Minnesota Sports Forum

I got word tonight from a reliable inside source that Ryan will be named the Wolves head coach for next season on a 2-year deal that extends through the following season. So I think Woj is right about that. But I didn't hear anything about Layden.

I'm not thrilled about keeping Ryan without going through a search process that includes other candidates. But I can accept that decision because I do think he has a good rapport with the players andhe doesn't strike me as a bonehead on par with Kurt Rambis. My source told me that Ryan is really respected by basketball people around the League. Take that for what it's worth, but I'm not going to get too bent out of shape over giving Saunders a year to see what he can do with this squad that he knows so well.

But I will be furious if we retain Scott Layden. When Glen hired Thibs and Layden, some of you might remember my scathing post emphasing Layden's pathetic tenure as head of the Knicks' basketball operations. Some on this Board criticized me for that post. But his tenure with the Wolves hasn't provided any reason to alter my initial opinion of him. So I hope Woj's report is wrong in that respect. If he's right, then my question is whether Glen will hire a PBO and keep Layden in the GM/#2 position. If so, that offers a ray of hope, but it would still be a terrible decision that would make it harder to hire a top PBO because the best candidates for that position would want to select their own GM.

It's hard to be a Wolves fan!

Good franchises -- with competent ownership -- would have searched for the best candidates for the GM job first. In order for a GM to really make an impact, they need to be given the freedom to bring in who they feel is most capable at certain positions. One of those positions is head coach. A quality GM would have included Saunders in the the pool of candidates to be the head coach, but in no way, shape, or form would have handed him the reigns. And no GM job in a quality franchise would be tied directly to keeping an unproven, undeserving interim head coach. That's just ridiculous.

Here's yet another example of Taylor doing everything ass-backwards without even attempting to find the best man or woman for the job. He needs to go before this franchise even has a chance.

lipoli390 wrote:I got word tonight from a reliable inside source that Ryan will be named the Wolves head coach for next season on a 2-year deal that extends through the following season. So I think Woj is right about that. But I didn't hear anything about Layden.

I'm not thrilled about keeping Ryan without going through a search process that includes other candidates. But I can accept that decision because I do think he has a good rapport with the players andhe doesn't strike me as a bonehead on par with Kurt Rambis. My source told me that Ryan is really respected by basketball people around the League. Take that for what it's worth, but I'm not going to get too bent out of shape over giving Saunders a year to see what he can do with this squad that he knows so well.

But I will be furious if we retain Scott Layden. When Glen hired Thibs and Layden, some of you might remember my scathing post emphasing Layden's pathetic tenure as head of the Knicks' basketball operations. Some on this Board criticized me for that post. But his tenure with the Wolves hasn't provided any reason to alter my initial opinion of him. So I hope Woj's report is wrong in that respect. If he's right, then my question is whether Glen will hire a PBO and keep Layden in the GM/#2 position. If so, that offers a ray of hope, but it would still be a terrible decision that would make it harder to hire a top PBO because the best candidates for that position would want to select their own GM.

It's hard to be a Wolves fan!

Thanks for the info Lip. I've mentioned Jon K has reported a number of candidates would be very open to working with Ryan as head coach. I honestly think to some extent we have some like reverse bias because it's Ryan Saunders. Because we have so little to go on and he is a legacy guy we kinda don't want to get pulled into a homer take on him.

Meanwhile...Magic Johnson stepped down from being the guy with the Lakers which might mean Luke Walton may even have a shot at keeping that job which would take out one of the candidates that might make as much sense for this group as anyone. The Lakers are obviously not in a bad place but Magic was at best a mixed bag. Sadly his tenure was somewhat of a joke and part of his reasoning while maybe valid was he wasn't having fun. Thibs is laughing at him right now "The Magic is in the work..." well...um...yeah never mind. Lol

I saw an article a bit ago from Jace Fredrick from the PP that there will be a GM search opened and that person will have some say in Ryan and Scott Layden. obviously that person is going to be in on Ryan taking over. I think keeping Layden around while hiring someone else above him could be possible. I'm not suggesting he is some genius or anything but the guy has been around the game a long time and I suspect he is actually widely respected and I also think he is more open to adding players via different means than the Thibs/Layden combo would have us believe.

To me the bottom line is that if Ryan turns out to be anywhere near the basketball mind of his father this will end well. Keep in mind a few people have said Flip was always a pretty smart basketball guy with an eye for talent etc. did it always work and he make the right decisions? No but not everyone does. I'm more looking forward to seeing how this plays out before going woe is me. If Layden is actually named the head guy AND they don't bring in someone interesting to the organization either as an assistant coach and/or as an assistant GM then I'll have more concerns.

lipoli390 wrote:I got word tonight from a reliable inside source that Ryan will be named the Wolves head coach for next season on a 2-year deal that extends through the following season. So I think Woj is right about that. But I didn't hear anything about Layden.

I'm not thrilled about keeping Ryan without going through a search process that includes other candidates. But I can accept that decision because I do think he has a good rapport with the players andhe doesn't strike me as a bonehead on par with Kurt Rambis. My source told me that Ryan is really respected by basketball people around the League. Take that for what it's worth, but I'm not going to get too bent out of shape over giving Saunders a year to see what he can do with this squad that he knows so well.

But I will be furious if we retain Scott Layden. When Glen hired Thibs and Layden, some of you might remember my scathing post emphasing Layden's pathetic tenure as head of the Knicks' basketball operations. Some on this Board criticized me for that post. But his tenure with the Wolves hasn't provided any reason to alter my initial opinion of him. So I hope Woj's report is wrong in that respect. If he's right, then my question is whether Glen will hire a PBO and keep Layden in the GM/#2 position. If so, that offers a ray of hope, but it would still be a terrible decision that would make it harder to hire a top PBO because the best candidates for that position would want to select their own GM.

