Wolves Set Behavior Expectations for Season
Be good or be gone. Timberwolves owner
Glen Taylor told Sports Headliners recently that he has
expectations about proper behavior by his players and also for team
leadership. The Wolves, led by coach Randy Wittman, will trade
or release players who aren’t team oriented, Taylor said.
Taylor, who traveled with the team over
the weekend to training camp in Turkey, is anticipating a different
locker room this season than in the past. “The last couple years we
just put up with some behaviors we shouldn’t have,” Taylor said. “And
if I had known about it, we probably wouldn’t have. …”
Asked to offer an example, Taylor said
players were “degrading” others in the locker room.
Years ago Wolves players like Sam Mitchell and Ervin Johnson would stop that kind of
behavior, Taylor said. Although he wanted Kevin Garnett to be a
verbal leader, the super star forward, now traded to Boston, didn’t fit
the part.
“We just found out that wasn’t the type of
leadership that K.G. had,” Taylor said. “I think a lot of people looked
to him then, and by him not saying anything it almost like condones it.
…It wasn’t what he meant but he just didn’t see it as his place or
appropriate for him to step into that. So his type of leadership was
I’ll go out on the floor and play hard, and you guys should play hard.
…We found that out too late and then we didn’t have the other people (to
assume leadership). …”
Taylor expects some of the leadership role to come from 34-year-old
Juwan Howard, acquired during the off-season in a trade with
Houston. After the Garnett trade, Howard asked to leave the Wolves for
another team and that could still happen. Either way, Taylor has
already told second year players Randy Foye and Craig Smith,
along with Al Jefferson, a fourth year key player acquired in the
Garnett trade, that they need to step up as a “collective” leadership
group.
With past behavior problems and the fact
the Wolves have eight players 24 or younger on the 17-man training camp
roster,Taylor is going to be pro-active this month. On the overseas
trip (the Wolves will play an exhibition game in Turkey and another in
London) Taylor plans to meet individually or in small groups with all
the players. His two topics will be community service and being team
oriented. Taylor wants his players to be good citizens off the court,
giving to the community with the many opportunities available to high
profile pro athletes.
The Wolves owner also wants to “reinforce”
a message from Wittman to be a solid teammate. “The importance of
being a team member, and that we can’t say that in a meeting we’re going
to be a team member and then go out on the floor and act somewhat
different, be critical of other people, be selfish on the floor…,”
Taylor said.
He also
said the franchise’s long range goal is an NBA championship. This season
is important, he explained, for determining who will become the team’s
leaders and best players. It will be a process as the Wolves find out
if Foye, Smith, Jefferson and whoever else are the ones they need to
return this franchise to championship contention. Others who may emerge
include Gerald Green, also acquired in the Boston trade, and No.
1 pick Corey Brewer.