Timberwolves’ candid Glen Taylor offers glimpse inside front office

http://www.minnpost.com/sports/2012...len-taylor-offers-glimpse-inside-front-office

According to Taylor, among the new Wolves’ player acquisitions, coach Rick Adelman pushed hard for Andrei Kirilenko and Chase Budinger, and Kahn pushed hard for Brandon Roy:

“The coach wanted a guy who could defend more than one position, and David found the best person who fit that description in [Nicholas] Batum. We overpaid to try and get him but we lost him. So then we went after Kirilenko.

“The coach says, ‘This is the guy I want. He never talks about scoring, he talks about passing and he talks about defense. I need that player in my system to be successful.’ So that one was clearly the coach.

“And Chase Budinger, that’s the coach. Rick knows him. He says, ‘I can put him in the game, he’s going to be smart; he’s not going to be the greatest defensive player but he can do it. He isn’t going to make mistakes.’

“Brandon Roy, you might think that is the coach, but that is more David. I think it is David saying, ‘Let give this player to Rick and get the backup in place in case it doesn’t work out.’ Because Rick keeps saying to me, ‘I don’t know if he can play!’ And I tell him, ‘Rick, I don’t know if he can play either!’ So the Brandon Roy thing is a risk.”


Free agent Nicholas Batum was interested in signing with the Wolves primarily because of Adelman, point guard Ricky Rubio and power forward Kevin Love:

According to Taylor, “Batum recruited us about as much as we recruited him. He was one of a number of guys who said they are interested in coming to us because of Ricky. He said, ‘I like your coach and I like Ricky and Kevin [Love]. I think I can fit in. I don’t need to score a lot; that isn’t what drives me. I like being on the court with players who share the ball.’ There were three teams he was interested in — New Orleans and Toronto were the other ones — but he said they weren’t as far along as we were and that we were his preference right now.”


What the Wolves actually offered Portland for Batum in a possible sign-and-trade.

Taylor: “We went to them [Portland] and said, ‘OK, what is it you need?’ And they were never really clear on what it would take. So then it got to the point where it was like, ‘Well, I guess you’ll do anything.’ No, we wouldn’t do anything. The closest we got really was they named some players who were not on our team. [Probably Kyle Korver, who played for Chicago last season.] But when we brought that back to them, saying we got your player, they said, ‘Well, I guess not.’ It never ended up being that we offered [second-year forward Derrick] Williams. I said to David [Kahn], ‘We’re not going to offer Williams,’ so I know David never did it. And as far as we know, we never got beyond [offering] one first-rounder [in the NBA draft]. It never got stretched that far because Portland wouldn’t say what they wanted.”

 

OK, a couple of things that were either mis-remembered, mis-reported or just plain Kahn'd:

I thought it was pretty clear from everything Olshey was saying that there wouldn't be a S&T.

Then he says that POR wanted 'some players who were not on (MIN's) team' and that when "we got your player" POR backed out. Why would POR worry about getting Korver in a S&T when they could've just offered cap space and a 2nd for him to CHI just like MIN could?

And "as far as we know, we never got beyond one first-rounder because POR wouldn't say what they wanted", but "we're not going to offer Williams." So if you don't know what the other team wants, but you're going to take things off the table to start, doesn't that kill any negotiations that may be existent?

 

I thought their take on Roy was interesting,

Seems like Adelman doesn't know what to do with him and Kahn just wanted him because he could get him.

I wish the best for Roy but I don't think his knees last past January.

 

We heard at the Meet and Greet that some of Crawchuck's previous teams were laughing at Portland for signing him and that he pretty much told Nate he was going to be a ball hogging ass before Portland signed him.

That said, I remember LMA lobbying for the Blazers to sign Crawchuck on twitter all last summer. They played in each others charity games during the lockout. Traded man love tweets. If Portland didn't sign Crawchuck I get the feeling that LMA would have been pissed. If Roy had been on the team you know he would have told Crawchuck to give him the fucking ball. LMA needed to stand up and tell Crawchuck to pass it to his teammates.