Minnesota Sports Forum

Actually, Glen does not get heavily involved in basketball decisions. I can speak confidently about that based on the good contacts I used to have for many years. Furthermore, Glen has never held a tight purse string and he is also generally likeable. His primary shortcoming, and it's a big one, is his poor judgment in front office hiring decisions coupled with a slow trigger to correct his mistakes after it's clear he should move on. Hiring McHale was definitely a step up from the prior management he inherited from the prior owners. But he stayed with McHale far too long. Unfortunately, he made a huge blunder when he replaced McHale with David Kahn. He took a step in the right direction hiring Flip, but made the mistake of giving him the dual role of head coach and PBO. He made another mistake by hiring the dinosaur Thibodeau who seemed to me and others at the time to be a poor fit for our very young team in a League that seems to have passed Thibodeau by.

If anything, it can be argued that Taylor has been too hands off. He should have intervened to stop the Joe Smith deal. Had the done that, the Wolves might have won a championship in the KG era. Taylor should have stopped McHale and Flip from letting Billups go in favor of the older and often-injured Terrell Brandon. As owner, he should have set the parameters and told management (Flip and McHale) that he wanted them to build around KG with players of similar vintage who could develop together. Billups fit within those parameters; Brandon did not. The rest is history, but I remember being livid at the time that the Wolves went with Brandon over Billups, even though I'll admit I wasn't sure Billups would become as good as he ended up being in Detroit. An owner can be a positive force if provides direction to his management team to ensure a coherent approach to building the team.

Camden0916 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

Camden wrote:

thedoper wrote:If Thibs actually got fired I have zero confidence in Glen hiring the right guy for the job. That would easily be the beginning of another slip into oblivion.

Glen should sell the team in the next couple of years for the betterment of the franchise. The common denominator in every one of these losing seasons is him. Say I'm being too harsh, but his inability to run a successful basketball franchise trickles down into a mess of a team. And I'd bet that his presence here is another reason why free agents just aren't flocking here. It's the James Dolan effect but the even norther version.

I think Glen is part of the problem (or has been) but I don't think Glen is anywhere near the negative presence as Dolan. The guy is a complete punching bag around the league both because of his incompetence and basically being a dick. Glen might be bumbling and say some dumb stuff sometimes, but I'd be pretty surprised if he is hated by players. The Wolves have some of the best facilities in the league because of Glen. He has put quite a bit of money into this franchise the last couple of years.

The next question is whether the next owner (whenever that happens) is better than Glen. Would they be smart hands on owner or one that gets in the way because they think they know so much?

The best owners in professional sports are hands off. They realize that this isn't their show to run despite "owning" the talent and arena. They hire deserving and qualified personnel to direct and manage the basketball side of things. It's the owners that try to get involved in singular moves -- or multiple moves -- that get themselves into trouble.

Good NBA owner examples: Peter Holt (Juilianna Holt now owns the Spurs), Mickey Arison, Joe Lacob

Bad NBA owner examples: Michael Jordan, Glen Taylor, James Dolan.

The irony is that Dolan got burned for being hands off and letting Phil Jackson run the show and got ripped for not stepping in

I think a good owner needs to understand the modern game and what makes teams successful over the long haul, while at the same time being able to get out of the way once the right person is hired to do the POBO/GM role. I'm not sure Glen really gets the first part of that equation.

Q12543 wrote:I think a good owner needs to understand the modern game and what makes teams successful over the long haul, while at the same time being able to get out of the way once the right person is hired to do the POBO/GM role. I'm not sure Glen really gets the first part of that equation.

