Minnesota Timberwolves Owner Glen Taylor OWES the Fans!

 

Glen Taylor
Photo credit to Ann Heisenfelt/Associated Press

Minnesota Timberwolves fans have endured a LOT of pain since Glen Taylor bought the team in 1994. Included in that pain has been because of the staggering amount of LOSING the team has suffered. 
I have been a fan since the team was given the name "Timberwolves" over the "Minnesota Polars." Those names were submitted by the fans of the just announced expansion franchise by the NBA in 1988. I am disgusted with Taylor. I have been a fan through it all and I remain a fan even after I moved to Dallas in 1996. 

Taylor's reign as owner has been a great big, giant shit stain to the fans and to the State of Minnesota. He has made bad move after bad move and he has hired awful people to run the team along the way.
Recently, the team held its annual Media Day. While watching the press conference where new minority owners Mark Lore and Alex Rodriugez were formally introduced, I grew more and more annoyed as I thought about how Taylor has given the fans nothing but embarrassing incidents to endure as a result of his poor leadership as team owner... that is in addition to giving the fans very, very little to cheer about. 

What sets me off most of all is the fact that Taylor bought the team for $88 Million dollars. The new, incoming owners agreed to purchase the team (and the WNBA Lynx as well) for a staggering $1.4 Billion Dollars!!! Taylor has done nothing to deserve profiting $1.3 billion dollars... NOTHING! Some argue that he saved the team from leaving the state but, what has he given us for all the public and governmental support he has enjoyed over the years? 

This is crazy to suggest, I get that but... before Taylor is allowed to drift off into the sunset with a $1.3 Billion dollar profit, I think Taylor owes the fans for supporting the team over the years and forcing us to admit to the world that we are Timberwolves fans.
I propose that Taylor either outright give minority ownership shares to the fans or at least let interested fans buy shares in the team for pennies on the dollar or less. I think it would be fitting if the money collected from selling the shares to the fans, is paid to all of the existing minority owners. Frankly, Taylor has profited far more than he deserves, 
Selling or giving away minority ownership shares in the team to the fans should be a provision in the agreement he has for selling the team. If he doesn't give fans the shares, he should be forced by the NBA to donate most of the profit he has gained after buying the team, to charity or something like that. 

I have chosen to highlight several of the awful choices Taylor has made during his 25 years as owner.

Kevin McHale

Photo: McHale: MGN/Taylor: KSTP

I remember watching Wolves games when McHale was the color commenter. He was critical of the players and he liked to suggest what was wrong with the team. Taylor noticed and hired him as the teams General Manager. McHale brought in Flip Saunders to coach the team and I give credit for that because, Saunders proved to be the best coach in franchise history. After the team advanced to the Western Conference Finals, things started downward the following season. In 2005, McHale fired Saunders and made himself the head coach.
McHale was the mastermind behind one of the biggest scandals in professional sports history...

Joe Smith Salary Cap Scandal

Photo Credit: Getty Images

He was involved in what is still considered to be the biggest violation of league rules in NBA history when he was caught attempting to circumvent the league’s salary cap.

Smith signed as a free agent with the Timberwolves and it was later discovered that he had signed a series of illegal contracts. The contracts circumvented the league salary cap so the team could sign him for less than his market value and pay him only $1.75 million. Taylor played a big part in the scandal and the punishment handed down by Stern was severe. The team had their first-round draft picks taken away for the next five years. The team was fined $3.5 million and McHale accepted a 9-month leave of absence. The punishment for Taylor’s role in the mess was a one-year suspension. Stern took pity on the team and later returned their 2003 first-round pick, the 26th overall. Taylor cost the team four first-round draft picks, which undoubtedly cost the franchise the ability to build around Kevin Garnett.

David Kahn

In the 2009 NBA Draft, the Wolves had the fifth and sixth overall picks but passed on the chance to draft future NBA league MVP, Stephen Curry, who went seventh.
Kahn was also responsible for mishandling then star- Kevin Love's contract extension. Love had wanted a 5-year max contract offer but, Kahn only offered a 4-year deal with the 4th year being a player option. Love made it clear he would not re-sign with the Wolves when the contract expired and it led to Love asking for a trade. Love was eventually traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers by incoming POBO, Flip Saunders for Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and Thaddeus Young.

