Timberwolves – Page 66 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Zimmer Predicts ‘Chip on Shoulder’ Saints

Posted on October 22, 2018October 24, 2018 by David Shama

Enjoy a Monday notes column that includes the Vikings, Gophers and Timberwolves.

There is plenty of advance intrigue surrounding next Sunday’s Vikings-Saints game at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Saints return here no doubt seeking some redemption on last January’s “Minneapolis Miracle” that bumped them out of the playoffs. Then during the offseason Tom Pelissero from NFL Network reported in a March story the Vikings inquired about legendary Saints QB Drew Brees before eventually signing Kirk Cousins. Count on comparisons being made Sunday between the two.

Then, too, and most importantly, the game Sunday is an opportunity to judge two teams that could meet again in the playoffs. The Saints, 5-1, have the second best record in the NFC behind the 7-0 Rams. The 4-2-1 Vikings are trying to stay ahead of the 3-2-1 Packers in the NFC North.

The Saints are known as a gritty team under the direction of head coach Sean Payton. “I think the Saints will come in with a chip on their shoulder because that’s who they are,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said this afternoon at his news conference heard on KFXN Radio. “They are very aggressive on defense. They’re aggressive offensively. They’ve got a good football team.”

Asked about the 39-year-old Brees, Zimmer said, “This guy is amazing. When you talk about Hall of Fame quarterbacks, obviously, he’s going to be one. But he’s very cerebral, accurate. He’s moving well in the pocket. …”

The Gophers, 53-28 losers to Nebraska on Saturday, are giving up an average of 43.3 points per game against Big Ten opponents. Meanwhile, former Gopher coach Tracy Claeys is in his first season at Washington State as defensive coordinator and deserves a lot of credit for helping the nationally ranked Cougars to a 6-1 start.

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor was asked Friday night by Sports Headliners if he was embarrassed for young fans after Jimmy Butler’s profanity-laced practice earlier this month. “Let’s just say I wish some of those things were handled a little bit better,” he said.

Butler, one of the NBA’s best two-way players, wants to be traded but Taylor said he is not handling inquiries from other teams. He is deferring to general manager Scott Layden. “At this point that’s his job,” Taylor said. “He’s out there doing it.”

Taylor wouldn’t say if he expects his club to move Butler elsewhere before the February 7 NBA trade deadline. He acknowledged disappointment that Butler—the most important player in leading his franchise to the playoffs last spring for the first time since 2004—doesn’t want to continue beyond one season in Minneapolis.

“It’s a shame because I was looking forward to this season because I had the highest goals for it,” Taylor said. “I just thought we would be a really good thing.

“And I think we still can but we just somehow got to make sure that a couple of things (happen). We’ll have to do a good trade, and a number of members of our team will have to step up. We still could have a really good year.”

For that to happen the Wolves, with a 1-2 record so far this season, need to fix a leaky defense. Counting their final exhibition matchup before the regular season started last week, the Wolves have given up 143, 112, 123 and 140 points in their last four games.

Despite Butler’s nasty preseason behavior, the Wolves announced a sellout attendance of 18,978 at their home opener Friday night. Ticket King was promoting $27 tickets for the game last week.

During pregame player introductions Butler received an earful of boos from the home opener crowd. Tom Thibodeau, the coach and president of basketball operations, might have been targeted with even louder jeers.

The crowd warmed to Butler, though, as he led the team to a win over the Cavs. Almost as usual, he was the Wolves’ best player at both ends of the court.

The Sports Illustrated NBA preview issue, out last week, quotes a rival scout as being skeptical of the Wolves making the playoffs—and not just because of the trade drama involving Butler. “Their floor could be pretty low because their roster isn’t balanced well positionally and has a lot of holes,” the scout said in S.I.

The issue included a ranking of the NBA’s 30 teams according to “entertainment value.” Criteria included “projected success, style of play, firepower, age, injuries, coaching and personality.” The Wolves landed at No. 22 (“…Butler circus left them dead on arrival.”) The NBA champion Warriors got the No. 1 spot, just ahead of the new LeBron James-led Lakers.

Paige Bueckers, the junior point guard at Hopkins, excelled last season for the Royals and in AAU competition during the summer. Among girls, she might be the best young teenage point guard in the world. Legendary Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma is all-in on recruiting her.

Remember “The Crusher?” The former professional wrestler was hugely popular in Minneapolis and other places in the Midwest decades ago. Now a memorial bronze statue is going up in his hometown of South Milwaukee. How about a statue of Minnesota wrestling legend Verne Gagne?

