Minnesota Sports Forum

monsterpile wrote:Interviewing Billups since he has interest makes sense even if he didn't have other tires to the franchise. He is well respected around the league he basically hasn't gotten a job in the front office because he has turned them down.

How qualified is he? That's a fair debate but it's an interview it seems this search has actually been legit and now it includes Billups who some media folks weren't even sure would be interested in the position. Things are going surprisingly well so far in this search.

I guess there's no harm in interviewing him. I'm just concerned the Wolves might hire him. I don't think he should even be on the list as a possible new PBO for the Wolves. So the only reason for interviewing him in my view would be to explore the possibility of hiring him as a GM or assistant GM, but even that makes little sense because the PBO should be deciding who to hire in those positions. Again, I'm starting from the premise that he'd be a bad choice for PBO. And I say that because he has absolutely no experience or track record in any NBA front office position. He hasn't even worked as a scout. Nor does he have any business experience running or managing an organization or a division within an organization. He's been an NBA player and I trust that he's smart. But that hardly qualifies someone for the top front office job in an NBA organization. The fact that the Cavs and one or two other organizations were purportedly interested in him isn't very compelling. And who turned down whom is an open question. In any event, none of those organizations were particularly good ones and their interest doesn't create a record of achievement or experience that tells us anything about how'd he'd preform as our PBO.

As Cam suggested, maybe he'd be worth the risk if the Wolves were starting from scratch at the very beginning of a new rebuild. But that's not the case here. We're in a retool phase with a 3-4 year window to before KAT might be clamoring to leave in the last year of his contract. There are a lot of people who post regularly on this message board who I would consider before considering Billups -- people with documented track records of making the right call on draft prospects, trades and free agent decisions.

I don't want to veer from the intended topic on this thread but to assume we have 3-4 window with Kat due to his contact, I personally don't believe that. If we have another poor year next year, he can force his way out of here, seen it happen many times in this league, players league.

Here is my actual take on Billups. I'm skeptical about him actually because he doesn't have experience. However I don't have a problem with him being interviewed. If we basically had been interviewing former Wolves and Billups was a part of that...interviewing Billups still wouldn't be a bad thing but it would be less than inspiring. The Wolves are looking at other qualified guys.

To me my question about Billups what is his plan when he comes in? Not just his vision but does he have a plan for putting some legit experienced guys around him to help him? Does he seem to have some humility along with a strong plan going forward?

I think of the names I've heard so far Billups would not be at the top of my list. That doesn't mean he isn't worth considering or would be a bad hire. If he was the guy there would be some interesting various subplots to the whole situation. Some of them could even be good! Lol

monsterpile wrote:Here is my actual take on Billups. I'm skeptical about him actually because he doesn't have experience. However I don't have a problem with him being interviewed. If we basically had been interviewing former Wolves and Billups was a part of that...interviewing Billups still wouldn't be a bad thing but it would be less than inspiring. The Wolves are looking at other qualified guys.

To me my question about Billups what is his plan when he comes in? Not just his vision but does he have a plan for putting some legit experienced guys around him to help him? Does he seem to have some humility along with a strong plan going forward?

I think of the names I've heard so far Billups would not be at the top of my list. That doesn't mean he isn't worth considering or would be a bad hire. If he was the guy there would be some interesting various subplots to the whole situation. Some of them could even be good! Lol

Monster - I agree with you on the questions for Billups. We just disagree on the value of interviewing him. You indicated he wouldn't be at the top of your list. Where we differ I think is that I wouldn't even have him on my list. If we hire him as PBO I'll be really pissed. I'm just about at my wits end with Glen Taylor's repeated bone-headed decisions. My wife and I are close to giving up our season tickets. For the first time, we're sharing our tickets with another couple next season, leaving us 11 fewer games.

The stupidity has to stop. You don't hire a guy to head your basketball operations who hasn't even worked in an NBA front office, served as an NBA scout or at least run a division of an organization somewhere in the business world. It's ridiculous on its face. And because it would be so ridiculous to hire someone like that, it makes no sense to interview someone like that -- namely Chauncey Billups. If the Cavs wanted to hire him, then good for them. Their owner is worse than ours. His only salvation was the fact that the Cavs had the first pick when the best player in the past 20 years was in the draft and he had the double good fortune that LeBron grew up in the Cleveland area.

lipoli390 wrote:
The stupidity has to stop. When don't hire a guy to head your basketball operations who hasn't even worked in an NBA front office, served as an NBA scout or at least run a division of an organization somewhere in the business world. It's ridiculous on its face. And because it would be so ridiculous to hire someone like that, it makes no sense to interview someone like that.

Exactly!