Minnesota Sports Forum

Finding a Brad Stevens is arguably the hardest thing to do in all of sports from a management perspective. There's not many college coaches that waltz into the NBA and be as spectacular as he is. More often than not, they're Fred Hoiberg and struggle for several years before either becoming OK or just not worth keeping around, to which they head back to the college scene. Make no mistake about it, Hoiberg was just as highly touted as a HC prospect as Ollie. I'm not saying Ollie won't be a great NBA coach because I don't know, but that's a buyer beware situation.

Proven success at the NBA level should never be under-appreciated. It's hard to win in this league. We know that very well as Wolves fans. Getting a guy, whether it's Thibs/JVG/Brooks/etc., that has won a lot in the NBA would be a huge win. It's also, in my opinion, the better bet when compared to snagging a coach that's never done it at the NBA level.

longstrangetrip wrote:It seems to me that the opinion of the board about combining the head coach and POBO jobs has softened considerably in a year. My recollection was that most were unhappy when Flip Saunders left himself in both roles. I wasn't totally opposed to Flip taking over as head coach, but I did have some concerns about his ability to spend enough time in each role. My opinion has not softened, and actually has moved further against the idea of having a part-time coach and POBO. Both roles are demanding and require an enormous amount of time and energy. Why do we think that one person can do the vital jobs that most franchises hire two to do...something is going to fall through the cracks, either on the coaching side or the management side. Either time spent on the phone talking deals with other POBO's or scouting college players /free agents is going to cut into game prep or practice time, or vice versa. I recognize that there are other examples of combining the two jobs in the NBA, but the jury is still out as to whether this is going to be successful or not...my guess is not. It's interesting to me that other major sports don't have any examples I can think of where the jobs are handled by just one person. It's good for the NBA owners from an expense standpoint because they only have to pay one salary rather than 2 (I never saw any evidence that Flip got a big bump in salary when he took over the coaching reins), but I don't see it as ultimately good for the franchise.

My take is this is more about having final say in basketball related decisions. This doesn't mean that there won't be people put in place to handle the minutia as Flip had with Milt. The key to one person in both jobs is the support structure they put in place. Further I don't really think it's a huge issue if the right person and support staff are in place, if they're not then it will go south, but David Khan says "Hello", there is no guarantee you can get two hires right either.

BloopOracle wrote:long I think the stance on the dual roles hasn't softened because of how impressive of a job Flip did in both roles, how the hell he flipped a old talentless team with it's star player wanting out into the most attractive job in over half a decade in just 3 seasons is beyond me.

It seemed to be for a real knack for evaluating talent and being patient with deals. His impact as a coach was more ambiguous it seems.

I would hope that anyone in the dual role would be developing a succession plan with a real up and comer as an assistant, similar to Pat Riley in Miami. We saw a few instances of Pat coming back down from the office to coach with effective results. But the intention was to always build someone up to lead on his vision. I would hope that JVG or Thibs would take this approach as they are both getting on in age. Maybe Flip was trying to do that with Ryan, but that would have clearly been a harder sell with the optics of that move.

Great article discussing just how much better Thibs coaching made the Bulls when he was in charge. http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-bulls-just-fired-one-of-the-best-coaches-in-nba-history/

BloopOracle wrote:long I think the stance on the dual roles hasn't softened because of how impressive of a job Flip did in both roles, how the hell he flipped a old talentless team with it's star player wanting out into the most attractive job in over half a decade in just 3 seasons is beyond me.

But was Flip really successful in his stint as POBO and coach? Certainly not in terms of wins and losses on the court, but we can argue that away because of all the injuries they suffered. What about deal-making? Most of us give him kudos for the Love trade...me included...but what did he really have to do there? Most of us also give most of the credit for that deal to LBJ, who decided that he much preferred the "proven" Kevin Love over the untested Andrew Wiggins (hmm...could there be a Thibs/Ollie parallel there?). Once James forced Cavs' management to offer Wiggins for Love, all Flip really had to do was answer the phone and agree to an offer almost any one of us would have also agreed to. What other deals did he make during the short period he held both roles? I can remember:

1) trading a first round pick for Thad Young
2) trading Thad Young for Kevin Garnett
3) trading a first round pick for Adreian Payne
4) trading Chase Budinger for Rudez

We have discussed these deals here ad nauseum, but I think the prevailing opinion is that those 4 deals are not exactly Executive of the Year material. As much as I love Flip Saunders, the reality is that the Wolves got to the attractive position they are in now primarily because of 2 bits of good fortune that he did not create: LBJ's insistence to trade Wig for Love, and finally getting lucky in the lottery allowing us to get Towns. Could a POBO have made better deals than the 4 above if they were full-time? Who knows? But I know I would prefer having a POBO working 100% rather than 50% on improving the roster.

I'm going to continue to be opposed to one guy having both roles for two reasons:

1) it doesn't allow him to devote the necessary time to really succeed in either job

2) as we have discussed often before, a coach often makes win-now decisions that aren't in the best interest long-term for the franchise. It's much better to have two guys in power...one that really wants to win today, and one who can lend a longer-term perspective.

This certainly is interesting...

Stein: Footnote on the Wolves' coaching situation: Sources say Minnesota is the party pitching the coach/team president scenario, NOT Tom Thibodeau

My bet is that Glen and Korn Ferry think having both roles filled by one basketball junkie is a good idea, as long as a worthy executive is paired with him to do the behind the scenes work (like Milt Newton did).

To me, that's a pretty strong indication that Thibs is at the top of Glen/KF's list also. Throwing the house at him.

Camden wrote:This certainly is interesting...

Stein: Footnote on the Wolves' coaching situation: Sources say Minnesota is the party pitching the coach/team president scenario, NOT Tom Thibodeau

My bet is that Glen and Korn Ferry think having both roles filled by one basketball junkie is a good idea, as long as a worthy executive is paired with him to do the behind the scenes work (like Milt Newton did).

That is interesting...looks like a complete about face by Glen. I agree that having a guy like Milt Newton as GM makes the dual role much more feasible (I'm a huge fan of Newton, by the way). Newton would have to be given almost 100% responsibility for contract negotiation, cap management, and college scouting. It might be workable if the GM did almost all the legwork, and made recommendations subject to the approval of POBO/Glen.

I could live with that. My preference though is still for a young head coach who didn't have to be distracted by management duties, and a veteran NBA guy in the POBO role.

This also slipped through the cracks.

Amico: Former NBA coach and current analyst Mike Fratello generating strong interest around league for front-office roles. TWolves, Kings, etc.

Woj and Stein getting in an insider pissing match over the Wolves coaching situation. Love it. Sounds like Stein reached out to Thibs. Could be negotiating tactic by Thibs to show we aren't his only suitor. Stein's next tweet is interesting in that department too:

"Most important factors to Thibodeau as he considers job opportunities, sources say, are strength of roster and team's commitment to winning"

Guess we will see what happens. Nice that the national media is putting so much attention to our team. Stakes are high when Woj and Stein start subtweeting at eachother. It's like this board but out in public.