Glen Taylor To Meet With Tim Connelly To Discuss Future

[RealGM Wiretap]

Minnesota Timberwolves primary governor Glen Taylor plans to meet with president of basketball operations Tim Connelly to discuss Connelly's future with the team. Connelly can opt out of his contract in the coming days. The Wolves ownership battle could be a factor in Connelly's decision to stay or to pursue other opportunities.

The Detroit Pistons were rumored to be interested in hiring Connelly to run their front office, but have since hired Trajan Langdon. That came as a relief to Minnesota, as it removed a primary contender, should Connelly opt out of his deal.

Taylor remains in full control, as he still owns the majority stake of the Timberwolves. Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez contend that Taylor acted in bad faith, by backing out of an agreement to sell the team to them. That fight doesn't seem close to a resolution any time soon.

Via Jon Krawczynski and Shams Charania/The Athletic

[njknicks]

This series was about growth for the T'wolves.

They have made great strides this season and showed that the team continues to improve. The issue has been how they close out games - numerous questionable plays and shots.

The other key issue is the frontcourt -- this series exposed Gobert & KAT.

Gobert was rendered relatively ineffective while KAT settled for long range 3pt shots instead of rebounding and getting high quality looks. KAT's effectiveness plummeted each round shooting an abysmal 24% from 3pt range.

Whats next? Perhaps a front-court trade or running it back. The fact that they convincingly beat the Nuggets ( 3 road wins ) speaks volumes of their potential. But that their frontcourt got outworked by Dallas is unacceptable.

[objectivefan]

Agreed that Kat got exposed, but Gobert is what he is, a 100% non-scorer. Dallas made Minnesota run their offense through Gobert, it was brutal to watch Gobert put us numerous shots.

As for Kat, he is 7 feet but plays like he is 6'2", zero inside presence. He prefers to hang around the 3-point line instead of punishing teams inside. He has no inside moves.

[TheCage4]

Towns is passive and Gobert ineffective on the offensive side of the ball. If you can't rely on either come crunch time, why hold on to either?

There would be any number of suitors for both players. The Wovles brass should absolutely kick tires on multiple trade scenarios.

[the_process]

Wolves did a great job overcoming their albatross to beat Denver.

But he was too much of a weight against Dallas.

True playoff success will not come with Gobert. They need to find a way to move off that deal. Then just let Towns be a stretch 5 and allow Reid to go nuts at the 4.

[MitchB3]

Wolves did a great job overcoming their albatross to beat Denver.

But he was too much of a weight against Dallas.

True playoff success will not come with Gobert. They need to find a way to move off that deal. Then just let Towns be a stretch 5 and allow Reid to go nuts at the 4.

Unfortunately, they need to get rid of Kat, more than Gobert. I would start Naz at 4, and use Kat's contract to get me 2 pieces, a PG and maybe another C.

Also, the League helped with beating the Nuggets. But let's not talk about that.

[puja21]

Agreed that Kat got exposed, but Gobert is what he is, a 100% non-scorer. Dallas made Minnesota run their offense through Gobert, it was brutal to watch Gobert put us numerous shots.

As for Kat, he is 7 feet but plays like he is 6'2", zero inside presence. He prefers to hang around the 3-point line instead of punishing teams inside. He has no inside moves.

Antoine Walker 2.0 (except KAT actually a capable 3 point shooter)

KAT had an over the shoulder and back to basket game as a young player, same as Toine did.

For both players it got less and less used every season.

Walker got to the point where he didn't even have FT shooting confidence.

[the_process]

Wolves did a great job overcoming their albatross to beat Denver.

But he was too much of a weight against Dallas.

True playoff success will not come with Gobert. They need to find a way to move off that deal. Then just let Towns be a stretch 5 and allow Reid to go nuts at the 4.

Unfortunately, they need to get rid of Kat, more than Gobert. I would start Naz at 4, and use Kat's contract to get me 2 pieces, a PG and maybe another C.

