monsterpile wrote:Lip you said you didn't know what to read into what you heard (thanks for posting that info) and I think that's about all you can really say. It could be as simple as reralizing there is a good chance Love may leave for nothing and knowing that Memphis has a much better roster even if Randolph doesn't resign than the Wolves have. It could have been also that Memphis wised up and realized maybe they better hold onto him after all and they showed him some love. Who knows ts all speculation right now and very confusing and fairly odd situation.
I get the feeling Flip is looking at a wide net of coaching options and he isn't in a hurry and that's a good thing. If we end up with Sam Mitchell I won't be thrilled but I won't be jumping off the ledge either. The Wolves are in a tough spot with the Love situation. If Love leaves or even if they trade him its not a good spot to want to come into as a coach. Another thing to consider is with teams hiring and firig like crazy you could wait till another opening to get a better opportunity. Who knows maybe we don't hire a coach till after the draft when a coach likes the guys we got in the draft and was one of the guys they really thought was worthwhile. Of course not terrifically likely but hey lots of crazy stuff has happened this offseason and the Finals aren't even being played yet.
Monster, I find your post here and on the other coaching thread to be the most balanced, and likely most accurate, that I have read. Almost all of us on this board were pleased with the possibility of Joerger coming here, and because of the goofy Memphis situation and his local ties, were convinced that it was a done deal. So Joerger's decision to stay in Memphis has created an emotional whipsaw. We're unhappy, and somebody needs to be blamed. The wolves dragged their feet in setting up meetings. Flip got too cute in negotiating compensation. Glen said something in the interview that repelled Joerger. Good heavens! I understand the emotional need to find a scapegoat here, but sometimes there are no villains in a bad outcome...it's just that the deck was stacked against us. It seems to me that the Wolves moved quite rapidly after the Joerger rumors emerged. And Joerger was interested, most likely because he felt unloved in Memphis. But there are some facts that we do know. The Kevin Love uncertainty makes Memphis a much more attractive coaching opportunity, and the Memphis brass realized their mistake and did everything they could this weekend to make Joerger feel wanted. Once they did that, it came down to his deciding where he had the best chance of winning, and unfortunately he has a better chance in Memphis.
Like Monster, I'm not thrilled with the possibility of Sam Mitchell being our next coach...but I would accept it and even see some promise in it. On the negative side, Mitchell has a history of offending a certain type of player...i.e. the petulant, entitled kind of player who doesn't like it when a coach criticizes him or gets tough with him. Kevin Love, for example. I'm convinced that if Mitchell comes here, Love is certainly gone. But that ship may have sailed already anyway, regardless of the next coach. On the positive side, Mitchell is a hard-nosed defensively-oriented coach who demands the best out of his players, and he was NBA Coach of the Year just 3-4 years ago, coaching a roster without the talent our roster has. Has he forgotten how to be a coach since he won that honor? I think Mitchell can succeed here, and is certainly a better option than Adelman or Saunders.
As I have written before here, though, I would prefer the Wolves seriously consider David Blatt before making their final decision. He has won everywhere he has coached, and has the reputation of being a coaching savant. Look at the job he did coaching the Russian Olympic team, and then compare the talent on that team with that of the US team. The US had Westbrook, Rose, Paul and Williams at point guard...Blatt had the much maligned Alexey Shved. Shved has become a laughingstock on this board, but take a look at his line from just two years ago in the bronze medal game: 25 points on 8-16 shooting (6-11 on threes), 7 assists, 5 rebounds and only 1 turnover. And this was against real NBA-like competition. I'd like to see what Blatt could do with Shved here, and the impact he could have on the rest of the roster. I don't know his contract status, but I hope the Wolves are looking closely at him.
