The Rake Magazine

Midlife,

Probably the best Celtics Blog out there...

http://www.celticsblog.com/

I can understand why reporters would be refreshed by Taylor's candor. And how some fans would also appreciate it, too.

However, I think it's unprofessional, ill-advised and immature. And it speaks volumes about how and why the Timberwolves organization continues to fail on so many levels. What kind of a message does an interview like this send to current and prospective employees (including players)? How many bridges might a few well-intentioned comments burn?

There are not exactly a lot of NBA basketball players and I'm sure word travels fast among them. Just think how many potential free agents could be dissuaded from considering MN by veteran players like T-Hud, Ricky Davis, Trenton Hassell and especially Kevin Garnett?

In the corporate world, most employers know better than to ever publically say anything negative about a former employee. Why should it be any different for an professional sports team?

Like it or not, members of pro sports management tend to be tight-lipped for a reason. At first blush, it's easy to get excited about an owner who "tells it like it is." But I believe Taylor is in dire need of some basic PR counsel. Or a roll of duct tape.

I agree with Patrick and Adam. Taylor is being really idiotic in this interview. It's like a player - a point guard - who, during the game, sees some guys make some mistakes, botch a few of his nice passes...and then after the game trashes them all to the media. This, to my mind, isn't being "candid" - it's being like a little boy throwing a temper tantrum. In what way does any of this help the team?

His lack of basketball knowledge is also absolutely shocking. Seemingly not knowing van Gundy's name ("the Houston coach")? Or, far worse: needing Wittman to tell him that his guys don't play help defense? (Then having the nerve to say: "the fans didn't know that"?! Everyone in the Target Center knew it!)

None of this would matter if he minded his own business. But he's meddlesome, as this interview shows. And that's why the interview is so depressing. It's nice to think that McHale is the problem, because we can always hope he'll be fired - but Taylor isn't going anywhere.

By the way...

Does anyone know of a thinking person's celtics blog? Sort of a Britt blog for the green? I'm trying to live vicariously through their fans.

I think a bit too much is placed on KGs shoulders. It's not his job to maintain the personell. Even Jordan never had room for anyone sharing his space and it was the coaches demands that made him give up his ball swallowing ways. He hated Toni Kukoc, but the management called his bluff. If a player has an unnatural attachment to a hack, trade them anyway. If you can release Billups, who KG was attached to and had talent, why not get rid of T-Hud. I don't understand how KG was holding Taylor & McHale hostage.

Meanwhile, Taylor is fond of saying that KGs attitude made it difficult to work with some players. Turns out they traded all those players, so perhaps KG wasn't the problem in their game. At least nobody making decisions felt KG was the problem in their game.

Let's remember exactly what Wally brought to the game before we get upset about KG's attitude: an accurate shooting, poor ball handling defensive liability. He has done nothing since he left here, really nothing significant since T Brandon "made (him) an all star". He was Steve Kerr thinking he was Scottie Pippen. The only reason McHale was so high on him was because in a year where they had two draft picks, and could have ended up with Hamilton, Andre Miller, Shawn Marion, Jason Terry, Corey Maggette, Ron Artest, or AK, they had just one player, Wally, to show for it. He was a success only because he wasn't a bust.

Hello all,

Long-time "lurker", love the quality discussions on this board. And thanks Britt for the ongoing education in all things NBA.

Yahoo! Sports has some more details on Howard's buyout:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Ah8A6hoWDw.VzxYJOjc0X_O8vLYF?slug=...

Summary is, they needed a bit of extra cash to buy out Howard, so they send a 2008 protected 2nd round pick to San Antonio for Beno Udrih and cash, then promptly waived Udrih to get back to 15 players.

So long, Juwan, hope you find the post-season glory that's eluded you so far.

http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/news/quotes_quotes_and_more_quotes_07102...

Tons of good quotes from Friday night and today. McHale mini-interview has some good nuggets.

Worth a five minute read for sure.

Our very own Britt Robson will be joining KFAN's Dan Barreiro tomorrow, Tuesday, to discuss the Wolves season and Britt's pending article on Kevin Garnett.