It's hard to be a Wolves fan!

I'm going to guess that they are going after an inexperienced pobo, someone like booth or Billups.

Layden stays on on a 1 year extension to help smooth things over.

The new pobo also gets a good look at Saunders.

I like Saunders, but was hoping we'd talk to stackhouse and darvin ham. Ham has been buds lead assistant for ther past 2 years and that coaching line seems to be doing some good things.

Shams is reporting the wolves won't use a search firm.

To me that says we are going to pretend to go through the process but going to hire Layden and Saunders at the end of it all

Camden wrote:Good franchises -- with competent ownership -- would have searched for the best candidates for the GM job first. In order for a GM to really make an impact, they need to be given the freedom to bring in who they feel is most capable at certain positions. One of those positions is head coach. A quality GM would have included Saunders in the the pool of candidates to be the head coach, but in no way, shape, or form would have handed him the reigns. And no GM job in a quality franchise would be tied directly to keeping an unproven, undeserving interim head coach. That's just ridiculous.

Here's yet another example of Taylor doing everything ass-backwards without even attempting to find the best man or woman for the job. He needs to go before this franchise even has a chance.

What does "good franchises" and "competent ownership" have to do with this organization? I don't remember you complaining when we handed the full reigns to Thibs.

Taylor is going the cheapest route?? Shocking. If he needs to save his pennies that bad he should sell and have an extra Billion so he can stare at his bank statements all day. What an asshole.

kekgeek1 wrote:Sorry to be so negative but damn I care about this team probably a little to much, just annoys the shit out of me that we are bring back a GM that was pathetic with the Knicks, has done nothing of note with the Wolves (Cam Reynolds was his biggest move) and is generally a conservative GM in terms of moves. We have 3ish years to build around KAT and we have fucking Layden having to be our hero

Your negativity is justified if Layden ends up retained and promoted to PBO.

Camden wrote:Good franchises -- with competent ownership -- would have searched for the best candidates for the GM job first. In order for a GM to really make an impact, they need to be given the freedom to bring in who they feel is most capable at certain positions. One of those positions is head coach. A quality GM would have included Saunders in the the pool of candidates to be the head coach, but in no way, shape, or form would have handed him the reigns. And no GM job in a quality franchise would be tied directly to keeping an unproven, undeserving interim head coach. That's just ridiculous.

Here's yet another example of Taylor doing everything ass-backwards without even attempting to find the best man or woman for the job. He needs to go before this franchise even has a chance.

Cam - You're right about what a good franchise would do -- search for the best PBO and then allow the new PBO to decide who to hire as the GM, assistant GMs and head coach.

I'll add that a good franchise would not have given both the head coach role and PBO role to one guy as Taylor did with Thibodeau. I'll add further that a good organization would not have hired Thibodeau in either role since he had absolutely no front office experience and a coaching style that obviously did not fit this team or the modern NBA, which requires great communication with players, a focus on 3-point shooting and lots of ball movement. A good organization would not have allowed the Jimmy Butler situation to fester and then explode in public, etc. etc.

My only quibble with you is that I think a good PBO candidate would take the job here even if required to keep Ryan Saunders for a season. NBA front office positions are highly coveted and scarce. That's especially true of the PBO position. If we were hiring a new PBO it would be a former PBO like Griffin who is not currently employed by an NBA team or a current successful GM who the Wolves could promote into the top PBO position with the Wolves. I doubt any top candidate would turn down the Wolves PBO job under a multi-year contract with a young star already on the roster just because they'd have to keep Ryan as head coach. The job of NBA PBO is too enticing for aspiring executives in the NBA world to turn down over that. Moreover, it's not like Ryan is a complete buffoon. To the contrary, he has a good reputation as a basketball mind around the League and he also has the reputation as a good guy who a new PBO would probably find easy to work with. Moreover, a year with Ryan as head coach would give the PBO the opportunity to fully evaluate both the players and Ryan, enabling him to make more informed judgments the next summer on both coach and players personnel moves. The new PBO could also use Ryan as a scape goat for a disappointing first season.

Although I'm quibbling you on this small point, I'm otherwise in complete agreement with you about the quality of this organization's basketball decision-making under Glen. The kicker for me will be the failure to seek and hire a top PBO candidate to run the basketball operations. There is absolute no justification for that failure. Turning the reins over to Scott Layden while failing to hire a new PBO from outside would be about as dumb as it gets -- except that hiring Scott as GM and Thibodeau for both the PBO and head coach positions were really just as dumb. Oh, did I mention hiring David Kahn? So the saga continues and hence the frustration we all feel as long-term passionate Timberwolves fans.

thedoper wrote:Taylor is going the cheapest route?? Shocking. If he needs to save his pennies that bad he should sell and have an extra Billion so he can stare at his bank statements all day. What an asshole.

I think that is the most common on most of the wealthy. They always take the cheap route to make more money, that's how they got rich. By being greedy as possible and pinching pennies their whole lives. The story around old man Rockefeller and others is all to common. Until people get sick of their cheapness and they hire PR Firms to help market themselves as "giving". What a farce especially when most of these charities are fraudulent tax schemes.

What I don't understand is how many continue to hire buffoons like Taylor has. I'm not saying Ryan is one, but nearly all FO personnel have been utter failures for years and years.