahn in terms of understanding the types of players who can win in the NBA (i.e,.no more Darkos, Beasleys, Randolphs and Wes Johnsons).
I tend to agree (re. Milton Newton) with lst. First, I don't think either he nor Flip had the final say on personnel in Washington, it was Grunfeld. But to the degree that either had a say in the draft, it's a little disingenuous (sp?) to just bring up Vesely without mentioning Wall, Beal and McGee at 18, the other recent picks that did work out. The Rubio-pick trade was a disaster for them, but in the context of an Arenas-led team ready to advance in the playoffs, it didn't start off terrible. I don't even mind the Okafor signing, but do agree that the Nene deal was awful. However, I should point out that so far, Javale's basketball IQ is no better than Beas or McCants.
I forgot to add I love having Bobby Jackson with the Wolves. I enjoyed his entire basketball career and I can olny hope that some of what he was able to bring to the floor can be translated to the players. It seems like a pretty solid hire in general because he was actually an assistant for the Kings and probably a no-brainer for the Wolves (and Jackson as well) with his history with Minnesota, Flip and Adelman. I am sure he can still show guys a thing or two out there teaching them which doesn't hurt.
