Minnesota Sports Forum

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/06/07/flip-saunders-kevin-love-has-no-right-to-be-frustrated/

Host: "Doesn't he have a right to be frustrated?"
Saunders: "No."
Host: "You don't think so?"
Saunders: "Just like I told Garnett, he didn't have a right to be frustrated. Why does any player have a right to be frustrated? You're either part of the problem or part of the solution."
Saunders: "Should the team be frustrated? Yeah, the team can be frustrated. But I don't think any one individual should be frustrated."
Saunders: "I tell a story. I tell a story about - we were in the locker room when KG was in like his third year in the league, and Sam Mitchell was sitting in the locker room. KG was in there, and we had lost a couple games, and we were all sitting there talking. KG started going, 'Hey, you've got to start doing more.' And he's talking to some of the bench guys. 'You've got to start doing more.' And Sam said, 'Hey, hold it, hold it. Let me tell you something. You're making all the money. Hey, it's your responsibility. You make the money, you've got to live up to that.' So, that was the mentality, and from that time, KG never ever from that point, he always took responsibility."

Good story from Flip.

Proud of Flip for these comments. Like I said in another thread, Love isn't a victim in all of this.

I agree with Flip's sentiments on this. And I can see him as head coach making this statement to the teM in the locker room. But as President of Basketball Operations I don't think it was smart to make this sort of statement publicly in the media. If this organization wants to maintain some shot at persuading Love to stay, our top basketball exec calling out Love publicly doesn't help. And if the organization is attempting to maximize its leverage in negotiating a possible trade for Love, a statement like this can only hurt the organization's effort. Probably not big deal, but not very smart.

lipoli390 wrote:I agree with Flip's sentiments on this. And I can see him as head coach making this statement to the teM in the locker room. But as President of Basketball Operations I don't think it was smart to make this sort of statement publicly in the media. If this organization wants to maintain some shot at persuading Love to stay, our top basketball exec calling out Love publicly doesn't help. And if the organization is attempting to maximize its leverage in negotiating a possible trade for Love, a statement like this can only hurt the organization's effort. Probably not big deal, but not very smart.

Lip- I don't think Flip cares anymore.


one of the last things David Kahn said after he left was that Love needed to win back the respect of the locker room. Then we remember Flip making a major effort to appease Love upon coming back. After a year, maybe Flip saw what everyone else saw regarding Love. Clearly they've taken the "if he wants to stay, fine, if not, that's fine too" approach

I've been really annoyed with Love and I don't think he's a very good team leader, but this wasn't the right way for Flip to make his point.

Flip could have made the same point without antagonizing Love by saying, "Of course he has the right to be frustrated, everybody in this organization has for years. We haven't been in the playoffs in 10 years. I'm glad he's frustrated because all of us in the organization should be. And we all need to take responsibility to turn that around too, including Kevin, especially if he's going to be the leader of this team. If we do that next year, we'll make the playoffs and be a dangerous team, the kind of team that competitive guys like Kevin want to play for."

If Flip says that, the message is sent, it challenges Love to step up, but it also does so in a way that more likely draws Love back into the fold rather than alienating him. Love's kinda thin-skinned from what I can tell. I can see Flip's comments hurting our chances to keep him pretty badly, actually. That doesn't reflect well on Love, but you have to be smarter when you're the GM and coach.

Well said, Drew. Flip has been a very good head coach starting with his days in the CBA and continuing through most of his days in the NBA. But I just don't think he's executive material. Wildwolf may be right that Flip just doesn't care anymore. But as the top executive of the Wolves basketball department, he has to show better judgment than he showed in his public statement.

lipoli390 wrote:I agree with Flip's sentiments on this. And I can see him as head coach making this statement to the teM in the locker room. But as President of Basketball Operations I don't think it was smart to make this sort of statement publicly in the media. If this organization wants to maintain some shot at persuading Love to stay, our top basketball exec calling out Love publicly doesn't help. And if the organization is attempting to maximize its leverage in negotiating a possible trade for Love, a statement like this can only hurt the organization's effort. Probably not big deal, but not very smart.

It's definitely not a big deal, and shouldn't be deemed "not very smart". How does he ruin leverage? All he said is that Love has no reason to be frustrated and that the highest paid player on the team needs to be personally accountable for losing. Yes, Love is a great player, but his contract doesn't make his job of winning basketball games any easier. He should know this. We all know that you don't win in any aspect of life by playing the blame game. The question players of his caliber should be asking is, "What can I do to better my teams chances of success?". So far he's shown to not have that attitude. His first step should be playing defense close to what he does in the 4th quarter of a close game.Think against Dirk this year. I saw more intensity on defense in the last couple minutes against dallas than I've seen from Love in a month's worth of games.

Again, Love is a great player, but I personally hope he's traded this offseason. Success is great, but not enough. You do not win championships when you pay a one-way player max money...

TheFuture wrote:

Again, Love is a great player, but I personally hope he's traded this offseason. Success is great, but not enough. You do not win championships when you pay a one-way player max money...

A max player needs to take on being the leader of the team also. Love seems to be a fair weather fan. I don't think the guy has a lot of friends when he goes to the all-star games. I think he can be kind of difficult and self centered. Just my hunch.

In my personal relationships, I'm a big fan of being truthful. But Flip doesn't have a personal relationship with the public, and doesn't owe us the truth. And in fact, sometimes speaking the truth publicly can be detrimental to the shared goal we all have...to get better and have a chance to win a championship.

With that in mind, I side with Lip and Drew on this matter, and I don't find it insignificant if there is a chance of keeping Love in Minnesota. Flip is my kind of guy, and he summarized well my thoughts about Love being frustrated, but he shouldn't have said it publicly if he wants Love to stay. I don't go as far as Lip in saying that Flip is not very smart because I believe he is, but he made a tactical error here by speaking truthfully his feelings about Love (and by the way, Barreiro showed some of his brilliance in drawing him out on this). I agree with the sentiment some have expressed here that Love appears to be an overly sensitive, somewhat petulant person, and being called out publicly will not sit well with him.

Let me modify my statement, though, by providing a scenario where Flip's comments would be appropriate. If he knows for certain that Kevin is gone, either because Love has told him or because he's correctly reading the tea leaves, then there is no downside to speaking the truth about him. In fact, if the team also believes that Love has been treated like a spoiled child, comments like this will win their support and get them to rally behind Flip. I wonder if this is what is going on.

I don't want to accept that Love is gone .I'm still clinging to the fantasy that he wants two things...to play on a team with a chance to win, and to make the maximum amount of money he can make. And if the Wolves can improve 10 games this year, there would be a chance of Kevin staying. In this perhaps unrealistic scenario, Flip erred yesterday on the Funkadelic. But if he knows Kevin is gone, I have no problem with Flip ripping him truthfully as he goes out the door.