In 2009, Taylor signed Kahn to a five-year contract with the first three guaranteed and the remaining two years being one-year team options. After three years, Taylor exercised the 4th year option and said at the time that he “was satisfied” with the job Kahn had done to that point. 

Kevin Garnett

Oh what a mess Taylor has made with the best player the team has ever had.
Kevin Garnett had the Wolves on the brink of the NBA finals in 2004. That was the last time the Wolves were any good. I won't go into all the details regarding Taylor's history with KG as it is common knowledge that the two have not been on good speaking terms in years. A lot of the rift came as a result of Flip Saunders' untimely passing in 2015. Garnett retired after his former teammate, friend and head coach, Sam Mitchell was fired immediately after the 2015-'16 NBA season when Taylor hired Tom Thibodeau. To this day, Taylor has not been able to retire Garnett's number 21 jersey because of the bad blood between the two. 

Tom Thibodeau

Immediately after the 2015-'16 season ended, Taylor fired head coach, Sam Mitchell and replaced him with Tom Thibodeau, who was also given the title of President Of Basketball Operations.

Taylor made Thibodeau do his job while holding both of his arms behind his back. Andrew Wiggins was up for a contract extension and Taylor directed Thibodeau to offer a max-contract. The contract was not deserved and Taylor was criticized after he publicly said he wanted to talk to Wiggins in-person to get his word that he would put forth the effort to work hard and improve as a player. Further evidence that Taylor undermined Thibodeau’s authority with player management, came from Derrick Rose.

In Rose’s book, “I’ll Show You”, he mentions a conversation with Thibodeau:

“With Minnesota, Thibs was honest. Even when he didn’t play me when I first got there, he was just telling me the politics of it. ‘They have certain people here, they feel like they need to play certain people.”

Taylor has meddled with the people he hired to run the day to day basketball operations, making it obvious that Taylor does not know basketball as Kevin Garnett said in an interview on TNT... "Glen doesn't know shit about basketball."

Jimmy Butler

Photo by Zhong Zhi/Getty Images

Jimmy Butler told Tom Thibodeau after the 2017-'18 season he wanted to be traded. Thibs ignored Butler's demand and things came to a head as training camp got started the following season. Butler went public with his trade demand and he made the organization look really bad... More so than usual. 
Glen Taylor got involved and essentially rendered Thibodeau a lame-duck team president. Taylor told Thibodeau to trade Butler when he received a fair offer. The Houston Rockets offered four first-round draft picks for Butler but, Thibodeau rejected the deal. Soon after, a deal had been reached with the Miami Heat but talks broke down at the last minute. Heat President Pat Riley indicated that Thibodeau tried to add to the deal after they had previously agreed to terms of the trade.

At the annual NBA Board of Governors meeting, it was reported that Taylor announced to the other owners that they should go directly to him with any Butler trade offers. Taylor’s actions undermined Thibodeau and his authority.

Ryan Saunders

David Zalubowski/Associated Press

The fallout from the Jimmy Butler mess led to Taylor firing Thibodeau a few months after Butler was traded to the 76ers. Taylor showed his never-ending loyalty to the late Flip Saunders by hiring his son, Ryan Saunders as Head Coach of the Timberwolves.
The move was fairly well received by the fans because of the connection the team and fans had with the Saunders family. Ryan, as popular as he was, just wasn't ready to be a head coach in the NBA. Saunders compiled a won-lost record of just 43-94 (.314 win %) over parts of three seasons and was fired in 2021 after the team started the season with a 7-24 record. Saunders was ultimately fired by...

