Minnesota Sports Forum

kekgeek1 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:Sorry, but KAT hasn't earned consultation privleges yet. Tip toeing around a 22 year old restricted Free Agent to protect his feelings or put him on a pedestal he shouldn't be on yet is not the answer. Do what you think is right for the team. You don't fire someone you think is doing a good job. And he's signing his max extension. Don't try to act like any of this will prevent him from signing on the dotted line. Star players sign the max extension and then ask to be traded. They don't leave the money on the table and as soon as his name is on the dotted line he's here for another 4-5 years.

This is where I disagree with you. Yes you can fire him but talk to KAT about it first, explain why he is getting fired. I am hard on KAT as much as anyone but it isn't babying him it, it is common curiosity, firing the person who has worked with your star player since his rookie year and who Kat thanked for his ROY.

It's not a big deal but little things add up and the this little thing could be avoided with just basic communication (something that Jon K. Reported that players are frustrated with the secretive nature of thibs).

To me it's pretty tricky to decide the line of who finds out about when someone is being let go. Should Towns find out before Vince Legarza the guy being let go? We don't know why he was let go. Maybe they felt like Vince did a good job working with Towns and other players in one area but they felt like they needed someone who could help guys improve in other areas. Maybe they wanted someone who could teach Towns how to actually play in the pick and roll or something. Maybe Vince had aspirations of moving up and the Wolves didn't see a path for them here and decided to let him go to Atlanta or some other team to pursue a better opportunity. Maybe one of their coaches on the Iowa Wolves team really impressed them and they wanted to move them up.

My problem would be if they basically didn't address any of these firings with the players at all (like in the upcoming meetings) not just Towns. The assumption is that Legarza and Towns are extraordinarily close. We don't really know if that's the case or not. Heck maybe Towns had gotten to a place where the relationship wasn't as good anymore. Maybe Vince was doing a lot of the same old drills and Towns was getting bored but didn't even see it that way himself. I know from my experience in a few jobs I have had sometimes you can get to a place in a client relationship where you have been working together for a long time (can be a couple years) and nothing is wrong but it's almost like you tune each other out just because of fatigue of being around each other. Maybe Towns needed a new voice. We have hardly any info right now and It a player development coach which matters but maybe as much as he gets bashed around here Thibs probably knows more than we do.

I can see both sides of the "informing KAT" discussion, but ultimately I think it's not that big a deal compared to more important issues with Thibs. I do find it interesting that the Wolves actually fired three employees yesterday...kind of shows me that Thibs himself doesn't believe the narrative laid out here that you don't fire coaches after a season in which a team improves 17 wins and makes the playoffs for the first time in more than a decade. And it happened on the same day Detroit decided to eat the final year of SVG's contract and fired the only other dual role POBO/coach. Glen, are you paying attention?

KAT's personal assistant coach? Meh.
Shooting coach? Ummmm... whatever.

But the assistant video coordinator? F THIS TEAM!!!! I'm so sick of this shit. Year after year after year. This is not how you treat people. Wes did a great job pushing rewind. Nobody does it better... everybody says so. But Thibs is a secretive, power-hungry ogre who must be stopped before he takes down other essential people in this organization like the head chef, trainer assistant and that one girl who hands out towels in the huddle.

STOP THE MADNESS!!! STOP THIBS FROM RUINING THIS ORGANIZATION!!!!!!!!!

AbeVigodaLive wrote:KAT's personal assistant coach? Meh.
Shooting coach? Ummmm... whatever.

But the assistant video coordinator? F THIS TEAM!!!! I'm so sick of this shit. Year after year after year. This is not how you treat people. Wes did a great job pushing rewind. Nobody does it better... everybody says so. But Thibs is a secretive, power-hungry ogre who must be stopped before he takes down other essential people in this organization like the head chef, trainer assistant and that one girl who hands out towels in the huddle.

STOP THE MADNESS!!! STOP THIBS FROM RUINING THIS ORGANIZATION!!!!!!!!!

Ha!!!!!!!!!

longstrangetrip wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:KAT's personal assistant coach? Meh.
Shooting coach? Ummmm... whatever.

