Yahoo tears McHale and Taylor a new one

[DG4L]

What an embarrassing organization the Wolves have become under these two...Must read article.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=a ... &type=lgns

[hijacktheparade]

Brutal, but I don't think many of us would disagree.

[RD&KG2]

watch the video on the right of the article. Who do you think the negative players are other than Shad?

[Basti]

Ociepka had been raised in Chicago, had been a successful high school coach and had family there. He wanted to take the Bulls job. For low-level assistants, this is a common transaction. Everyone expected the Wolves to give the blessing and let Ociepka go. It was common courtesy.

Well, the Wolves were willing, but there was one condition, two league sources said: Management wanted five airline tickets as compensation. This way, the Wolves could interview replacements. No one had ever heard of such a low-rent, cheap move, but whatever. This is how Minnesota runs its operation.

somehow that got me löaughing really hard but yeah overall I pretty much agree with it.

[karch34]

I agree with all of it.

[collin_k41]

Wow...harsh but true.

[C.lupus]

Meh. Most of it is true enough but I hate articles like this that are written with such an obvious bias. Anything Taylor or McHale could do would be interpreted negatively by people like this. Might as well be written by a RealGMer. Yes Taylor and Co. have made some boneheaded mistakes over the years but do we have to rehash every one every time the franchise makes a move?

I actually think this is a good move. I also think Taylor is getting sick and tired of the McHale tenure. This is his way of ending it. He took the unilateral decision making away from McHale last year and has fired Wittman and demoted McHale to the bench this year. Taylor's next move will be very telling but, so far, he is heading in the right direction.

[B Calrissian]

watch the video on the right of the article. Who do you think the negative players are other than Shad?

My guess would be Al. He has seemed to get upset with his team mates more often than last year.

[shrink]

I wrote this -- I doubt anyone agrees with me:

I realize its easy to write a column making McHale the scapegoat for everything that's bad in Minnesota. However, you need to take a closer look.

The traditional, "McHale never surrounded KG with talent, he only got into the play-offs argument" is wrong. Despite Garnett having the largest contract in NBA history, KG played with no fewer than six all Stars. The problem wasn't the talent, the problem was that the talent was either injured (Brandon, Szczerbiak, Cassell, Sprewell) by the time the play-offs rolled around, or had gone off on their own ego trips (Marbury, Cassell, Sprewell). Are injuries McHale's fault? Shouldn't the players bear some responsibility for their attitudes?

McHale's moves haven't been all horrible. In ten years with KG here, McHale was never allowed a chance to rebuild, because every year it was "why doesn't KG have a ring?" With no good picks, either from play-off appearances or McHale falling on the sword for the Sam Mitchell incident that Taylor now admits is his fault, McHale had nothing to bargain with. He was forced to make desperate moves at the end, trading for players with talent but huge flaws, like Ricky Davis and Mark Blount. To keep KG happy, he gave long contracts to his friends Trenton Hassell and Troy Hudson.

His best trade, a publicly discontent Marbury for All Star Terrell Brandon and a lottery pick, is a deal you never see today. However, the KG trade (which you give him no credit for, and seems like a win/win for both sides) put him in a position to finally rebuild. Its hard to complain that older, overpaid, and often "bad-attitude" players are gone, and the size of the renovation is staggering. Gone are Mark Blount, Ricky Davis, Trenton Hassell, Troy Hudson, Antoine Walker, Greg Buckner, Juwon Howard, Mike James, and Marko Jaric, and in their place are talented, but untested youth, four protected 1st rounders, and huge amounts of cap space.

These players may or may not work out. Is it them? Is it the coach? We'll soon see, but for the first time in a long time, there is a chance at optimism in Minnesota. Your article ignored all of this, going for the easy scapegoat -- McHale. It was lazy journalism.

[PeeDee]

Sam Mitchell = Joe Smith?

[B Calrissian]

Great write up Shrink. I think the Love&Miller/Mayo trade will end up working out for him too. Miller is the type of guy that every team wants but when McHale gets him it is hardly brought up as a positive.

[shrink]

Sam Mitchell = Joe Smith?

Whoops! I knew that didn't feel right, when I replaced in Sam's name for Al Harrington.

Look, I understand most people are going to disagree with me. It has been physically painful to watch this team the last few games. However, any team that can beat the Pistons by 20, like they did only two weeks ago, has some talent on the team. I think removing Wittman was the right move. I look forward to seeing whether the problems with our team were coaching, the players McHale brought here, or both.

I also know you guys have all heard me say this stuff before. However, even for those that want to cast blame, I think its too black-and-white to lay every failing this team has had on McHale's doorstep. Yeah, he's made some mistakes, but not everything he's done has been bad, particularly lately, and he alone isn't responsible for some failed expectations for this team.