I think you're right, Q. It's never been about Taylor failing to get out of the away. It's been his poor judgment at the front end understand what type of people to hire and what direction to give them.

lipoli390 wrote:Actually, Glen does not get heavily involved in basketball decisions. I can speak confidently about that based on the good contacts I used to have for many years. Furthermore, Glen has never held a tight purse string and he is also generally likeable. His primary shortcoming, and it's a big one, is his poor judgment in front office hiring decisions coupled with a slow trigger to correct his mistakes after it's clear he should move on. Hiring McHale was definitely a step up from the prior management he inherited from the prior owners. But he stayed with McHale far too long. Unfortunately, he made a huge blunder when he replaced McHale with David Kahn. He took a step in the right direction hiring Flip, but made the mistake of giving him the dual role of head coach and PBO. He made another mistake by hiring the dinosaur Thibodeau who seemed to me and others at the time to be a poor fit for our very young team in a League that seems to have passed Thibodeau by.

If anything, it can be argued that Taylor has been too hands off. He should have intervened to stop the Joe Smith deal. Had the done that, the Wolves might have won a championship in the KG era. Taylor should have stopped McHale and Flip from letting Billups go in favor of the older and often-injured Terrell Brandon. As owner, he should have set the parameters and told management (Flip and McHale) that he wanted them to build around KG with players of similar vintage who could develop together. Billups fit within those parameters; Brandon did not. The rest is history, but I remember being livid at the time that the Wolves went with Brandon over Billups, even though I'll admit I wasn't sure Billups would become as good as he ended up being in Detroit. An owner can be a positive force if provides direction to his management team to ensure a coherent approach to building the team.

Doing public interviews on player habits, recent signings, and the work ethic of players could hardly be interpreted as hands off. He interviews on the wolves at least twice during every season. He also said after our best season in 2004 that going into the luxury tax was a mistake, and grossly under spent on the team for 12 years before finally getting support for Target Center renos.

Also, he physically had the Joe Smith contract in a safe. Not only did he not intervene to stop it, he was a huge catalyst and culprit. That was why the penalty against the team was so great, the owner was too involved in a clear violation of the CBA.

The Knicks and Timberwolves have had preliminary trade talks centered around star smal forward Jimmy Butler.

Butler will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.

https://twitter.com/LegionHoopsRoss/status/1019305354792984577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1019305354792984577&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums.realgm.com%2Fboards%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D1729214

Thats the tweet going around right now.

wolfson replied with 2 tweets.

1st: its not true.
https://twitter.com/jakewatroba/status/1019325260120895488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1019327157074579456&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums.realgm.com%2Fboards%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D1729214%26start%3D60

2nd: "just poking around and nothing to it"

https://twitter.com/DippinDave/status/1019316781423439872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1019327792050302987&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums.realgm.com%2Fboards%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D1729214%26start%3D100

So they have or are talking.

zinger, kat, wiggins, okogie, and tyus.

Im good with that starting unit for the next decade. :)

Without checking out the salaries, the best value the Knicks could offer and realistically part with is Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson, and Courtney Lee. That's not exactly what I'm looking for if I was going to deal Jimmy Butler, and that's coming from someone who really likes Knox and sees plenty of legitimate upside to Robinson.

My guess is that the tweets are way off and no discussions have taken place.

thedoper wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:Actually, Glen does not get heavily involved in basketball decisions. I can speak confidently about that based on the good contacts I used to have for many years. Furthermore, Glen has never held a tight purse string and he is also generally likeable. His primary shortcoming, and it's a big one, is his poor judgment in front office hiring decisions coupled with a slow trigger to correct his mistakes after it's clear he should move on. Hiring McHale was definitely a step up from the prior management he inherited from the prior owners. But he stayed with McHale far too long. Unfortunately, he made a huge blunder when he replaced McHale with David Kahn. He took a step in the right direction hiring Flip, but made the mistake of giving him the dual role of head coach and PBO. He made another mistake by hiring the dinosaur Thibodeau who seemed to me and others at the time to be a poor fit for our very young team in a League that seems to have passed Thibodeau by.