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Wolves Mess with Flip’s Rebuild Vision

Posted on October 17, 2018October 17, 2018 by David Shama

Flip Saunders had so many friends and admirers in Minnesota. Many of them must be thinking the same thing that is going through my mind as the Timberwolves await their season opener in San Antonio tonight against the Spurs:

Flip would not be happy with the state of the franchise he rebuilt before unexpectedly passing away at age 60 on October 29, 2015.

The Wolves are a mess and an embarrassment three years after Flip had started a process to try and position them for annual playoff runs and perhaps one day an NBA championship. He had been hired by franchise owner Glen Taylor to resurrect the franchise in 2013 and by the fall of 2015 the roster was young but promising led by high potential talents Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine, plus promising youthful role players like Tyus Jones.

Now the Wolves have an older, less promising and seemingly disgruntled roster, mostly because of Tom Thibodeau, who wields similar power to what Flip had. Thibodeau traded for temperamental Jimmy Butler in 2017—sending away LaVine, Kris Dunn (2016 first rounder, fifth pick) and a 2017 first round draft choice to the Bulls. After one season in Minnesota, Butler wants out and is willing to do and say extreme things to agitate Thibodeau and Taylor enough to trade him away.

The Bulls thought enough of LaVine, 23, to sign the shooting guard to a four-year, $78 million new deal during the last offseason. Dunn, 24, improved in his second season in the NBA, averaging 13.4 points and 6 assists as the Bulls’ point guard. Chicago used the first round draft choice to acquire Lauri Markkanen, a forward who was one of the NBA’s best rookies last season.

Bulls fans could be chuckling over the trade with the Wolves because their team added young potential in Dunn, LaVine and Markkanen. The deal allowed the Bulls to move on from Butler who reportedly was high maintenance in Chicago, too. Thibobeau gambled on a high quality two-way talent in the 29-year-old Butler who reportedly wants out of a Timberwolves uniform because the organization hasn’t shown him enough appreciation.

Butler didn’t participate in any preseason games as he dramatized his desire to be traded, but tonight he is expected to play in the regular season opener before the Wolves come home to meet the Cavs on Friday at Target Center. He is part of a roster that Thibodeau has reshuffled to make more experienced, not only with Butler but also Luol Deng, Taj Gibson, and Anthony Tolliver, who are all 33 years old, and Derrick Rose and Jeff Teague, who are both 30. Those are all starters or key contributors off the bench.

Flip Saunders (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Timberwolves)

Flip had a vision of stockpiling young talent and taking a patient approach. It appears Thibodeau has been intent for awhile on a commitment to win as soon as possible. If Flip had a five year plan, Thibodeau’s win now approach seems more like five months.

The problem is things are going in reverse with Butler being critical of Wolves teammates and wanting out. He reportedly expressed his desire over the summer to move on, and if true Thibodeau should have traded him awhile ago rather than put the franchise through the current drama.

We will know before long what kind of future Butler has with the Wolves—if any—and the type of season the team will experience in 2018-19, hopefully adding value to the roster by trading him. Butler is a top 15 NBA player and he was the difference maker last season in the Wolves making the playoffs for the first time since 2004 but it’s nearly impossible to believe he will be on the roster when the league’s trading deadline comes up on February 7.

During this preseason, without Butler and with all the negativity surrounding the club, the Wolves didn’t look anything like a playoff team. At times they appeared downright disinterested and awful like in their final preseason game last Friday night in Milwaukee when they gave up 84 first half points to the Bucks.

Flip would have been upset watching that. He had invested so much of his basketball life into Minnesota’s professional team. His first round of duty with the Wolves started in the mid-1990s when he was hired in the front office but soon he became head coach. He marched the sidelines during the franchise’s best years and was unfairly dismissed as coach during the 2004-05 season.

When Flip came back to the Wolves about eight years later he was in a power position as president of basketball operations. I think if Flip had lived he would have eventually put together a group of investors, perhaps including Kevin Garnett, to buy the team from Taylor. Flip was a part-owner of the franchise at the time of his death.

That move would have been the ultimate step in Flip’s basketball life. The former University of Minnesota point guard was a basketball grinder as a player, executive and coach. He worked his way up through the lower levels of the game and even when living away from Minnesota kept a home here.

Flip loved the people and basketball in this state, including the Gophers and Timberwolves. He was always ready to do whatever was needed, whether it was Xs and Os, college scouting, NBA trades, pitching potential owners, or marketing his team to the fans and media with public appearances and news gatherings.