What time should we tune in, Britt? Do you need any softball calls?

Kudos to the front office for their recent performance.

The top six guys in the net +/- include three from the KG trade, our '05 and '06 first rounders and our final pick up before pre-season, Greg Buckner. Two of the four "trade pick ups" were viewed by outsiders (myself included) as financially driven (Theo and Buckner) acquisitions. Who da thunk they'd be positive contributors? Nice work, McHale and Company. Seriously.

That Taylor interview is very frustrating on a few levels (as stated above).

1. Team management clearly wasn't in control of the personnel.

2. Taylor's desperate bid to explain away the mishandling of KG's career is really low.

3. KG's apparent inability to "lead" effectively saddens me, but the lack of effective leadership at higher levels probably has something to do with this.

4. The amount of unprofessional on-court behavior in basketball is always astounding. I understand that chemistry is a large factor in basketball, but on-court chemistry should/can be a professional pursuit and not necessarily a melding of personalities. (one of the reasons I feel steve nash deserves his MVP considerations is his ability to unify his teams on the court despite off court personality clashes, see amare vs marion.)

I am going to try hard to ignore this by speculating on the final 15 man roster due by 6pm today.

The interview reads like Taylor is being as candid as possible, and not like he's out to throw anyone under the bus, though he obviously accomplishes this anyway. It's refreshing to have ownership that is willing to talk like this in the media, even if it steps on toes or changes our perceptions of The Best Player on the Planet. Obviously, these are things you cannot say during the middle of a season, but acknowledging mistakes goes a long ways to win back fans like me (that is, poor fans who rant on the internet but only go to 2 games all season).

I don't want lip service out of Taylor - I want to know that next time we develop a superstar, we will recognize that pecking order and perceived power are important.

On the other hand, I can't read into this interview too deeply. I don't think any of us can pretend to know everything about the complex relationships players have with coaches, owners, teammates, etc. Yeah, maybe KG didn't speak up as often as he should have, but have you ever worked with someone who was so hardheaded that no matter what you said to them, it fell upon deaf ears? We probably all have - it's frustrating to keep people in line all the time and do your own job on top of that. Does this mean he's not a leader, or just wasn't surrounded by guys who were capable of taking direction?

It's completely unrealistic to call out KG for not being enough of a leader though. Is it KG's job to make Rasho tough or to make Blount rebound? KG cannot turn water into wine. In Boston, there will surely be some drama at some point, but he doesn't have to deal with it alone anymore - he just has to focus on the incredible expectations on the basketball court. But does KG have to make sure Perkins is giving 110 percent? No, because if he is not, he will be benched (right, Doc?), and KG isn't the only vet who wants this team to succeed.

Blount, Jaric, Kandi, Davis, Rasho, Marbury, were chumps before they were here, while they were here, and will be chumps wherever they latch on next. Gamers who were gamers before being in Minny (like Cassell and, after some experience, Billups) are still gamers today. Those guys don't win titles because KG's leadership focused them, they win because they just want it more, and we've never put enough guys with that kind of fire around KG.

Taylor's piece might be muckraking and an attempt to drum up support for the new Wolves.

However, it might also be an honest look at the shortfalls of the past three years. Something went horribly wrong after the MV3 season and no one can find McHale or Taylor blameless. In fact, they should take most of the blame. However, there were many unexplained issues over the three years that Taylor's openness/mackraking help fans sort out, such as The Wally/KG bad blood, the enigma of Davis's play, Mike James failure, Marko's lack of confidence, Kandi's solitary drinking, Eddie Gs solitary drinking., Blounts tossing it in, etc. KG will always be held in high regard, but he is not beyond blame for the many inconsistencies, faults and under achievements of the past 3 years. KG had some talent to work with. Maybe not, championship caliber, but it was certainly worth a playoff run or two.