Gersson Rosas

Elizabeth Flores/Star Tribune via AP

In 2019, Glen Taylor had the fans and even the media believing that his long history of bad hires was over. A week before training camp for the 2021-'22 season opened, it was announced that the Timberwolves had fired President of Basketball Operations, Gersson Rosas. 
Speaking as a fan of the team, I was among the people who thought Rosas was doing a good job as the top boss. I am still of the belief that Rosas was a good judge of talent and did a better job drafting players than any of those who came before him. I give Rosas a pass for the miss he had with drafting Jarret Culver at number 6 overall in the 2019 NBA Draft. Rosas traded Dario Saric to move up to the 6th spot from number 11 and he chose Culver. It has been reported that Culver was not his intended target and he had wanted to draft PG Darius Garland before the Cleveland Cavaliers surprised the league by selecting Garland at number 5. Looking at the players drafted immediately after Culver, Coby White, Jaxon Hayes, Rui Hachimura and Cam Reddish, haven't exactly proven to be much better than Culver.
Rosas did very well in the 2020 draft when he scored with Anthony Edwards and traded the 17th pick in exchange for the 28th pick, Jaden McDaniels and 23rd pick, Leandro Bolmaro.
The reports as to why Rosas was fired say that he made a mess of the front office while making a toxic work place and then came the news that he had had an affair with another Timberwolves employee, who was also married. Not a smart move.
Regardless of the good that Rosas did with constructing the current roster and the bad workplace he created in the front office... He has been deemed a "bad hire" and we have none other than Timberwolves Owner, Glen Taylor to thank for it.

To summarize... Glen Taylor needs to actually give back to those of us who has been forced to endure the embarrassment that is the Minnesota Timberwolves over the 25 years he has owned the team. 

Trolls Disrespect Timberwolves Fans for Criticizing Andrew Wiggins in Recent Fansided.com - Dunkingwithwolves.com Articles Comments Section

Credit: Kirk Goldsberry / Clutchpoints

Below is a two part comment I posted under this morning's Fansided.com/Dunkingwithwolves.com article "Andrew Wiggins" Hot Start Shouldn't be a Surprise" by talented writer Noha Tarranova

[PART 1]
One good game and the Andrew Wiggins propaganda machine, the pro-Wiggins cultist trolls are attempting low IQ "gotchya" replies against the sensible Wiggins critics. If these are the sort of Timberwolves fans that come with Andrew Wiggins, then for the sake of decency alone, Wiggins must be traded!!!

Recent Wiggins BIAS is being aggressively shown through the new pro-Wiggins cultist trolls now more than ever. I wonder who's paying them? The Wiggins promotion campaign is lead by rude, crude and immature trolls.

DunkingWithWolves Blog Intent on Promoting Timberwolves Agenda: Removes Comments "Andrew Wiggins MUST go!!"

Photo credit: Twincities.com

Timberwolves Andrew Wiggins is Woeful

Below is a comment that I wrote this morning under the Player Grades Fansided/Dunkingwithwolves article written by Ben Beecken after the Timberwolves loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
My comment was REMOVED! The only explanation given was "detected as spam." This has happened to me numerous times with comments that criticize Andrew Wiggins.
There's obviously absolutely nothing spam-ish about what I comment. Henceforth, I'll be posting here at NBA Timberolves Talk all of my comments that are taken down at Fansided.com/Dunkingwithwolves.com.

An Open Letter to Minnesota Timberwolf, Kevin Garnett, KG, The Big Ticket: Let The Wolves Retire Number 21

Image credit: USAToday

Minnesota needs KG to allow his

number "21" to be retired. 

Mr. Garnett,

Since you retired in 2016, our beloved Timberwolves gave us, the fans, hope that after 14 seasons, the team would be a regular in the playoff's for years to come. Tom Thibodeau coached the team back to the playoff's after the 2017-18 season and the Wolves even won a game before losing 4 games to 1 to the Houston Rockets. The Timberwolves return to the playoffs was short lived, however and they missed the playoff's this past season.

During the time after you were sent to the Celtics and then since you retired, there have been a few positive things happen with the team. Some of the positives include: Karl-Anthony Towns is now a 2-time All-Star. We had legendary coach Rick Adelman give the team some respectability and as I mentioned already, the team made the playoffs after 14 years. Not many positives though.

