The Minnesota Timberwolves Thread: Timberwolves, Anthony Bennett part ways

Well, that's it.

The Timberwolves end the season on a 12-game losing streak, which wound up being the bare minimum in order to get the 25 percent chance at the No. 1 overall pick. 1000 balls. NYK, PHI, LAL, ORL, SAC, DEN, DET, CHA, MIA, UTA, IND, PHX and OKC have 750. We have 250. Let's do it.

Other news


  • Andrew Wiggins said he plans to play for Canada in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in August.
  • Anthony Bennett said he plans to play in the Pan Am Games in Toronto in July.
  • Zach LaVine said he's open to playing Summer League in Vegas again.
  • Flip Saunders said he wants Wiggins, LaVine, Dieng and Muhammad all to practice with the summer-league team but was non-committal on whether any would play in games in Vegas. "Wiggins certainly won't," he said. Seems obvious, based on what he already has planned for late in the summer.

FYI: I'm cheering for Toronto, because I think if Washington happens to get bounced early, paired with the hot start and expectations that came from that hot start, Randy Wittman could be out of a job and the slim chance Flip Saunders gives up his bench after one year becomes a little less unlikely if "his guy" is available.

I can already see Flip's presser: "You know, people forget, Washington was one of the most revered teams to start the season, and Randy was a big part of that."
 
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Well, that's it.

The Timberwolves end the season on a 12-game losing streak, which wound up being the bare minimum in order to get the 25 percent chance at the No. 1 overall pick. 1000 balls. NYK, PHI, LAL, ORL, SAC, DEN, DET, CHA, MIA, UTA, IND, PHX and OKC have 750. We have 250. Let's do it.

Other news


  • Andrew Wiggins said he plans to play for Canada in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in August.
  • Anthony Bennett said he plans to play in the Pan Am Games in Toronto in July.
  • Zach LaVine said he's open to playing Summer League in Vegas again.
  • Flip Saunders said he wants Wiggins, LaVine, Dieng and Muhammad all to practice with the summer-league team but was non-committal on whether any would play in games in Vegas. "Wiggins certainly won't," he said. Seems obvious, based on what he already has planned for late in the summer.

FYI: I'm cheering for Toronto, because I think if Washington happens to get bounced early, paired with the hot start and expectations that came from that hot start, Randy Wittman could be out of a job and the slim chance Flip Saunders gives up his bench after one year becomes a little less unlikely if "his guy" is available.

I can already see Flip's presser: "You know, people forget, Washington was one of the most revered teams to start the season, and Randy was a big part of that."

Maaaannnnnnn @#$% RANDY WITTMAN!
 
Everybody who left the Wolves is in the playoffs?

Love
Young
brew
jj
Cunningham

:rofl:
 
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Nothing new here, but Saunders at end of season presser:

"There's no question at the beginning of the year we had high expectations of where we were going with a blend of talent with our young players, with our veteran-type players," Saunders said. "The dynamics of that changed within the first three weeks of the season."

Congrats, every person in the world but you knew coming into the season the team was not going to be good. Note you lost your All NBA player.

"I'll coach until I feel we need to move in a different direction. It boils down to whether I think we (he and his staff) are going to be the best to develop the players and talent we have, knowing where we want to be in two years."

Oh goody! Flip is coaching until he feels the need to fire himself. Because that's going to happen.

2014-15 - 16-66
2011-12 - 2-15
2010-11 - 23-59
2009-10 - 26-56

Flip's last four coaching seasons. Apples to oranges but please continue to sell us that you are the only real option for the bench that you can find.

For the love of god Saunders please leave, take your ego, take your son, and never return so I can get back to liking this franchise again.
 
You know I hate his coaching style, and everything he's done relating to Thaddeus Young, KG, Adreian Payne and two first-rounders, but how much do you give him credit for Andrew Wiggins? Would another GM have waited it out as long as Saunders did? It's a strategy that could burn you and result in an even worse return than the proposal that ignited a stalemate, but luckily for Saunders and us as fans it went the exact opposite way.

Simmons gives him credit for that, and I feel like I can't make a judgment because I don't know how much that was him or just LeBron sending out the bat signal in June or some **** and Flip Saunders just being a product of where he was at the time.
 
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The Windhorst-Simmons podcast a few weeks ago said Wiggins wasn't in the deal until Love, Love's agent, LeBron, David Griffin all met in Vegas (I actually can't remember if LBJ was there or not now that I type that) in July. When the meeting broke, he was a part of the deal.

