To me Butler is a hard worker, but quite a dick from the way the acts, then you throw Tibs who has that bossy attitude, then you got Wiggins who has the ONLY ME attitude and then you got Towns who is most sneaky of them all, its just dosent sound and smell like a team, more like bunch of individuals all on different page with different agendas.
Recency bias. KAT is a fantastic player, who is only going to get better, in spite of his douchey persona.
no team is ever going to win a title with towns as their best player. classic empty stats without wins player
Nope. Thibs will get fired first. You don't trade away a franchise player because of internal turmoil especially not a former #1 overall pick who's not injured and has excellent potential. Again, I said this in the Minnesota playoffs series thread, the Wolves have the talent and players to be a contender in the West. They just need the right coach who can liberate the players and let them play to their advantages. Tom Thibodeau is not the man for the job. The entire Van Gundy coaching tree is old and stale, and no longer relevant in the modern pace and space era. Plus, this is now the 2nd team Thibodeau has run into the ground playing his starters heavy minutes and creating unnecessary injuries like the one to Jimmy Butler. Thibs is done.
Would Minnesota do Kanter, Mudiay plus #9 for Towns, and Gibson? Knox kid from kentucky would be good draft for minny. Seems even trade.
Still trying to figure out what's going on over there ... so as I understand, Glen Taylor doesn't like Tom Thibodeau and it's Thibodeau (and his guys) vs. the non-Thibodeau guys. Feels like this just played out at the end in Chicago with Thibs & Butler. April 25: http://www.1500espn.com/the-scoop-2/2018/04/scoop-radio-glen-taylor-questions-tom-thibodeau/ Wolves are in the middle of a playoff run. Glen Taylor refused to call the season a success, refrained from discussing Thibodeau's future until the season is over & Butler needs to recruit players to play for less money in the offseason. Butler, in the Chicago Sun-Times, openly questions teammates desire to win. Certain players don't get it. Butler's agent took issue with just about everything Glen said & Jimmy isn't guaranteed to stick around after this year. Wolfson: Being at games three & four, found it interesting the amount of people that sought me out within the organization to spew whatever. To suggest it's a cohesive bunch is laughable. There's a lot of disconnect. Where do you want to begin on that? Should Tom Thibodeau know the names of people on the business/marketing side? People are upset he alienates himself. There's a big wall up. He appears to always be grumpy. On the surface, you go from 31 to 47 wins, you sell out the building 16 times, TV ratings go up 78%, there should be a ton to celebrate on the surface. There is so much angst & disconnect behind the scenes. If they lost to Denver in the regular season finale, I don't know if it would have been Thibs' head that would have rolled but there was going to be something that was going to happen. It never got to that. Glen has a lot of questions for Thibs on & off court. After 2 years, Glen is still trying to figure out why Thibs is the way he is. Did Glen talk to people in the Chicago organization? He hired a search firm Korn Ferry. Thibs is who he is. He won this way in Chicago. He isn't going to change who he is. Glen is still trying to figure out why Thibs acts the way he acts. On the court, Glen loves Ricky Rubio & had to be convinced to move Rubio. Look how happy he is, how well he's playing, how well Utah is playing. Glen is asking "Why did we trade Rubio?". There are on the court questions Glen has but behind the scenes, Glen is wondering about the disconnect too. What is the Butler-Towns dynamic right now? On the Butler side, he's trying to figure out do I want to be here long term & can I win with this being the core? That might be the most interesting part. Jimmy can be a free agent next summer. Let's say they miss the playoffs next year. Then you cut the cord on Thibs but are guaranteed to lose Jimmy. It's a guarantee Jimmy leaves if Thibs gets fired. On Towns, his agent is Leon Rose(CAA). Thibs is represented by CAA. There's someone there to bridge the relationship. I do think there is some eye-rolling by Towns & Wiggins wondering about the way Butler approaches things. Off the record, there have been these whispers for awhile. While Glen Taylor might have some desire to make a move, I don't know any sane owner who eats close to $30M (Thibodeau & Scott Layden). ______________________________________ May 11 http://www.1500espn.com/the-scoop-2...iness-matthew-hurt-recruitment-update-ep-146/ Anything Wolves you're hearing? It's a continuing theme. The uneasiness, the angst. On the surface, they jump up 16 wins, win 47 games, TV ratings go up 77%, 18 sellouts, corporate money was up 20%. On the surface, it seems everything is fine. Everything is not fine. Where does it begin & end? Does it go up to Glen? It absolutely goes all the way up to Glen. At least on two occassions during the season, Glen went to Thibs to find out why he acts the way he does. Why is a buffoon on the sideline? The swearing with kids sitting court side. To suggest they're holding hands over there, celebrating their successful season, that is not the case. They let go Vince Legarza. Buzz is Thibs feels like he should have the strongest relationship with KAT. Vince was very close with KAT. Vince was told do not interact with Jim Peterson. Jim flies with the team. Jim is the nicest human being on the planet. To tell your coaching staff do not interact with Jim is one of the most idiotic things I've ever heard. ... Relationship between KAT & Thibodeau? There's still the bridge of the agency(CAA). They represent both KAT & Thibodeau. A guy like Leon Rose can massage that relationship if it needs to be massaged. Also, if you're wondering about KAT's long term status, name me the last player off a rookie contract to turn down a max offer. You just don't do that. KAT will sign an extension. I can't speak on Thibs being jealous but Thibs wants the closest relationship with the star player. ... Are you willing to eat $30M if you let go of Thibodeau & Layden? I would be surprised. Ownership would need to approve a Wiggins trade. Ownership was reluctant to approve a Rubio trade but ultimately did so. Would Glen Taylor approve a Wiggins trade? I suppose it's possible but I don't think Wiggins goes anywhere this summer. KAT isn't going anywhere. Something big would likely involve who? Butler, Jeff Teague & someone else? I don't know if Jimmy will take an extension this summer. Financially it doesn't make sense. I believe Jimmy is in the process of figuring out if he can win here. Why not use another year & then make a determination?