[TMo519]

I don't totally disagree with you shrink, you're right for the most part. But it's easier to just blame the GM for all problems when their stuff don't work right. I can only name 2 moves that Kevin McHale has done in his entire career that at the moment they were done I considered them a flop:

Trading Sam Cassell away for Marko AND THROWING IN A FIRST....just dumb, flat out dumb. I don't care what Sam was doing or what his attitude was, JUST DUMB. Oh, AND he threw in a 6 year deal for Marko....DUMB, DUMB, DUMB.....

The only other move I didn't like at the moment, was trading Brandon Roy away. I loved him at Washington, and thought he could be a stud. At the same time though, I liked Randy Foye a lot as well and thought he would be right at that caliber with him. Obviously Roy has blown up, but I don't attribute that to solely Roy being way better than Foye. I think you have to consider their situations, plus Randy's knee injury (ironic considering Roy's knees were of concern prior to the draft and basically were what influenced the trade in the first place).

Other moves McHale have made that just either didn't work out or blew up in his face (like being mad that he traded Ray Allen for Steph), I can't just say, "Oh yep, incompetent GM, that's all it was". And once again, I don't blame McHale for the Joe Smith fiasco, I totally put that on Taylor, who I believe is just as responsible, if not more responsible for the Wolves current state than anyone.

[funkatron101]

Hearing that there is a group of guys that are part of the problem concerns me.

[wolves_fan_82au]

im actually looking forward to seeing what mchale can do as coach

[4ho5ive]

I never heard about that Bob Ociepka situation, thats kinda dirty.

The original article was for the most part, on point. I agreed with most of it, most expect for

With or without NBA probation, the Wolves would still be a failed franchise. McHale has a list of first-round picks this decade that defies reason – Paul Grant, William Avery, Ndudi Ebi and Corey Brewer. He turned draft-day choices of Ray Allen, Brandon Roy and O.J. Mayo into Stephen Marbury, Randy Foye and Kevin Love.

1st off, you cant mention Brewer with the likes of Ebi. Brew is a good player and wasnt even 20 games into his sophmore year and people are calling him a bust? its not fair.

Also, i hate all this "Oh he traded Marbury for Allen which was stoopid" Really? Lets go back to 1996 and see if anyone mentioned how in 5 years Marbury was going to be an attitude problem and would single handedly kill franchises. Oh wait, nobody was saying that? Is it because its impossible to predict the future? Sure Marbury over Allen looks bad NOW, but its not as though they were miles apart in talent coming into the league, plus Marbury and KG had history. i hate people attempting to blame GM's for things nobody knew at the time.

Also Miller + Love will do more for this team going forward than Mayo + Jaric.

[casey]

Shouldn't the players bear some responsibility for their attitudes?

The players are their attitudes. That's part of the package, and if McHale ignored it that's his fault. Yes you can blame the players, but you have to realize that anything the players get blamed for is ultimately the GM's fault, as he's the one who brought those players in.

Is it because its impossible to predict the future?

That's the job of a GM. To evaluate players and find out who will be better long term.

[Calinks]

Although it turned out to be a horrible move. Marbury for Ray Allen was a good call if Marbury wasn't such a nuttbag. If Marbury had the mindset of a Chris Paul, he and KG would have been sick for years.

[shrink]

I'm frustrated with people of this all-seeing position on Marbury, and at the same time berate McHale for the OJ Mayo trade.

I see each move as probabilistic. Is it 100% sure that the OJ Mayo trade was bad? No. Is it 100% sure that the Mayo trade was good? Again no. None of us know the future, but we need to take actions that are the most likely to lead to success. No one knows for certain how these young kids will adapt to an NBA lifestyle with any more certainty than a GM can predict which players will definitely be injured.

You can factor in increased likelyhoods, but people that play the Marbury card, in my opinion, have no right to complain about OJ Mayo. In fact, I suspect Marbury's history here may have factored into our decision to make that trade.

[casey]

Although it turned out to be a horrible move. Marbury for Ray Allen was a good call if Marbury wasn't such a nuttbag. If Marbury had the mindset of a Chris Paul, he and KG would have been sick for years.

And if Marcus Taylor had the game of Chris Paul, he and KG would have been sick for years. But he didn't, neither did Marbury. That's part of the package. The GM is responsible for a player's personality.

You can factor in increased likelyhoods, but people that play the Marbury card, in my opinion, have no right to complain about OJ Mayo.

It's not possible for someone to think Marbury's "character issues" were worse than Mayo's?