Camden wrote:It should be noted that Tom Thibodeau was not the one who pulled the trigger on sending Jimmy Butler to Philadelphia. Glen Taylor basically removed him from his front office role and it was Scott Layden who was the one leading that front. We'll never actually know for sure what kind of a deal Thibs could have made for Butler or if Thibs could have de-escalated the situation because Taylor interfered. If your argument is that Thibs should have traded Butler in the off-season after the playoff series with Houston, then that's different and fair argument. I just want to remind people that Minnesota's owner did not allow Thibs to extract the most value possible out of Butler when it was decided that Butler wanted out.
Cam -
I'm not going to defend Glen Taylor. His hiring decisions have been consistently horrible. But as Jon K noted in a recent article, Glen Taylor has not been a meddler. I trust Jon and what Jon reported is also consistent with what I've heard from people in the Wolves organization I've known over the years. If Glen were inclined to intervene, the Wolves never would have traded Rubio - that's just one example. And even if Glen stepped in on occasion, something that occurred rarely if ever, he had nothing to do with the Butler fiasco and I say that with complete confidence based on people I talked to in the Wolves organization after Thibodeau was gone.
The Butler debacle was entirely on Thibodeau. Glen Taylor intervened only because Thibodeau was refusing to deal Butler - often in a pass-aggressive way by changing the terms of a deal tentatively agreed to and, thereby, tanking the deal. I've learned a lot about Thibodeau from people I know inside the organization. He was a complete jackass and, in this instance, he was borderline delusional, believing the whole thing would blow over. He absolutely refused to give up on the guy, Butler, who he brought here in his signature move as PBO. So Glen had Layden step in and Scott made the best deal he thought he could make with no interference from Glen.
Given the parade of amazingly dumb decisions we've seen from this organization over the years, I think there's a tendency to assume that Glen must have interfered. I mean, how else could this organization be so consistently bad for so long. Well, the answer is simple. Glen Taylor has made consistently horrible front office hiring decisions. His best hire was actually his first, Kevin McHale. Then he stayed too long with Kevin before making one bad hiring decision after another. If anything, there were times when Glen should have intervened and said no. For example, he should have said no to the illegal Joe Smith deal when McHale brought it to him.
As for Butler, Thibodeau took a calculated risk trading for him. I disagreed with the decision at the time because Butler seemed like a bad fit next to our two 21 year olds. But I didn't hate the deal because I understood the potential upside of bringing in a talent and tough competitor like Jimmy. It was a misjudgment viewed with hindsight. But Thibodeau's handling of the situation leading up to Butler's departure was brazen mismanagement by a guy whose temperament and judgment were entirely ill-suited to the position he was in. Ultimately Glen Taylor is to blame for hiring Thibodeau into that position.
