quote:

ORIGINAL: David Levine

I think there is a lot of truth in this Canis comment:

The biggest problem for the franchise has always been Glen.

But he also controls he whole thing. How do you control the guy who controls everything and is bad at it? Through effective politics. You manage your owner. This is why I am currently more optimistic about the wolves than I have been in a long time.

Ethan Casson clearly is good at this. He has gained Glens trust and used that to do the following: (1) fire Thibs mid season with over ten million left on a contract, (2) conduct a legitimate POBO search and hire the right hand man of a top 5 POBO. Pretty damn good start.

Rosas is also clearly good at this. If you listen he is long winded, but then read it in print and it reads very well as messaging. Notice how often he compliments Glen and clearly iterates that Glen wants to build a championship organization. This is currying favor with Glen and also setting the playing field for down the road to have a framing of when he asks Glen for things "well Glen, you said you want a championship, this is how they do things". It’s messaging to set the expectation so that he can also use it to manage Glen. Notice how Rosas was very clear in his messaging that he had full authority over the coaching hire.

This is also why I am not bothered at all by the Ryan. You lose a ton of political good will within the organization, especially with Glen if you fire Ryan. If the guy you replace him with turns out to be a bust, you have really lost credibility and shot yourself in the foot politically. As of now, Ryan is a relatively blank slate who is popular and seems willing to work with the POBO. As the poster said earlier Rosas likely made the calculation that the possibles gain in coaching is not worth the political loss. Here is where the messaging on hiring authority is important. It was for the fans for sure, but I also bet it was for Glen as well. Rosas is saying to Glen, I had full authority to make this decision, and I like the guy that happens to be your favorite, you can trust my decision making.

I see Saunders likely result as Scott Brookesque. Maybe not the guy you want tactically, but solid for player management and hopefully development, and probably not a disaster and may turn out to be better than expected

So I agree that this looks like twolves as usual, and may be. But to me this looks more like a guy including a political calculation to manage an owner to ensure he has the political power going forward to do what he wants and to have the political capital to make much harder sells: e.g trade Wiggins

Are Casson and Rosas good basketball minds? I have no idea and it could be a disaster ultimately, but Casson is off to a heck of a start and Rosas has the resume.

What they are clearly good at is managing the owner. Since Glen is the biggest problem, that is the biggest thing to address right now. I think these guys are playing the long game with Glen and seem to know what they are doing. On many teams "managing the owner" over hiring the absolute best coach would be a disaster. With the wolves it is probably a necessary step to long term change. Gain his full trust in the short term to leverage full authority for the long term

Having said all that:

Rui promise if true is bad. I’ll be shocked if that is true, as the timing makes no sense.

Layden has to go, or have minimal authority. I’ll be surprised if that doesn’t happen. Word is that other teams thought he was a clown when trying to trade with the wolves. Rockets spent a ton of time negotiating with the wolves and had their four picks turned down.

Posted by Tollystones on May 21, 2019 | 4:54 AM

quote:

ORIGINAL: David Levine

My take on the Ryan hire:

Rosas made a very big point that he wants an NFL style staff. With a HC that will implement Rosas' vision, but also with essentially "offensive and defensive coordinators" to handle those parts of the game.

My guess is Rosas will have a bigger say in the assistant coaches than even Ryan does.

Its actually the thing that makes me somewhat less worried about Ryan. That he hired him because of his relationship with the players and because he thinks he can mold him into the type of coach he wants - and not because of what he's done as a coach so far.

I still expect it to end badly, because...Forget it, Jake. It's Timberwolves...

quote:

ORIGINAL: Matt Lang

quote:

ORIGINAL: David Levine

My take on the Ryan hire:

Rosas made a very big point that he wants an NFL style staff. With a HC that will implement Rosas' vision, but also with essentially "offensive and defensive coordinators" to handle those parts of the game.

My guess is Rosas will have a bigger say in the assistant coaches than even Ryan does.

Its actually the thing that makes me somewhat less worried about Ryan. That he hired him because of his relationship with the players and because he thinks he can mold him into the type of coach he wants - and not because of what he's done as a coach so far.

I still expect it to end badly, because...Forget it, Jake. It's Timberwolves...

If keeping Ryan means we're getting rid of Wiggins, I'm ok with it.

quote:

ORIGINAL: David Levine

This is really big for us:

Jon Krawczynski✔@JonKrawczynski
Karl-Anthony Towns missing out on All-NBA means his 5-year deal will be worth closer to $158 million than the $191M it would have been.

quote:

ORIGINAL: kgdabom

Looks like Butler's character assassination of KAT was bought hook line and sinker by the Voters. IMO Gobert is not even on KAT's level, but he got 89 points while KAT only got 20.

quote:

ORIGINAL: David Jerde

So … we can thank Thibs and Butler for holding Kat back. My money is on Kat coming back hard

quote:

ORIGINAL: David Levine

This is a terrific piece on Gupta:

https://www.apnews.com/d9153670df794bb2a73dba184ef61339

quote:

ORIGINAL: David Levine

quote:

ORIGINAL: David Levine

This is a terrific piece on Gupta:

https://www.apnews.com/d9153670df794bb2a73dba184ef61339

Looks like its happening:

RandBall✔@RandBall
New from @ChristopherHine: #twolves finalizing deal to hire Sachin Gupta as executive VP of basketball operations, a source confirmed.http://strib.mn/2YU4zP4

quote:

ORIGINAL: David Levine

Jon Krawczynski✔@JonKrawczynski
It's my understanding that Sachin Gupta will be the new No. 2 under Rosas in the revamped front office. There has been nothing official on Scott Layden, but most expect him to stay on board.