Dunking With Wolves
Fansided

Flip Saunders acquired Tyus Jones for the wrong reasons

By Drew Mahowald

facebooktwitterreddit

Tyus Jones has been the center of a bit of controversy since he was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves during the NBA Draft on Thursday night.

Of course, there isn’t much doubt that Jones is a solid selection for the Timberwolves and probably a good fit for Minnesota. Additionally, Minnesota is probably one of the best landing spots Jones could ask for, as he’ll probably come in right away and have a good chance to handle back-up point guard duties.

However, it seems as though President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach Flip Saunders went after Jones just as much for the publicity as he did for his value as a prospect. After the draft when he addressed the media, several times he referred to Jones being from Minnesota when instead what really matters is what kind of player he is and what he’ll contribute to the Wolves.

Another example of Saunders making an acquisition due to publicity and popularity reasons is the Kevin Garnett trade back in February. The argument can easily be made that Thad Young, who the Wolves traded away for Garnett, brings more to the table as a player than Garnett. In fact, this is probably what most people that aren’t Wolves fans think, and it’s hard to argue against it.

More from Free Agency

It’s almost as if Saunders believes that having an energized and excited fanbase is as important as evaluating the value and talent of players. And yeah, keeping the fans happy is important. But it shouldn’t effect the way Saunders evaluates players, and I think it did in the Garnett trade and in trading for Jones.

William Bohl is a writer for A Wolf Among Wolves, a Timberwolves blog site that is maintained by excellent writers. Recently, Bohl and Steve McPherson, another contributor to the site, published a discussion-type article on Tyus Jones that illustrates their differing viewpoints.

If my super-expert analysis is correct, McPherson is much more on board with the Jones acquisition than Bohl is. Bohl’s argument against it was as I’ve mentioned previously, that Saunders chose Jones mainly as a publicity stunt. Anyway, Bohl tweeted an excellent comment that was posted on the page that basically sums up my thoughts.

So, here’s the deal.

Whether you’re for or against the Jones acquisition, it’s not crazy to conclude that Saunders may have made this move for the wrong reasons. Hypothetically, if Wolves fans had never heard of Jones before his season at Duke, I don’t think Saunders goes after Jones.

Disclaimer: If you’ve made it this far, great. My argument here isn’t anything against Tyus Jones. He’s an excellent fit for the Wolves and I’m glad he ended up in Minnesota. My argument is against Flip’s philosophy in making publicity an important factor is evaluating Jones as a prospect, which I believe he did.

I’m a fan of Jones because he’s a good basketball player, not because he’s from Minnesota. For me, the added publicity is just the cherry on top. For Saunders, that added publicity seems to be a main motive in attempting to acquire Jones, and that is a flawed philosophy.

Let’s just hope that Saunders’ need to please the fans doesn’t eventually come back to bite him (and the fans).

More from Dunking with Wolves