Having Al Horford (assuming he's not a casualty in any potential trades) would be so great for Towns' development, too.
To be fair, Butler started to really be a great player when Rose was in heavy decline and Noah became a zero on offense. And then he goes to the Timberwolves, where Wiggins has clearly not lived up to his #1 pick potential, and Towns might be worse than anticipated. iirc, when Butler was injured, the Wolves were in danger of missing the playoffs altogether - the return of Butler righted the ship and allowed them to barely squeak into the playoffs. I don't think the problem is Butler, even though it's pretty coincidental that he seems to be the linking factor.
Agreed. No way the Celtics trade two of their 4 best (active) players from a possible Finals team (not to mention their youth, athleticism, and upside) for a guy who looked so shaky on the big stage. Tatum and Brown are highly underrated.
[Talking about letting this Celtics team marinate & not trading Hayward or Irving] BW: I have a crazy offer. Has anyone noticed what's going on in Minnesota with KAT & that organization? ZL: It's not...Darren Wolfson alluded to a lot of it on a podcast a couple of weeks ago. They're not in a good place and I said on a podcast recently I have a gut feeling something crazy will happen there this summer. It's not in a good place right now internally. BW: If I were the Celtics, I'd make a quiet call to Minnesota. ... I don't think Minnesota would do this deal. If Minnesota called & said would you take Towns for Irving, that's an interesting conversation but don't think it's a realistic conversation. If the Celtics were looking for an opportunity, that might be one right there. I don't think Anthony Davis is going anywhere anytime soon. KAT, now that might be a different story. The reason the KAT thing is interesting is, you retain supermax rights if traded on your rookie contract. Aggregators will have a field day. I'm just saying, does anyone notice what's going on with KAT? I'm not reporting anything. I just asked a question.
It's hard not to take a chance on Towns, though. He could be an athletic, rich man's version of Al Horford. But, not for Tatum AND Brown. You'll have Hayward coming back, and even though it's arguable that both Tatum or Brown are worth more that Hayward right now, I think one would be hard pressed not to deal "Tatum + ___" or "Brown + ____" in discussions for Towns. Now if it was "Hayward + (not Brown or Tatum)," I'd definitely give that a listen. Don't know what they'd have to do, but... Irving / Rozier Hayward / Smart Tatum / Ojeleye Horford / Morris Towns / Baynes That;s a dynasty in the making.
You don't trade KAT, you resign Butler and move away from Thibs. You test the waters on Wiggins but you don't need to trade him. I think Minny still has a bright future if they can instill a better coaching staff.
Absolutely, the problem is that Irving is going to get paid next summer, Towns too, same for Rozier, Smart is going to get paid this summer, Tatum/Brown will get paid in few years...i don't really think they can keep all those guys going forward, they'll have to make some choices like they did with Bradley last summer, someone will go, with Smart being the first one imo.
TWolves need to trade KTOWN if they are serious about getting far in the playoff because KTOWN is so bad on defense. KAT on a real good team would be a 6th man because he's so poor on defense. He's just another Entes Kanter, but much better on offense. Kanter can't play more than 20 minutes because he can't play D at all, just like KTOWN. Watching him play D is like watching Curry play D, except Curry is a PG and KTOWN is a Center
No one plays defense in the NBA anymore. Lets look at top 5 players in the NBA 1. Lebron - Average to Below average defense 2 Durant - Average to good defender 3 curry average to below average 4 harden - average to below average 5 westbrook - average to below average Most are not good defenders. KAT is a big man who doesn't get hurt and can shoot and rebound. Ayton does not have the skills of KAT.
Clutch said he was leery of big men who couldn't defend. You responded by posting star players that don't defend... None of which were big men
I doubt Butler re-signs if Thibs is gone. In fact, they probably trade him (or he demands a trade) if they let Thibs go. In agreement on Wiggins; test the market, but realize you’d be selling low if you traded him now. I think they run this team and staff back one more year. They would have been the 3rd seed if Butler hadn’t gotten hurt and another year of experience for the young guys will help. Shoot for the 3rd seed again, try to win at least 1 round in the playoffs and maybe you get lucky beyond that.
Exactly. All those players mentioned are guard or SF, not Centers. Centers are supposed to dominate and control the lane to make your guards and SF look good on D. How many time did Clint save the guards and forwards that got blown by against Wolves and Jazz? How many times do guards turn back and dribble out when they see Rudy in the lane? They see Clint and Rudy, they think maybe I better not go in the lane or it's going to get blocked. They see KTOWN and it's BBQ CHICKEN TIME!