Who was negotiating on the Timberwolves behalf then for that to happen? Love? Love's agent, or both? :lol: If Love and his agent were told by Flip to say he will not budge for anything less than a deal revolving around Wiggins, and the meeting started w/o Wiggins and ended with Wiggins, well then I'd say Flip deserves a lot of credit for that.

But the problem is we have no idea how Wiggins came to be a part of that deal by meeting's end. Was it because the Cavs finally relented, giving in to Saunders? We don't know because of how much a meeting like that toes the line of league rules, and there wasn't any acknowledgement of it happening from th media until March of the following year. We had all heard about LeBron's meeting with Riley in Vegas while it was happening, but nothing like this had been reported - making the details near impossible to uncover and the credit impossible to attribute to the correct individual who represented Minnesota.
 
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Glen Taylor had the hammer with the Love trade. Here's what Taylor claims went down:

Taylor recently recalled the details of the Timberwolves trade for Andrew Wiggins, and said that the team was having trouble getting the Cavaliers to agree to a deal for Kevin Love that included Wiggins this past offseason. But a conversation with Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert changed the trajectory of that deal.

“[Timberwolves General Manager] Milt [Newton] and Flip had talked to Cleveland about getting Wiggins and they did not want to trade him and they told him they weren’t going to,” Taylor recalled. “I wanted to go directly to (Gilbert), and I said, ‘We’re not going to do the trade unless Wiggins is included.’

“Then [Gilbert] said to me, ‘Would you give me permission to talk to Kevin Love before we make the trade? I personally want to talk to him.’ I said, ‘Absolutely, I think you have every right to do that.’ So he had a talk with Kevin Love and he came back and said, ‘OK, I’ll do the trade.’ ”

Regardless of who should take "credit" we gotta realize sometimes teams get lucky sometimes they don't. Glen Taylor has been one of the most awful NBA owners (in terms of success) in the last 20 years...but even he will once in a while do something right. Same with Saunders. He's had luck and also poor luck. Many people now fail to realize how many decisions he messed up on during his first stint with the Wolves. He was in a spot where he only had room to resign either Troy Hudson or Chauncey Billups.........and he chose Hudson. He was part of the secretive group getting Joe Smith to illegally sign under the table. It cost them dearly. He's the only NBA head coach in history to lose seven straight playoff series in the first round. And only one season after finally making it to the Western Finals he had his entire team tuning him out so bad the front office had to fire him.

Saunders has returned and has had some success with his decisions....and he (and Taylor) should be applauded for the Wiggins move which is what all of us in here said at that time. That was a huge get and many parts came together for it to happen (my how things would have been different if LeBron didn't start the process and instead stayed in Miami).

Still, it's not like Saunders is making major rumbles among NBA circles. He made a nice move landing Shabazz and Dieng (which Sid Hartman will fall over himself congratulating).....but it's also not as if these two are NBA All Stars. He made the decision to give Pek a huge contract which most people agreed with.....and it appears that is going to haunt them. He traded away multiple future first round draft picks which goes against almost all theories on how rebuilding teams should operate. And lastly he broke his arm patting himself on the back in acquiring KG...who played in a couple games and then was a ghost the last 20 and no one has any idea what he's up to or what he's doing.

The Timberwolves are one of the worst franchises in all of sports, the fans know that. The way they operate their team, where no one in suits get fired (seriously, they have decision makers upstairs who have been there for 20+ years, and Taylor also has multiple relatives on staff with cake jobs), and coaches can come and go as they please (this is Saunders' second stint, Sidney Lowe's FOURTH stint), continues to baffle me because this is all on Glen Taylor and he either thinks he's the smartest guy in the room....or he just doesn't care. Years later I still am not even sure. They stick to the same script while the rest of the NBA and national media laugh at them and meanwhile they collect another 16-66 season yet again.

Now as we had towards another season soon they are telling their fan base the future has Flip Saunders back again leading as head coach, president, GM, and part owner. Nothing changes here. They are smarter than everybody else. Just hang tight fans they have a plan. We promise this will work this time.

And if not, we will rebuild again and Sam Mitchell will take over and everyone will slide over.
 