Also, the League helped with beating the Nuggets. But let's not talk about that.

You want to trade Towns too? Have at it. But the problem is Gobert.

[D21]

Wolves did a great job overcoming their albatross to beat Denver.

But he was too much of a weight against Dallas.

True playoff success will not come with Gobert. They need to find a way to move off that deal. Then just let Towns be a stretch 5 and allow Reid to go nuts at the 4.

Unfortunately, they need to get rid of Kat, more than Gobert. I would start Naz at 4, and use Kat's contract to get me 2 pieces, a PG and maybe another C.

Also, the League helped with beating the Nuggets. But let's not talk about that.

You want to trade Towns too? Have at it. But the problem is Gobert.

It's so funny to see all these people being sure that the main problem is Gobert, I don't know if it's because of media not explaining his real impact like they do for some players, but instead of being a supposed liability on offense, strangely:

- for all playoffs games, Gobert has the best Offensive Net rating of the team (to go with the best Defensive Net rating).
Yes, their offense was at its best with Gobert on the floor!

- for the DAL series, where he was far from being perfect, he was the 3rd best Off Net rating just behind Alexander-Walker and McDaniels, and the 3rd best Def Net rating just behind Alexander-Walker and Anderson.

I don't know how people can watch games and then being so far away from what really happened on the floor. It was so easy to see that most of the time, they were even more dominated when Gobert was on the bench, and numbers prove it, they were horrible when he was on the bench.

Over the 5 games Vs DAL, MIN have dominated DAL by +10pts per 100 possessions with Gobert (2nd best behind Alexander-Walker), but they were -13pts per 100 possessions with Reid.

Whole playoffs games? +16pts per 100 poss. with Gobert compared to without him
The next player is Edwards at +10pts per 100 poss.
KAT? -10pts per 100 poss.
Reid? -12.5pts per 100 poss.
Anderson? -16pts per 100 poss.

[the_process]

Unfortunately, they need to get rid of Kat, more than Gobert. I would start Naz at 4, and use Kat's contract to get me 2 pieces, a PG and maybe another C.

Also, the League helped with beating the Nuggets. But let's not talk about that.

You want to trade Towns too? Have at it. But the problem is Gobert.

It's so funny to see all these people being sure that the main problem is Gobert, I don't know if it's because of media not explaining his real impact like they do for some players, but instead of being a supposed liability on offense, strangely:

- for all playoffs games, Gobert has the best Offensive Net rating of the team (to go with the best Defensive Net rating).
Yes, their offense was at its best with Gobert on the floor!

- for the DAL series, where he was far from being perfect, he was the 3rd best Off Net rating just behind Alexander-Walker and McDaniels, and the 3rd best Def Net rating just behind Alexander-Walker and Anderson.

I don't know how people can watch games and then being so far away from what really happened on the floor. It was so easy to see that most of the time, they were even more dominated when Gobert was on the bench, and numbers prove it, they were horrible when he was on the bench.

Over the 5 games Vs DAL, MIN have dominated DAL by +10pts per 100 possessions with Gobert (2nd best behind Alexander-Walker), but they were -13pts per 100 possessions with Reid.

Whole playoffs games? +16pts per 100 poss. with Gobert
The next player is Edwards at +10pts per 100 poss.
KAT? -10pts per 100 poss.
Reid? -12.5pts per 100 poss.
Anderson? -16pts per 100 poss.

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Numbers out of context don't mean anything. He keeps having these great advanced stats and his teams get murdered in the playoffs as guys hunt him on defense and also force him to try and score.

[haste10176]

You want to trade Towns too? Have at it. But the problem is Gobert.

It's so funny to see all these people being sure that the main problem is Gobert, I don't know if it's because of media not explaining his real impact like they do for some players, but instead of being a supposed liability on offense, strangely:

- for all playoffs games, Gobert has the best Offensive Net rating of the team (to go with the best Defensive Net rating).
Yes, their offense was at its best with Gobert on the floor!