KG was too good to suffer through that much losing. My opinion is that KG tasted a measure of success with Cassell and Spree and wished for the success to continue. He did not know who to blame when Cassell and Spree let him down. He was very depressed when Hoiberg left the team due to health concerns. He wasn't happy about the return of a healthy Wally the next year to upset the previous year's chemistry. He wanted to keep Ervin Johnson around. He always liked Maddog. Hudson and Hassell were holdovers from the days of the MV3 and any new player was going to be compared with the pieces that went to the western conference finals. Any shortfalls in these comparison turned KG surly against the player.

I like the Taylor interview because it makes sense. His explanations answer a lot about the mystery of how the Wolves underperformed over the last three years. There were chemistry problems and KG was the leader on that team. Hassell was the lone standby starter from the run in 03-04. Why couldn't they find combinations that led, at the least, to winning records?

The blame goes everywhere. The players brought in to fill the other three roles in the starting lineup and the 8-9 rotation had their many obvious faults, despite their talents, Taylor and Mchale brought in guys without fully checking into the details of their play and personalities, the coaching was below par, and the leadership was lacking to bring out the best in flawed, yet talented teammates.

Taylor hits on each of these faults. He is not putting all the blame on KG and he is deflecting all the blame most everyone else has laid on Mchale. I think Taylors answers in the interview are closer to a owner giving an honest assessment than muckraking, although it might be a little bit of both.

So Taylor's hatchet job is working on you guys?

Bad mouthing your former players to buy credibility with the disenchanted fan base is low. Especially considering the fact that it is KG (who has done more than enough to be forever held in high regard in this town!).

As a team owner, Taylor should be above this muckraking.

That is the one thing the Glenn interview reinforces to me as well--KG is just not cut out to be a vocal locker-room leader. He is a great leader-by-example, but if folks aren't following your example, you have to call them out, and it sounds like he was never willing to do that. I'm starting to come around to a view I've seen expressed out there on the internets, but which I never believed before: that Garnett is actually the greatest sidekick/second banana of all time.

It also explains Hassell's mysterious benchings last season that we all wondered over. I've always been a fan of his, but I'm left a little disappointed at his lack of professionalism. I wonder how much of that stuff goes on in every team around the league.

As we all still wait in anxious anticipation for the promised Ode to KG article from Britt, this interview with Taylor has already provided the necessary motivation for me to let completely go of the KG era Wolves and brace the prospects of building a new team around the current collection young talent.

My perspective of the Wolves comes from far away from Target center (I make it to maybe 4-6 games a year) and mostly from reading of the Wolves accomplishments in the morning paper and online (I don't have NBA pass nor cable tv at home). Since the new season has yet to begin, I will chime in one last time on my current feelings of Garnett and the trade after gaining the perspective from Taylor in the latest PP interview.

KG may be the best player I have ever seen play the game of Basketball. He was a great player, person, and an inspiration to watch. KG was not a great leader, however. The Wolves did the right thing in trading and probably should have made a trade a year or more earlier.

The insight from Taylor on Hassell and Hudson gives me some justification and satisfaction in my never being in fully in the Hassell camp. I am not the most knowledgeable NBA fan in the world, and I could never answer the statisticians of the world pointing to Hassells numbers proving his defensive prowess on opposing NBA stars. I never liked the ball movement when Hassell became a scoring option after Spreewell and Cassell left. But, mostly, as a consistent starter and proclaimed veteran leader - Hassell was part of the losing we became accustomed to over the last three years. For that, he deserves his share of criticism.

KG and Hassell are a lot alike in this way. There is not a lot to criticize in their individual games. They both play basketball the right way. But, after Spreewell and Cassell quit on the Flip, they both became cancerous to the development of the team, if only because they didn't care about getting the other players involved and playing with them towards the team goal of winning games and making it together, misfits and all, to the playoffs.

The problems started with Cassell and Spree and the loss of Flip. KG should have confronted his teammates and demanded a greater effort. Instead he remained solidly in their corner even after they both departed. It is a lot to ask of a player to be a leader, but KG was in that position and he anointed Hassell as his second lieutenant. Troy Hudson was probably his third in command. First Wally and then Davis, whose faults are glaring but were both skilled players, were never allowed into KGs circle to become full-fledged members of the T-Wolves as Spree and Cassell were allowed immediately upon their arrival. Mike James, another player with obvious deficiencies, also was kept out of the loop and was most likely not nearly as bad a player as he showed last year. You just kind of wonder what was going on with KG all those years.

