Is Kahn going to survive this? Should he survive this?

[Calinks]

As each week goes by, the franchise picture looks bleaker and bleaker. This season a conflux of events have derailed everything. Kahn has been taking a lot of heat from fans and the media. That 3 year plan hasn't come to fruition. Is it time to let the man go? Would letting him go at this point be unfair or a mistake? What do you think?

[C.lupus]

He shouldn't survive this but he probably will.

[Murphs56]

Absolutely not. We are the joke of the entire NBA. (See Simmons and Magic at halftime against the Thunder). His record would get most GMs fired and unlike Adelman he has no reputation to stand on, he did nothing at the deadline to improve this team, his draft picks have been busts outside of Rubio and his relationship with Love is fractured. Time to move on

[The J Rocka]

I think it's time to move on.

There's really no excuse to why we're not a playoff team already. Injuries happen, but we should've already been a competitive young team. 09 & 10 draft really screwed this franchise over. Was Kahn just looking at draft express mocks to decide who to take? Small market teams, like us, depend heavily on high lottery draft picks panning out. That's where we need to find our talent/franchise cornerstones.

McHale left Kahn with Love, Big Al, & rights to Pek. I applaud Kahn for using Mike Miller & Randy Foye to get 5th pick (Rubio) and getting rid of the other pieces that McHale thought were quality players. He at least brought Rubio over here and made the relationship with the Wolves stronger and signed Pek & Shved. Added RA after the terrible mistake of signing Rambis. Quite frankly, that's not good enough.

Outside of that, he has wasted draft picks, built a poor reputation around the league, hands out MLE contracts like candy, and wasted a lot of time/team potential. With reports of Love not liking the guy/wanting him gone, it's time to move on.

[eyeteeth]

IF this team had been healthy, there is a fine chance we would be a playoff team this year. Losing Love, Budinger, Lee and Roy is insane. That's the team's best scorer and 2/3 of the wing talent. How on earth do you look at that and say, "Kahn should've done better"?

Let's let the team move on from Roy, make some adjustments and see what we've got next year when these guys actually get a chance to play.

Anyway, this team is probably doomed no matter what. Some kind of really weird, very sad karma. At least having Kahn around pisses off self-important pricks like Wojnarowski.

[Tirion]

At least having Kahn around pisses off self-important pricks like Wojnarowski.

You have some weird priorities.

[VUK1]

Even if you overlook the 09 & 10 draft busts (imagine where would we be now had only one been a decent pick), the fact is that Kahn rolled the dice in a major way signing B Roy. It was his gamble that would either make or break the season. Had he signed any other decent SG in addition to Shved, I honestly think we'd be much closer to .500, even with Bud & K Love out.

I was fuming at the espn comments made @ halftime of the OKC, but the fact is that Magic was right with regards to his comments about B Roy and how it was too much of a gamble.

Finally, Even if you ignore the B Roy Gamble and the 09/10 draft busts - We need to try an please Kevin Love in any way and make him feel as if he is wanted and his thoughts are important. We need to get rid of Kahn.

I was previously extremely displeased with K Loves "greatness with greatness" comments as well as his latest rants and initially wanted him traded, but he is the No1 PF in the game when fit and we aren't going anywhere without him. Sack Kahn and bring in someone new, someone fresh

[[RCG]]

With a healthy Rubio, Budinger, Love this is a playoff team. Rubio is just getting back into shape now and we have been playing better. We were up big on a talented GSW squad but we don't have the depth to maintain leads when we turn to the bench. This roster is a lot better than the one Kahn inherited.

Derrick Williams was the consensus #2, Wes J was in the mix at #4 and Cousins was passed over by a couple teams because over immaturity issues. Rubio was a solid pick. The only real head-scratcher was Flynn. Sure he can and needs to do a better job of drafting but in other areas of player acquisition he's done well.

How many teams would be in the playoffs without their all-star player and significant role-players either hurt or recovering from severe injuries as well?

[slinky]

In general, I agree with the above. Although he has done some odd draft day stuff, that has left me wondering what the plan actually was.

My concern with Kahn is his ability to be the face of the organization. Free agents need to want to come to MIN, and the first person they might often talk to will be Kahn. And while we can throw money at the Batum's Roy's and Kirilenko's, we wont be able to throw big money at FA's forever. As we look into future, if we resign Pek, resign Rubio, and have Love on the team...we won't be outbidding many teams for FA's. An organization's and a GM's credibility becomes very important to getting those role players to accept a less than best offer.

And right now, right or wrong, Kahn and the wolves have poor organizational credibility. Kahn has done some good things, he has assembled a playoff roster, he was part of bringing in a legitimate head coach...but having Magic Johnson, Bill Simmons, Wojo, Chris Webber, and to lesser extent Kevin Love publicly criticize the GM and organizational does not present a pretty picture to prospective players and agents across the NBA.

[Basti]

Although it's not gonna happen I'd like to keep him around as a strict financial guy whereas we bring in someone new to evaluate talent properly.

Or find someone else who can do both things equally well. I don't care who's going to do this but we can't keep wasting talent any longer.

[NikolaPekovic]

As long as he is tied to us we are a joke.

Hope they get rid of him.

[jfg]

First off in response to an earlier post, losing Roy didn't make or break the season. It was a low risk/medium reward gamble, and I don't know how on earth you could fault him for the move. Basically a 1 year deal for a chance at a solid SG? I hope he makes moves like that again.