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Well said Ry,

I still feel the biggest mistake was hiring Kahn, the one outsider- so I don't  blame them going back to their ways. I don't even blame them for missing on Curry (although obvious even back then) But to choose a 23 year old Wes over Cousins was inexcusable. The irony is there probably isn't an insider in the league who wouldn't take the wolves future over the kings. Moving into the off season I feel our biggest needs are:

1. Draft a day 1 starter

2. Dump Pek and Martin for peanuts

3. Sign all possible Free agent shooters (Easier said than done)

4. Sign Asik or Lopez

5. Cook 
pimp.gif
 
 
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Few more days until the lottery!

Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - NBA Draft Lottery

The teams entered in the lottery are as follows (note: the first three picks in the Draft will be determined by the lottery and the remainder of the "lottery teams" will select in positions 4 through 14 in inverse order of their consolidated standings at the end of the regular season):

Minnesota 16-66 (.195) [250 = number of chances in Draft Lottery]
New York 17-65 (.207) [199]
Philadelphia 18-64 (.220) [156]
L.A. Lakers* 21-61 (.256) [119]
Orlando 25-57 (.305) [88]
Sacramento 29-53 (.354) [63]
Denver 30-52 (.366) [43]
Detroit 32-50 (.390) [28]
Charlotte 33-49 (.402) [17]
Miami** 37-45 (.451) [11]
Indiana 38-44 (.463) [8]
Utah 38-44 (.463) [7]
Phoenix 39-43 (.476) [6]
Oklahoma City 45-37 (.549) [5]

Also heard on the radio today people discussing the Wolves have "three major potential options" for a head coach this offseason (if things shake out how it looks). Hoiberg, Brooks, and Thibodeau.

And Saunders is going to tell us he has to continue to coach because no one else is out there.
 
It was local. Just a talker subject. Does Saunders even make the call? Does he actually make a move? That's the question.

I know I'm wasting my time even pondering it (or listening to it) because it just gets me more annoyed. :lol:
 
Scott Brooks is the type of person and coach who is terrific for a group of young, talented players but not a team that is headed deep into the postseason trying to out X-and-O Popovich, Joerger, etc.

I wonder if the Joerger might be available actually. Last year the Memphis Grizzlies 30 or 40-something year old owner Robert Pera clashed with him in a sheer unnecessary power struggle to the point where we almost reeled him in ourselves.

Obviously they've had some inspiring wins spring boarded off of Conley's broken face vs. GSW, but if Gasol makes it known he's leaving (who knows) and Randolph/T.Allen are on their last legs, maybe Pera would take that as an opportunity to cut ties with Joerger and go in a different direction, as nobody would really be focusing on THAT in the way they were last summer when that was all that was going on for the Grizz.
 
I'm also interested to see what happens with the Wolves' second round spots (these are both locked in): 31 & 36.

They have the first pick in the second round. That has often been a valuable position where you might be able to nab a top European prospect and stash him (I have not studied the current crop). The last time the Wolves had the first pick in the 2nd round (2008) they nabbed Pekovic, who was looked at as a top prospect but was locked into a thick Euro contract that meant teams couldn't waste a first round contract on him. So the first pick the next round was valuable real estate.

This year the Wolves (I believe Milt) have said they think their two second-round picks are valuable because they have the option to "trade up." I'm not seeing that happening for a variety of reasons most probably because they do not need another green 19 year old (picked in the 25 or so range) with a guaranteed contract to add to this current roster. They need to use those two picks for Euros IMO and forget about it. Or god forbid hit on a overlooked player.

Mario Chalmers, DeAndre Jordan, Omer Asik, Goran Dragic, Marcus Thornton, Chase Budinger, Danny Green, Hassan Whiteside, Lance Stephenson, Chandler Parsons, Isaiah Thomas, Draymond Green, and Khris Middleton were all recent second-round picks.
 
Hoiberg sure. Thibs might be up for N.O.

I feel like Rubio needs to step up the most next season but as always health :smh:
 
Yea I felt like this year Rubio was gonna make that step up...

But right as he's on the cusp... Injury we will see...

I'm ready for the draft
 
Finally time for this franchise to get some dumb luck. Tonight.

18 - Times the Timberwolves have been in the NBA Draft Lottery
0 - Times the Timberwolves have moved up in the lottery
10 - Times the Timberwolves have moved down in the lottery
 
I can't believe I'm about to ask this....but would you guys want MDA or Alvin Gentry as the coach?

I just want to see a season of Rubio that shuts people up but I feel Wiggins then becomes Shawn Marion. And I don't know if that's good or bad. Thoughts?
 
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