Except Taylor was directly involved with the Butler situation (he basically forced Thibs to start negotiations after starting to field offers at the owners meeting when the situation between Butler and the team first erupted.) You say that his only blame is hiring Thibs but Taylor has meddled with the team before then. They had a capable coach in San Mitchell who was actually liked by Wiggins and KAT. He pushed Kevin Garnett out. Taylor wanted to fast forward the team to playoff relevancy and allowed for Thibodeau to trade so many assets for essentially a one year rental, then let him trade Butler again for pieces when reports are that he wanted to get trade picks. Yes Thibodeau needed to go, but so much of this falls on Taylor and his meddling and poor decisions. Maybe “as bad as the Suns” is hyperbole but it’s pretty darn close.
So where do you draw the line between Thibs and Taylor? The owner is just supposed to set the direction the trades is on the GM. If you look at the "meddling" of Taylor he is just on the level of Leslie Alexander and that guy is not horrible or close to Sarver, only diff is Morey is good and the GMs in Minny were terrible. Telling Thibs to trade Butler is a mgt decision, it is up to the GM to get good pieces in return tbh its not that hard, Houston allegedly offered 4 picks its up to Thibs to take that deal. I dunno about pushing KG out I mean KFG is a ticket seller if the owner was horrible he would actually want KG on the team to sell tix. If the owner wanta to win who can blame him, all owners want to win and they already have young talent in Kat and Wiggins. Minny is a small market team and Taylor isnt a super rich owner. He cant affors to tank multiple years of suck with nobody attending the games.
I put all of the decisions related to roster moves and decisions on Thibodeau during his brief stint on the team, but ultimately Taylor has shown that he is willing and able to veto decisions and has done so before. I agree that the T-Wolves are a small market team, but that doesn’t negate that under Taylor’s ownership they had 14 consecutive seasons of no playoff appearances until last year. It may be that Taylor is getting older and realizing that he only has so much time to get a winning team, but that’s still an awful stretch. Also I don’t think Garnett was a “ticket getter” per se, but I do think it shows how Taylor has made bad decisions to alienate former players instead of incorporating them into their infrastructure. But overall I don’t put any of the blame on Taylor for the coaching decisions made by Thibodeau, and not all of the personnel moves are Taylor’s fault either even if he could have vetoed some of them. I just find him a lot more copiable for the environment he has allowed to foster in Minnesota.
You still can!! Just delete @J.R. post, we’ll all look the other way and things will proceed as normal!!! J.R. had no business saying that before you!! Spoiler ....... ....... .......
Is it because SVG and JVG got more rings as coaches? or because . . . . .they both from . . . .. Rocket River
Yep. I think it demonstrates that everything Butler was saying was right.... How did that deal help Thibs win now?? I totally understand, in his situation, why he didn't take it. One of the reasons your coach shouldn't be your GM...they can have very different current priorities.
I mean Butler's an ass as well. I'm not sure what he was "saying"... but he clearly came in and fractured the locker room. Here's the problem with Thibs. As the President/GM, he failed to look at any time frame other than the immediate. Which is basically what the coach would want. "Give me players to win now!". Of course, he's the coach, too. But that's fine. From at least a players on the court perspective, the Butler trade kind of worked. When healthy, the TWolves were a potential home court top 4 team last year. They ultimately only snuck in, but the goal was playoffs and absent Butler being injured so long, they definitely did that. But the President/GM still has to look at medium and long-term. Typically the President/GM, before making a trade, would factor in things like "will this guy work in our locker room?" and "will this guy stay long term?". Sometimes its hard to tell. If you don't have a personal relationship with the target, you do due diligence. In this case, Thibs himself should have ABSOLUTELY known. And that the answers to these questions, in Thibs mind, was "he'll be a great fit" and "he'll love it here and stay for sure" are shocking. So, if you are the President/GM and are going to say ok, let's go for the immediate term... well he failed there. Traded away assets for a guy that was a locker room problem with no desire to stay long term. Now, from the coaching perspective... COACH Thibs got EXACTLY what he wanted. He wanted the assets to win now. And again, when all healthy, it was definiteky kind of working. But it still wasn't "great". There was still no flow in their scheme. They still got dominated in the playoffs. And all of this happened while their young stalwarts regressed. So COACH Thibs also failed. Obvious fire. Strange specific timing.
Great post. My thinking is that the Timberwolves didn't see Thibs winning against the lakers, and maybe even saw that going down as an embarrassing loss. Accordingly, they braced for a firing. When the loss didn't come, they were like "well, we are still doing this thing" and went for it. Also, this highlights the struggle Daryl has on a daily basis. I'm sure he wants a championship so bad he can taste it, but being able to pull away from certain deals and such, wow. I don't know I would have that self control. Props.
Im mentioning m8nd sets not coaching abilities. All those guys wanted to play a slow 90s style basketball. When mark lert n gsw started playing a more 3 point heavy faster lace they won.
I guess they believe in the old school tradition that you don't fire people before Christmas and New Year.