If anything, it can be argued that Taylor has been too hands off. He should have intervened to stop the Joe Smith deal. Had the done that, the Wolves might have won a championship in the KG era. Taylor should have stopped McHale and Flip from letting Billups go in favor of the older and often-injured Terrell Brandon. As owner, he should have set the parameters and told management (Flip and McHale) that he wanted them to build around KG with players of similar vintage who could develop together. Billups fit within those parameters; Brandon did not. The rest is history, but I remember being livid at the time that the Wolves went with Brandon over Billups, even though I'll admit I wasn't sure Billups would become as good as he ended up being in Detroit. An owner can be a positive force if provides direction to his management team to ensure a coherent approach to building the team.

Doing public interviews on player habits, recent signings, and the work ethic of players could hardly be interpreted as hands off. He interviews on the wolves at least twice during every season. He also said after our best season in 2004 that going into the luxury tax was a mistake, and grossly under spent on the team for 12 years before finally getting support for Target Center renos.

Also, he physically had the Joe Smith contract in a safe. Not only did he not intervene to stop it, he was a huge catalyst and culprit. That was why the penalty against the team was so great, the owner was too involved in a clear violation of the CBA.

Giving interviews isn't interfering with management. He might have regretted paying the luxury tax, but he did pay it. And he wasn't a catylist for the Joe Smith deal. Smith's agent insisted on the illegal deal, McHale unwisely agreed to it and Glen signed off on it. Oh, and Glen kept in in his safe. None of that strikes me as meddling or interfering by any definition of those terms. More like aiding and abetting. :) Glen should get credit for signing off on the huge KG deal and signing off on the Sprewell and Cassell trades that put us within a Cassell injury of a trip to the NBA finals. I guess he should be criticized for signing off on the Troy Hudson signing and letting Billups go, but again, the problem is that he hired management that made bad decisions and signed off on those dumb decisions.

crazy-canuck wrote:The Knicks and Timberwolves have had preliminary trade talks centered around star smal forward Jimmy Butler.

Butler will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.

https://twitter.com/LegionHoopsRoss/status/1019305354792984577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1019305354792984577&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums.realgm.com%2Fboards%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D1729214

Thats the tweet going around right now.

wolfson replied with 2 tweets.

1st: its not true.
https://twitter.com/jakewatroba/status/1019325260120895488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1019327157074579456&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums.realgm.com%2Fboards%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D1729214%26start%3D60

2nd: "just poking around and nothing to it"

https://twitter.com/DippinDave/status/1019316781423439872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1019327792050302987&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums.realgm.com%2Fboards%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D1729214%26start%3D100

So they have or are talking.

zinger, kat, wiggins, okogie, and tyus.

Im good with that starting unit for the next decade. :)

Kevin knox is a must if we are trading butler to the knicks. Knox and lee+ a pick. I will considering swapping noah and dieng.( noah, 2 years left vs dieng 3 years at almost similar money).

worldK wrote:

crazy-canuck wrote:The Knicks and Timberwolves have had preliminary trade talks centered around star smal forward Jimmy Butler.

Butler will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.

https://twitter.com/LegionHoopsRoss/status/1019305354792984577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1019305354792984577&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums.realgm.com%2Fboards%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D1729214

Thats the tweet going around right now.

wolfson replied with 2 tweets.

1st: its not true.
https://twitter.com/jakewatroba/status/1019325260120895488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1019327157074579456&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums.realgm.com%2Fboards%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D1729214%26start%3D60

2nd: "just poking around and nothing to it"

https://twitter.com/DippinDave/status/1019316781423439872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1019327792050302987&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums.realgm.com%2Fboards%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D1729214%26start%3D100

So they have or are talking.

zinger, kat, wiggins, okogie, and tyus.

Im good with that starting unit for the next decade. :)

Kevin knox is a must if we are trading butler to the knicks. Knox and lee+ a pick. I will considering swapping noah and dieng.( noah, 2 years left vs dieng 3 years at almost similar money).

What do you think about Hardaway JR instead of Lee. I dont believe the source just spit firing.