I don't think it matters who you bring in, Love's going to walk. In the midst of putting together a good looking team, he was whining about the makeup of the team. So, I don't think I'd fire Kahn to try to keep Love, there has to be a better reason than that. The assumption was that the Wolves would be a playoff team within three years under Kahn's wing. They would have been if it weren't for the injuries and that's taking Roy out of the equation. Obviously that's speculation, but I believe they would have been in the playoffs this year. Can you fire a guy for not meeting his objectives even though he had a team in place to win that got bit hard by the injury bug? I don't think so. The only justifiable cause for him to be fired is his draft record and that's been pretty bad. Good GM's who have built winning teams don't miss as often as he has, but I think he's made up for that in the players he's brought in through free agency, something that has historically been very difficult to do in Minnesota. Of course, it remains to be seen if he can do that again this offseason but I think potential is still a very easy to sell with the Wolves. I haven't seen any major publication say anything but hard luck this year for the Wolves. We're still a rising team and I think it's still an easy sell to get good players to come here to play with Rubio. Kahn did it last year, and I think it would be a mistake not to give him one more chance.

[Esohny]

He shouldn't survive this but he probably will.

That is unfortunately correct.

[C.lupus]

IF this team had been healthy, there is a fine chance we would be a playoff team this year. Losing Love, Budinger, Lee and Roy is insane. That's the team's best scorer and 2/3 of the wing talent. How on earth do you look at that and say, "Kahn should've done better"?

I certainly don't blame Kahn for all the injuries but A) Roy re-injuring his knee should have been deemed a decent possibility and he should have had a backup plan, B) After they all went down Kahn did nothing - for 3.5 months, and C) The team had every reason in the world to make a serious push for the playoffs - Adelman has a short contract, Love was pissed off and has an opt out looming, Taylor is trying to sell the team, they had a new marketing push with financial incentive to make the playoffs, Kahn's contract is expiring - and despite all of those reasons Kahn did nothing. So, no I don't blame him for the injuries but I absolutely blame him for the state of the team right now.

[eyeteeth]

IF this team had been healthy, there is a fine chance we would be a playoff team this year. Losing Love, Budinger, Lee and Roy is insane. That's the team's best scorer and 2/3 of the wing talent. How on earth do you look at that and say, "Kahn should've done better"?

I certainly don't blame Kahn for all the injuries but A) Roy re-injuring his knee should have been deemed a decent possibility and he should have had a backup plan, B) After they all went down Kahn did nothing - for 3.5 months, and C) The team had every reason in the world to make a serious push for the playoffs - Adelman has a short contract, Love was pissed off and has an opt out looming, Taylor is trying to sell the team, they had a new marketing push with financial incentive to make the playoffs, Kahn's contract is expiring - and despite all of those reasons Kahn did nothing. So, no I don't blame him for the injuries but I absolutely blame him for the state of the team right now.

That is an excellent point, and I agree that making more aggressive moves might have been warranted as it became clear that despite legitimate efforts we had a gaping hole at the wing. However, I want to point out that there is a commonly missed other side to doing nothing. That is, he did not make a bad move. Although it looks like crap, doing nothing is vastly better then making an imbalanced trade that pisses away our assets for little return.

What you need to have here is a legitimate option that he might have pursued. I think it would have been great to have made a move for a legit wing player, but for whom? Derrick Williams? Before or after Love went down for the 2nd time? Because that could've put us in a terrible hole. And I just really don't think other teams were offering us any good deals at that point. They knew we were in need, and if I were the other GM, I would have offered peanuts. Anthony Morrow for Derrick Williams? Sure!!

I keep thinking of how I would want my performance evaluated if I had to deal with this many explosions, and I think I would be proud of not having wasted the assets we have, and feel confident pointing to next season. Too many things went wrong this year. Coming out of this still in the playoff hunt would have been miraculous.

[southern wolf]

Clearly he's been a terrible drafter and I wouldn't have him back, but what possible moves could Kahn have made this season (considering injuries) that would have got us back into playoff contention? The only players he could of got better than average value for are Love, Pek and Rubio and besides the fact that they're our core, they're all either hurt/recovering or waiting for a big pay day.

Williams was popping up in trade rumours, but in the end the majority on here wanted to keep him, so what else could we package to get a decent player? The only players Kahn could have traded for this season would have been role players, not difference makers who could have got us to the playoffs. Plus most GM's are worried about taking on extra cash these days, not just Kahn.

[Klomp]

These are the two ends I'm torn between:

IF this team had been healthy, there is a fine chance we would be a playoff team this year. Losing Love, Budinger, Lee and Roy is insane. That's the team's best scorer and 2/3 of the wing talent. How on earth do you look at that and say, "Kahn should've done better"?

As long as he is tied to us we are a joke.

Hope they get rid of him.

[Jukeness]

You cant tell me that this is the best team any GM could have put together.

[Murphs56]

It's funny because the defense of Kahn is that one year out of all the years he's been Minny he tried to assemble a decent team. Well WOW, Wonderful...What about all those other years we were predicted to finish in the basement of the division and did? Oh yeah, we were developing our young core of talent right? He's got 1 person on his resume. He's got absolutely NOTHING else. GMs in the NBA, coaches in the NBA have been fired for A LOT less.

[C.lupus]

I'm sorry guys but I've just about had enough. Not with you guys but with the Wolves. They are about to have their 8th straight losing season. If they continue this freefall (and I don't see why they wouldn't) they might very well finish in the bottom 5 of the league for the fifth time in the past six years. Just pause a moment and let that sink in.



I'm sick of the excuses, I'm sick of settling for mediocrity (or worse), and - no offense eyeteeth - I'm sick of the "well at least he didn't screw up worse" mindset. As I posted in the other thread...Winners figure out a way to win. Losers figure out a way to lose. Guess which camp the Timberwolves fall in. I'll give them one more offseason. If they don't make some serious noise early next year, I'm out for good.