RealGM

I had way too much spare time today and wrote this up. I am going to post it and hope I don't get lambasted for its length, among other qualities. I have feelings, and here they are:

The important thing to keep in mind with the Wolves rebuild is what we actually want out of it. Do we want an entertaining and profitable team that is competitive, or do we want a perennial championship contender. Ie: Suns vs. Spurs. Khan clearly(all rhetoric aside) wants the Suns. I want the Spurs. I would rather have Championships(at the very least of the Conference variety) than entertaining teams and first round exits. I got enough of those with the Wolves in the Garnett era.

At this point I think we need to build logically, keep strengths and upgrade weaknesses, never sell low out of frustration, but sell timely. Utah and the Spurs need to be our models. Both are small markets that have been good forever and have been in the finals quite often. Both were lucky enough to get superstars(So were we but alas....), but what made the difference for them were the role players. Both of those teams have guys come out of nowhere seemingly every year. The other hallmarks are toughness and team wide high BBIQ's. Something speaking well for the Wolves is the trouble they gave perhaps the toughest team in the league, Utah, this year. Also speaking well for them: Rambis and Laimbeer. Is it possible to have higher tough guy pedigree in your coaching?

The reality with superstars is that you get them or you don't, and having them is no guarantee of winning(hello Raptors and recent Heat). The difference between the Spurs and Utah and those teams are intelligent organizational stability, including amazing Coaches, systems that emphasize defense and toughness, and the ability to find stars and excellent role players from surprising places, which I contend is much an offshoot of the first two. They know what they want in their system and are better able to find it that way. The ultimate result is that when you do get your stars you win, and win big, and they stick around instead of bolting for greener pastures. I think in the current NBA a team with the amount of assets going forward like the wolves will have a shot at it if they can have those qualities.

The question for all of you becomes can/do the new era wolves have the following qualities:

1.Intelligent Organizational Stability
2.Great Coach
3.Winning System
4.Ability to find surprising talent

My guesses:

1. I definitely think that khan is smart and is coming at it from the right angle. Every time I hear someone bash him about taking to many point guards in the last draft(Bill Simmons) I want to smack them on the ear for being ignorant. How many point guards did the wolves have on their roster this year Bill? Basically two. Bill. We had a need. He filled it plus some and from there used BPA to acquire future assets. Now we can move on to the next need. Having said that, I am worried about his desire to have a running team and the potential conflict between that, his ego, and what Rambis wants. I love watching the suns, but like I said...I want the spurs, and I hope Rambis does to. Which leads us to my second question.
2. I do not know if Rambis will be a great coach. I love that he hired Laimbeer, but like has been said on this board before: if the Rambis we saw this year is the real Rambis than yikes. I chose to be optimistic that it is not.
3. People keep knocking the triangle, but I like that they are trying to run a system. Once everything gets settled I believe it will make it easier to target role players that match needs. Having said that I don't know what the plan will be defensively. I hope for toughness and fierce D. Who knows.
4. So far it is to soon to judge on the surprising talent additions. Kahn missed on Jennings and Curry, but that is a subjective and tough call, especially with so little time and no coaching staff. I like Ellington, and I have not found a reasonable person yet who thinks he was a bad pick up. Darko also was a risk and fits the profile well. Your thoughts?

Well said.

I think the biggest problem with projecting what the team will become is one of the points you kind of touched on; we don't really know what Kahn or Rambis is like. For all of the poor coaching there were examples of Rambis having a plan, including things like limiting Ellington to minutes he'd play on a contender and trying to get Jefferson and Love to work, atleast defensively with Hollins. At times it seemed he just didn't have the personnel to create his ideas which was a sad but necessary fact about this season.

And Kahn is even harder with a lot of things kind of falling on both sides of the lines. There were rumours of a Flynn for Evans trade if the team could have gotten James Johnson at 18, but that fell through, and most wonder if Kahn had known Sessions would be available maybe Flynn would have been passed on. But like you mentioned he did make some good moves, signing Sessions to that contract being one and identifying Milicic as the exact kind of player they need another, but then McHale made a few good moves in the beginning and at the end so it's not a great way to see what Kahn's going to be like. However, after McHale I can't see how Kahn could be any worse so there's some optimism and the way he talks he seems to be really dedicated to the job and improving the team, something McHale never looked like he was.