The positives have paled in comparison to the negatives... And oh, there have been plenty.
The Wolves traded Kevin Love for the number 1 overall pick in the 2014 draft, Andrew Wiggins. At the time of the trade, it was considered to be a huge positive and we all believed Wiggins would become an All-Star for years to come but, after 5 seasons he has proven to be nothing more than a streaky scorer while taking up a ton of the teams salary cap. Tom Thibodeau was fired mid-season this past year and was replaced by Flip Saunders' son, Ryan. He is young but, like his dad, he is well liked and has the support of the organization and fans.as well. You already knew about Jimmy Butler and him giving the organization a huge black-eye when he forced his way out of town.

Here we are, about to start another NBA season and while the team has a few bright spots to give us hope for the future, we are not expecting the team to make the playoffs this year.
This organization has seen so many bad things happen to it and us fans could really use something positive to happen with the team that would give us all something to be happy and proud of. Something that could happen rather quickly while not taking several years to pan out.
I think the big positive thing, involves you. After all, you are "The Big Ticket."

The fans of the Minnesota Timberwolves would really, REALLY appreciate seeing your number 21 jersey be retired and hanging from the rafters at Target Center along side the only other retired number... 2. We all remember it was worn by your close friend and fan favorite Malik Sealy.

Recently fans have began to wonder why your number has not yet been retired? My own opinion has been that you dislike owner, Glen Taylor (who doesn't "know shit about basketball") as much as I do. So I wrote an article that focused on Taylor needing to do whatever he could to get you on board to retire your number. (Click HERE to read that article)  A fan responded to the article by suggesting that you have been unwilling to work with Taylor to get it done. I don't know if that is accurate or not but, it would mean a lot to all the Timberwolves fans if you could put aside your differences with Taylor long enough to give you and your career a proper ending.

When Flip brought you back to finish your career with the Wolves, it was one of the best things that has happened to the team since it entered the NBA. Us fans never wanted to see you traded so, it meant a lot when you waived your no-trade clause and came back home. Your retirement was quiet and fans were never allowed the chance to say 'thank you for all you have done for the team and the State of Minnesota.' You were just gone. It has left us with an empty feeling. A similar comparison is with another Minnesota sports legend.... Former Minnesota Vikings quarterback, Fran Tarkenton. He was so popular with the fans but, since he retired he has had very little to do with the franchise. If not for former head coach, Bud Grant telling him to show up for important team events, I doubt Tarkenton would have made an appearance at all. It would really be a bitter pill for Wolves fans to swallow if you shun the team as Tarkenton has. Some of us fans take that personally.

The next milestone your legacy will see is you being inducted into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame. It will be embarrassing as a fan if you go into the Hall of Fame before your number is retired by the team you carried for so many years.

Your final season with the team proved how much of an impact you had with the young players. You set the tone for how players prepare for games, how they play and how they conduct themselves in and outside of the Target Center. I understand that you have no interest in being a coach but, your presence is badly needed with this team in some capacity.

I apologize for my rambling on and on as I have. I guess its my way of doing what I can to encourage you put your differences aside with Glen Taylor. Please. We (fans) really need something to cheer about this season and the Timberwolves officially retiring number 21 would be one big positive that will be permanent. Come back to us... Come back to the team, some way, some how. Let us say 'Thank you' for what you have done. It will mean a lot to us all.

Thank you!

Signed,

Wolves Fan In Dallas AKA Jim Watkins

Andrew Wiggins Must be Traded ASAP vs. Benched

The time has come to move on from 

Andrew Wiggins. Enough is enough

Andrew Wiggins days are numbered receiving a paycheck for the privilege of playing professional basketball for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Wiggins has by all measurable standards including the eye test, shown absolutely no evidence of improvement from last year. All of the hyped up "hard work" he's supposedly put into his game (as parrotted by  the Minnesota sportswriters) over the summer should have prepared him for the preseason; yet, he is alarmingly the exact same player and person as last year, just like the FIVE years prior. We've heard from the mainstream Minnesota sports media ad nauseum that Wiggins has worked harder on his game this summer than previous summers; and yet he's proven beyond a reasonable doubt that it was all fake news. The Timberwolves fanbase have been sold a bottle of snake oil with a big picture of Andrew Wiggins smile on it. True Wolves fans should be FURIOUS, for they've been deceived!!!

The best thing for Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas to do for the betterment of the organization is to trade Andrew Wiggins for anything at this point; and make the trade happen quickly and silently.
(click on)