But the assistant video coordinator? F THIS TEAM!!!! I'm so sick of this shit. Year after year after year. This is not how you treat people. Wes did a great job pushing rewind. Nobody does it better... everybody says so. But Thibs is a secretive, power-hungry ogre who must be stopped before he takes down other essential people in this organization like the head chef, trainer assistant and that one girl who hands out towels in the huddle.

STOP THE MADNESS!!! STOP THIBS FROM RUINING THIS ORGANIZATION!!!!!!!!!

Ha!!!!!!!!!

Well done Abe. I'm pretty sure we will hear the reports of Cole Aldrich demanding a trade soon.

Objectively does anyone have a problem with letting Patton the shooting coach go? I mean it seemed like at least a sold hire at the time and a shooting coach sounds good but...I don't think you can say the Wolves improved as a shooting team while he was here. Maybe he needed another year to make the difference...or maybe we can just have guys work with others like having Wiggins work more with his trainer Drew Hanlen.

monsterpile wrote:Objectively does anyone have a problem with letting Patton the shooting coach go? I mean it seemed like at least a sold hire at the time and a shooting coach sounds good but...I don't think you can say the Wolves improved as a shooting team while he was here. Maybe he needed another year to make the difference...or maybe we can just have guys work with others like having Wiggins work more with his trainer Drew Hanlen.

I'm not sure what the answer is. Developing shooters is something this franchise has never done well. Shooting and defense, shooting and defense, shooting and defense. Even in a year where we won 47 games, our weaknesses are still the same and span a couple of front offices and multiple coaches. It's just that we did really well at our strengths.

monsterpile wrote:Objectively does anyone have a problem with letting Patton the shooting coach go? I mean it seemed like at least a sold hire at the time and a shooting coach sounds good but...I don't think you can say the Wolves improved as a shooting team while he was here. Maybe he needed another year to make the difference...or maybe we can just have guys work with others like having Wiggins work more with his trainer Drew Hanlen.

Nope, I have no problem at all replacing the shooting coach if the team doesn't shoot well...even after improving several wins and making the playoffs. Similarly, I don't think any of us should have a problem replacing a supposed defensive-specialist head coach after finishing near the bottom in defensive metrics two years in a row. After all, isn't defense a bigger problem for the Wolves than shooting?

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:Objectively does anyone have a problem with letting Patton the shooting coach go? I mean it seemed like at least a sold hire at the time and a shooting coach sounds good but...I don't think you can say the Wolves improved as a shooting team while he was here. Maybe he needed another year to make the difference...or maybe we can just have guys work with others like having Wiggins work more with his trainer Drew Hanlen.

Nope, I have no problem at all replacing the shooting coach if the team doesn't shoot well...even after improving several wins and making the playoffs. Similarly, I don't think any of us should have a problem replacing a supposed defensive-specialist head coach after finishing near the bottom in defensive metrics two years in a row. After all, isn't defense a bigger problem for the Wolves than shooting?

A head coach is paid for wins not metrics.

thedoper wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:Objectively does anyone have a problem with letting Patton the shooting coach go? I mean it seemed like at least a sold hire at the time and a shooting coach sounds good but...I don't think you can say the Wolves improved as a shooting team while he was here. Maybe he needed another year to make the difference...or maybe we can just have guys work with others like having Wiggins work more with his trainer Drew Hanlen.

Nope, I have no problem at all replacing the shooting coach if the team doesn't shoot well...even after improving several wins and making the playoffs. Similarly, I don't think any of us should have a problem replacing a supposed defensive-specialist head coach after finishing near the bottom in defensive metrics two years in a row. After all, isn't defense a bigger problem for the Wolves than shooting?

A head coach is paid for wins not metrics.

Maybe Doper. But I think coaches, both head and assistant, are retained or fired based on performance against the decision maker's expectations. Presumably, Thibs concluded his expectations regarding shooting were not being met, even though our 46% shooting ranked us 8th in the league. Glen's public post-season remarks make it clear that while he is pleased the team made the playoffs, he clearly expected more this year. I'm sure Glen hired Thibs with an expectation that our defense would improve, and that expectation likely only increased when he paid to bring in two defensive stalwarts in Butler and Gibson. He can't be very pleased with how our defense has responded to Thibs.