I completely agree that a star won't win a championship on his own. Even Lebron couldn't do it and if he can't, nobody can. There needs to be a solid team put together that can play off each other and knows their roles and how they fit in with said star. Oklahoma is an awesome example of this.

But to go through your check list;

1. As long as Kahn and Rambis stick with each other and the organization sticks with them, then they should have stability at least. Like I've said Kahn is hard to judge but all I don't want to see is the team fall into the same revolving door of coaches it did for a while. The longer you have a coach, like Greg P or Sloan, the better idea both GM and Coach have on what players succeed in their system.
2. Not enough to tell with Rambis
3. I'm glad you brought this up because it is important. I know most will say the Triangle is only successful because of the guys that played it, like Shaq, Kobe, Jordan, Pippen, etc, but it really is a system designed around winning. The players needed to effectively run it are high IQ, unselfish guys and these types of players are what you'd call "winners", who're smart enough to put the team before themselves. This is something this team in particular never had outside of Garnett, with guys like Davis and Blount being little more then thugs. No matter what people say about Denver, this team had a mean streak for a number of years that outweighed anything this side of the JailBlazers.
4. I'm optimistic Kahn has the ability to do this. Getting a guy like Ellington so late was good and outside of Blair I'd say he was the best player taken with the latest pick, if that makes sense. Identifying Darko was also a stroke of genius at this point and while I know he won't be much I think they've found something in Stemsma as well. Finally, his patience probably lead to them getting Sessions, who I think most like more then Flynn at the moment. Overall, I think we've begun to see what he can do when he has a clear idea of what's needed. The draft last year was kind of a crap shoot without a coach last year and I think to come out of it with Rubio was a godsend, but now Kahn knows what the team needs and what works and can act accordingly. I expect one or two picks or moves may be puzzling at the time, but I think they'll work out in the end.

All in all, I think this team has a good chance of being great down the road but it's really hard to tell at the moment. So sit back and enjoy the ride.

I think you've done a good job pointing out the two teams that we have a chance to emulate for success. We can never be the Lakers, who can just throw money around, because they can charge huge prices for NBA tickets. Until this year, the Spurs and Jazz have had a very good business model for staying under the lux, and developed their own advantages (Spurs - foreign scouting and Jazz - Jerry Sloan, imo). MIN is a bigger market than either, but it should be pointed out that we are a multi-sport town with four professional franchises and a large college sports team that competes for fan support. I have hopes though that if the product is good, that the fans will come and revenues will increase. We're fortunate to have a wealthy owner who has demonstrated a willingness to pay for a potential winner.

Regarding Rambis and Kahn, I agree its too soon to tell. I was pleased to see Kahn's many off-season trades because, while many of them were only slight improvements, it demonstrated to me that he is at least working hard. I think its too soon to tell on Rambis, as well. This season was one for rebuilding, so let's see where we're standing after the summer, and perhaps more importantly, if the team is showing signs of success by the 2011 trade deadline. For now, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Good post.

I think another question is how can we compete in our Conference. We would have had to win 35 games just to have as many wins as 8th seed OKC. If we tried competing next season we would fall right out of the gate. If Kahn can successfully convince Taylor to rebuild for another year than I think we could have a solid team in 2011. If we want even a legitimate chance of competing against teams like the Lakers than we're going to have to rebuild (again). Sorry, I just don't think too many teams that finish with the second worst record and collapse at the very end of the season have a shot at being a playoff contender.

Oh, and the fact that the Spurs drafted Tiago Splitter makes me want him even more.

If they have two right picks in the next two Drafts and if Ricky Rubio arrives in 2011 ...

...why not?

I appreciate the excellent feedback. The other guy I might consider as better but later pick would be Chase Budinger. He filled up the stat sheet in college and got better every year. I was surprised he dropped so far. Could be the hair and freckles. The world is tough on gingers.