Remember when Wally was froze out after he was named to the All-star team. Then Cassell continued the practice whenever he and Wally were on the floor at the same time. KG never put a stop to the practice and that can only tell a fan that he must have, in some way, endorsed it. That is the kind of stuff that a leader doesn't let happen on his team if he wants to win at all costs.

Davis also had his share of problems, but you wonder how KG never rubbed off on him and demanded a higher standard of consistency from him. Taylor has let us in on some new insights explaining why.

We have always been told how KG made the players around him better, yet Kandi didn't reach his potential, Blount lost his motivation, Jaric was lost, Wally, Davis, James, ...

Again, each of these players faults were plain for anyone to see, but how much of these faults can be blamed on a lack of chemistry and support from the team's leader and his core group he was loyal to such as Hassell and Hudson. As great a player as KG was, I have finally come to the conclusion that his leadership skills in comparison to his peers (Duncan, Dirk, Nash, Kidd) was (and is) so lacking that the Wolves would never have gotten back to a playoff level if he had stayed and his years at Boston will not reach past the conference finals level he achieved beside Spree and Cassell unless he takes a backseat to Pierce and Allen and allows them to run the show - something he is probably more accustomed to do anyway.

I have long been claiming that the post-surgery McCants has taken to playing a good style of basketball. Almost reminding me of Fred Hoiberg out there at times. No surprise to me that Shaddy is bosting some of the team's best +/- numbers. I hope he starts. College Wolf, please insert negative McCants comments below.

Wow. Glenn Taylor needs to shut his yap. I realize his motivation is to explain the turnover to fans, but he's just looking stupid. Bottom line- the people YOU hired and paid to run the team lost control. YOU greenlighted the signings and trades. Now YOU are throwing everyone under the bus.

We are not impressed Taylor. Although I must admit, the drama is very interesting.

Glenn Taylor aside, I am pumped for the impending season. McCants is coming on. Brewer seems ready to give us some good minutes. AJ is the goods. And we are dumping dead weight left and right!

We are going to lose a ton of games, but we have some great young talent. Can't wait to watch them grow.

Holy crap, part 2: Taylor calls KG out:

http://www.twincities.com/ci_7308142

"I don't know if we could have made those changes with K.G. here. I don't know that Randy would have made any difference if K.G. was here. I think without K.G., with new guys, it might work with Randy.

"It has more to do with K.G., and K.G. not liking Mike James, and Marko (Jaric), and he didn't like Mark Blount. Heavens, half the starting team. And Ricky (Davis) didn't listen to (Wittman). ...

"K.G. wanted Trenton (Hassell, forward) around. K.G. wanted Troy (Hudson, guard) around. And those guys took advantage of the situation, and it drove me nuts. I thought both of those guys could have been better players. ...

"Somehow, Trenton thought he had earned the starting role, and K.G. would keep him on the starting role. Neither guy would help certain teammates out on the floor. It wasn't as apparent to me until Wittman said, "here's what they're doing, watch them". They would run a play, and Trenton was supposed to cover for the other guy, and he wouldn't cover for the other guy. The fans didn't know that. So the other guy looked pretty stupid.

"It was little stuff that ticked their teammates off. They did it to Mike James. They did it to Ricky sometimes. Of course, Ricky did it to them sometimes. Ricky was smart enough to figure things out. You don't cover my guy, I don't cover your guy. It was that type of little crap."

hey its been awhile since ive actually commented on here but i read everything twolves related great job britt. Most of u know me or can tell by my name that im a huge rashad mccants fan. im so excited for the season too start unfortunatley i wont be able to watch them because i have prep football game to play but i hopep to read a sweet thread on here. back ot the preaseaon i paid close attention to every game and telfair is lookin like he could be a nice back-up to foye and the point. mccants has the 2 gaurd spot on lock and green brewer will split time backking the two and the three spot up. well thats pretty much all i got for now.