- for the DAL series, where he was far from being perfect, he was the 3rd best Off Net rating just behind Alexander-Walker and McDaniels, and the 3rd best Def Net rating just behind Alexander-Walker and Anderson.

I don't know how people can watch games and then being so far away from what really happened on the floor. It was so easy to see that most of the time, they were even more dominated when Gobert was on the bench, and numbers prove it, they were horrible when he was on the bench.

Over the 5 games Vs DAL, MIN have dominated DAL by +10pts per 100 possessions with Gobert (2nd best behind Alexander-Walker), but they were -13pts per 100 possessions with Reid.

Whole playoffs games? +16pts per 100 poss. with Gobert
The next player is Edwards at +10pts per 100 poss.
KAT? -10pts per 100 poss.
Reid? -12.5pts per 100 poss.
Anderson? -16pts per 100 poss.

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Numbers out of context don't mean anything. He keeps having these great advanced stats and his teams get murdered in the playoffs as guys hunt him on defense and also force him to try and score.

KAT was an ever bigger issue trade KAT for KD you win Trade KAT for Lebron you win.. I agree gobert can be a liability but KAT was the biggest issue

[D21]

You want to trade Towns too? Have at it. But the problem is Gobert.

It's so funny to see all these people being sure that the main problem is Gobert, I don't know if it's because of media not explaining his real impact like they do for some players, but instead of being a supposed liability on offense, strangely:

- for all playoffs games, Gobert has the best Offensive Net rating of the team (to go with the best Defensive Net rating).
Yes, their offense was at its best with Gobert on the floor!

- for the DAL series, where he was far from being perfect, he was the 3rd best Off Net rating just behind Alexander-Walker and McDaniels, and the 3rd best Def Net rating just behind Alexander-Walker and Anderson.

I don't know how people can watch games and then being so far away from what really happened on the floor. It was so easy to see that most of the time, they were even more dominated when Gobert was on the bench, and numbers prove it, they were horrible when he was on the bench.

Over the 5 games Vs DAL, MIN have dominated DAL by +10pts per 100 possessions with Gobert (2nd best behind Alexander-Walker), but they were -13pts per 100 possessions with Reid.

Whole playoffs games? +16pts per 100 poss. with Gobert
The next player is Edwards at +10pts per 100 poss.
KAT? -10pts per 100 poss.
Reid? -12.5pts per 100 poss.
Anderson? -16pts per 100 poss.

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Numbers out of context don't mean anything. He keeps having these great advanced stats and his teams get murdered in the playoffs as guys hunt him on defense and also force him to try and score.

I checked because it was making no sense that MIN were +10pts/100 poss. with Gobert, which was not what I saw while watching the games. The mistake is that numbers were the Net rating difference (+10pts diff between with the player compared to without), not the Net rating.
So Gobert was about -3.1pts/100 poss. Vs DAL, but as MIN was -13pts/100 poss without him, it gives the +10pts difference.
In the end, MIN was dominated by DAL with Gobert, but not a lot, and less than without him. And only Alexander-Walker had a better impact.

These numbers, or even simpler like Plus/Minus can say different thing, but when you compare the ones for guys in the main rotation only, and that one player is ahead of all the other, it's almost impossible that he would be the main problem.

[MitchB3]

Wolves did a great job overcoming their albatross to beat Denver.

But he was too much of a weight against Dallas.

True playoff success will not come with Gobert. They need to find a way to move off that deal. Then just let Towns be a stretch 5 and allow Reid to go nuts at the 4.

Unfortunately, they need to get rid of Kat, more than Gobert. I would start Naz at 4, and use Kat's contract to get me 2 pieces, a PG and maybe another C.

Also, the League helped with beating the Nuggets. But let's not talk about that.

You want to trade Towns too? Have at it. But the problem is Gobert.

Kat is the one that will bring you back something without having to give up more picks.