Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor candid in interview

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor surprised everyone with a swift and decisive coaching search that netted Tom Thibodeau in a process that officially only took one week.

Taylor had carried a reputation as deliberate and, at times, indecisive owner. Hiring decisions in recent years that have brought in the likes of David Kahn in the front office and Kurt Rambis, Rick Adelman, and Flip Saunders on the bench have taken a much longer time to complete.

But this time around was different, and the Wolves owner opened up to the Star Tribune’s Jerry Zgoda in the days following the team’s official announcement in an intriguing question and answer session.

At times, Taylor was entirely too candid in his interview, exhibiting the foot-in-mouth lack of media savvy that he’s shown quite often in recent years. But there were certainly some illuminating, and in some cases encouraging, bits of the conversation.

We pulled out some of the more interesting tidbits, but the article in it’s entirety can be found here.

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First, let’s look at Zgoda’s question about handing two jobs to one person, as Taylor did a couple of years ago with Flip Saunders.

"Q When Flip took over both coaching and management jobs, you were reluctant. Has your opinion on that changed or did doing that again get the deal done?A It’s the way to get the deal done, but the arrangement isn’t so much that Thibs is going to run everything. I hired him as coach, but I said we’re going to hire a really strong GM. They understand it’s a partnership; it’s written into their contracts. It isn’t the same as Detroit’s [with coach/GM Stan Van Gundy] or anybody else. The two of them signed on the same day, for the same length and they are hired as a team."

Interesting that Taylor went out of his way to describe the relationship between Thibodeau and new general manager Scott Layden. Noting that it isn’t the same as Detroit and that the ‘partnership’ element is ‘written into their contracts’ is very interesting. And I’m also not quite sure what that means.

Zgoda pushed a bit further and received another intriguing answer from Taylor.

"Q So who determines what?A On some decisions, Thibs will have the final say and on some decisions, Scott will have the final say and we have it all written down. The ultimate goal is, it doesn’t pay to do something if the other guy is going to block it. I’ve seen this work and used in business if you can get the right guys. They’re friends, they respect each other. They both have said it’s highly unlikely that one will have to make a decision over the other.Occasionally, somebody’s got to make a decision, right? We’ve set up a way to do that and who will call it and it isn’t the same person in all cases. Thibs has the [president’s] title. I understand that. It was important to him, it wasn’t important to Scott. You’ll find out Scott is a strong personality himself, and he wouldn’t come here if he thought he was too much of a second fiddle. As Scott explains it to me, this is how it works in San Antonio. Pop [Spurs coach Gregg Popovich] doesn’t stand up and say, ‘This is what we’re going to do.’ Scott said they’re very much a consensus group."

Here’s hoping that Layden, the former (and technically, current) San Antonio Spurs assistant general manager, brings some of that Spursian knowledge to Minneapolis.

Of course, Thibodeau and Layden worked together in New York and have remained close since, so this partnership really should work out. Without knowing exactly what is ‘written into their contracts’, it’s tough to say what this will all look like when it comes time to making big decisions.

Also, we should mention that the president’s title being “important” to Thibodeau but not to Layden is a pretty weird thing to say and probably not thrilling to either of the newest members of the Wolves’ organization.

Zgoda also asked Taylor if he hired Thibodeau for his defensive reputation, but Thibs responded that he isn’t only all about that end of the floor, followed by a question about an offensive specialist.

"Q How much did his defensive-minded nature appeal to you?A He indicated it’s not only about defense. Yes, he knows defense, but he talked about all parts of basketball and what you have to do to get a championship team. He talked about cutting back on shots that aren’t high percentage, about the importance of threes now, how the game is changing. He talked about small-ball. He just talked about a lot of things. I could see he has a lot of flexibility within him, and I liked that because it is changing."