Jerry West, doesn’t sound bad at all.

along the lines that I have been thinking. we need a new FO. I will prefice this by saying that I am usually a fan of promoting from within. but in this case the the FO is as much culpable for this mess as McHale is. there for, we need to look outside, not just for a new GM but also to rebuild the entire FO. maybe a few peices stick around, but most of te existing FO needs to be brushed aside, so that the club can be tacken in a new direction. in this case, promoting form within would just be more of the same home cook’n that has proven to be unseccessfull.

….this is a front office problem more than anything else.

I think it was -6 when I took that.

he’s had some decent picks, but has ruined just about everything he’s touched, franchise wise. He’s a bad guy.

One of the fundamental problems I’ve mentioned here and in other blogs in the past, is the arrogance of players who believe they can step off the hardwood and become a successful executive just because they know the game. McHale is a classic case of this. To be really good at anything, regardless of discipline, most folks—regardless of talent—have to work at it. How many ex-players have we seen fail at running a franchise? Quite a few.

Then there’s the arrogance of wealth, owners who built their empires in other industries and think they can transfer their principles to running a basketball franchise. Sometimes it works, in the Wolves case it certainly hasn’t. Here’s where having some humility and objectivity about one’s own contribution to the cause really helps. I have no idea what metrics and goals Taylor has when he evaluates executive performance—his or his team—but based on the results, I have to believe they’re skewed. And here’s where the core piece of the problem is…can Taylor back away from the table and let a “Jerry West” type run the team?

The evidence isn’t pretty. I mean, the one year he and McHale put the franchise in a position to win a championship, he looks back at it as a failed experiment. If there’s any blueprint to be “tweaked”, maybe going back to that one and melding some of the good things that have happened cap wise over the last year would be a decent place to start. But can he be objective over the mess he and the Iron Ranger have created here, especially in the talent evaluation area?

Hmm….

yeah, he’s been okay at some of that, but where has he been able to take those decent picks and build them into a contender? Toronto? Indiana? New York? Nada. They’ve all sent him packing, with pleasure.

Look at the Wolves talent. The problem is not that they don’t have any, but that it’s overvalued. A lot of these guys are situational role players who could come off the bench and give a good 5-15 minutes of effort, then sit back down and let the core players take over. They aren’t core players though, at least right now.

I want those hallucinogens! Now!

I have to believe he’s saying that for the fans benefit.

…just to answer one of Wyn’s questions, the NBA does have in its history an example where a free agent helped win a championship. The league rewrote the free agency rules so that Shaq could go to LA. Hooray NBA!!!

I can’t think of one example where a championship was built off off of free agents.

the Celtics of last year where built almost exclusively around trades (paul pierce was the only starter drafted by boston), and while they did sign a large number of free agents last year, they were primaraly role players. all 5 starters were either aquired thrugh teh draft of by trades with other teams.

for the T-Wolves, we don’t have a lot of desirable pieces, but we do have a large number of draft picks coming up, this is the key to us building a contender. we must either make wise selections or trade the picks (along with other peices) to do a sign and trade for one of those 2010 bonanza players.

They need to do something to shake the team up. Any one of the following would be fine with me: Get a shooter who will / can actually shoot. Get a slasher that can kick it out to Miller or anyone else who can shoot. Get someone who can help defensively on the perimeter or in the paint. Do something.

No one should be untradeable. At this point, I’m not sure we can or should move AJ, but everyone else should be available. We need to get Miller more looks so that his trade value actually goes up. I have no doubt that if we actually start running some plays for him, he may actually get open shots. He’s done it before.

But, of course, there’s that minor problem of that there’s a total vacuum in the decision making process, in that there’s no one actually capable of making these decisions. It boggles my mind that Taylor would hold McHale accountable (if he actually did) for the crappy state of the team and then not move quickly to put someone in place to start fixing his mistakes. I want to find someone from outside the club, and I recognize that will take some time. But waiting until the end of the year will be akin to buying out ratliff — another wasted opportunity. We need to shake up the roster, we have some tradeable assets, and watching these guys get blown out every 2nd half isn’t any fun. Something else has to give. Here’s hoping a new GM is coming for Xmass. I doubt it, but I’m desperate.

- can you give me an example of how they found someone? (I’m not doubting, just trying to learn.)

Kevin Pritchard moved up from within the Blazer organization. He was a scout with the Spurs when he was hired as Portland’s Director of Player Personnel. Towards the end of his first season he was named interim coach when Mo Cheeks was let go. Although he had head coaching experience in the ABA I don’t think he was ever considered a candidate for the coaching job (and probably didn’t want it.) Then he was promoted to Ass’t GM and then Acting GM before being named GM early in 2007. Another GM with Spurs’ experience is Sam Presti with the Thunder. Even though they haven’t come together yet he seems to be highly respected. As you are coming up with names you might check resumes for experience with the Spurs under Buford. (Not just my opinion.)

As far as coaching … tell me why Dwane Casey was fired and how did the fans feel about it? Did he get a long enough trial? He was an assistant under Nate McMillan in Seattle and they are still tight. I thought of him when I read the comments in Secrets of the City about the Wolves not knowing how to play as a team. They seem to need a coach to take them back to the fundamentals, something McMillan has done admirably with the Blazers. It almost seems like Casey would be a good fit at the moment, but since I don’t know his history there perhaps it is blasphemy. If so, my apologies. As an emerging supporter of the Wolves I have lots to learn ; please be patient with me.

Stack’s “one or two max free agents” follows my prediction. Given that there’s only a tiny number of players genuinely worth that sort of investment and yet we’ll likely have too many teams out there with space to accommodate them, we’re going to see some really bone-headed contracts given out. Mike Miller must be licking his chops.

This assumes the economic rut is on the upswing by then.

Of course, wouldn’t it be fitting if the new CBA severely limits contracts as a reaction to down times? Remember, guys like Lebron and Wade intentionally avoided signing max deals after their rookie contracts expired because they had an eye towards becoming free agents in 2010, when a new CBA would be drawn up. Their assumption/gamble was the new CBA would be more lucrative than the current one.