Flip had a long term plan to finally make the Timberwolves great but there is doubt whether those who have followed him, primarily Thibodeau, are up to carrying on his legacy.

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Thumbs Down on Wolves’ Jimmy Butler

Posted on September 23, 2018September 26, 2018 by David Shama

The Timberwolves play a preseason game at home on October 5. Their first regular season game at Target Center is October 19.

Jimmy Butler should get an earful from fans at those games—if he is not traded to another NBA team by either of those dates.

The Wolves’ mega-paid star (reportedly near $20 million for the coming year) has decided after one season in Minnesota he doesn’t want to play here and wishes to be traded. Jimmy, where’s the loyalty in honoring the commitment the Wolves organization made to you including the remaining year on your contract?

It was about 15 months ago that this town first embraced Butler with a huge fan turnout and welcome event at the Mall of America. Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau said then of Butler: “He’s a great person. He’s a great leader. We’re thrilled to have him.”

A few years ago Thibodeau coached Butler with the Bulls and helped take him from a late first round draft choice to an All-NBA guard. “Thibs has molded me into the player that I am today,” Butler said at the MOA event.

Butler is not expected at media day on Monday and it will not be surprising if he doesn’t report for the team’s first practice on Tuesday. Internet accounts say Butler’s unwillingness to play for the Wolves is motivated by his dissatisfaction with younger teammates Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins.

Butler, 29, also reportedly was critical of younger teammates when he played for the Bulls. Apparently, instead of being a role model for less experienced players, Butler prefers to move on from teams where he doesn’t like the locker room.

Maybe Thibodeau should get Butler, Towns and Wiggins in a room for a “come to Jesus meeting.” That’s what former NBA champion coach Bill Fitch told Sports Headliners he would do.

Fitch suggested he would meet all day, if necessary, with the players. They could even “agree to disagree” on things but the outcome would be to reach a place where the players could make the team better.

Fitch was an old-fashioned taskmaster when coaching the Celtics to an NBA title. He didn’t hesitate to command players to do extra running for their transgressions. He suggested that measure could be appropriate with the Wolves’ soap opera.

What if Butler doesn’t report to training camp because of his trade wishes? Fitch said the Wolves should start fining Butler.

A couple of days ago Thibodeau reportedly didn’t want to trade Butler, while owner Glen Taylor was supposedly telling other NBA teams to call him for such talks. If true, that kind of split in the organization is dysfunctional. Taylor hired Thibodeau as president of basketball operations and coach to make the difficult decisions, even in times of crisis.

Now it’s said the two are in agreement they need to scramble to trade Butler, who becomes an unrestricted free agent after next season. He has left the Wolves with minimal leverage in trade discussions with teams knowing they could get him next summer without having to give up players they have now.

The best chance of moving Butler soon, or even in coming months, could be to a bubble team that sees acquiring him as a big move toward advancing into or going deep in the playoffs. But that raises the question of whether a team with an already talent-shy roster has enough assets to interest the Wolves.

The Wolves’ best move might be to dump Butler soon in exchange for draft choices. Getting him out of the locker room and off the court looks like it will bring peace among players and fans. At that point the Wolves would have to conclude their 2017 trade bringing Butler here from Chicago was a mistake, sending three players and a high first round draft choice to the Bulls.

When Butler came to Minneapolis it looked like a big part of his motivation would be playing on a winning team. The Wolves were a much better team with him in the lineup and they made the playoffs last spring for the first time since 2004. Minnesota had a 47-35 regular season record. In the 59 games Butler could start when not injured, the Wolves’ record was 37-22.

Butler’s minutes per game of 36.7 were third most in the NBA. He ranked 15th in league scoring (22.2 points per game), 29th in assists (4.9) and fourth in steals (a career-best 1.97). After Butler’s seventh NBA season and first with Minnesota, he was named to the NBA All-Defensive second team.

There’s no doubting Butler’s all-around skills and value. The doubting now is about his loyalty and accountability to the team and fans. The Wolves invested heavily in Butler and so too did the fans, including season ticket holders who paid thousands of dollars and a lot of time to watch him and teammates.

The LA Clippers, New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets, the three teams Butler reportedly has expressed interest in being traded to, all missed the playoffs last season. If the Wolves have Butler, those teams don’t have the potential to win this coming season like Minnesota does.

Maybe Butler wants to be in the glamour cities of Los Angeles and New York to do something in business related to his interest in clothing and fashion. All I know is he didn’t take long to surprise and disappoint a lot of people inside and outside Target Center.

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