MINNEAPOLIS -- If there's one virtue the Timberwolves' 2014-15 season has tested within the moral fabric of owner Glen Taylor, it's patience, he says.
He's watched an injury-riddled team he thought could make the playoffs limp -- literally-- to the league's second-worst record. He's watched head coach and president of basketball operations Flip Saunders forced into double duty, then into trading away veterans in order to build for the future.
But Taylor told FOXSportsNorth.com in an exclusive interview he's greatly hopeful about the franchise's outlook moving forward. He thinks Andrew Wiggins should win rookie of the year, still believes Kevin Garnett will sign a new contract to keep playing after this year, and admires the job Saunders has done overseeing the club's on-court and big-picture proceedings.
But that doesn't mean Taylor wouldn't like to see Saunders hire a coach and reassume his front-office-only duties.
FOX SPORTS NORTH: How would you say this season has gone as a whole, from an owner's perspective?
GT: "I think going into it, I really had a very positive feeling that we'd put together a team that could get into the playoffs and would be challenging in all the games. The injuries that occurred early in the season to our players just changed that so quickly that quite some time ago, I realized that we were not going to be playing for the playoffs, but we had to change our whole structure this year and look forward to how to develop our young players, and we made some roster changes then because of that. Then, even with that, it's just impossible to figure out that we would continue to have additional injuries to so many of our players, especially the starters, that, when I look at our starting lineup, I kid our coach that, 'I guess you can't be older than 20 years to be a starter on our team.' I think it has changed, for me, just like it has for the fans, that we have really concentrated on these young guys, and then the coach went out and got (power forward Adreian Payne) to come in. The coach had liked him, and he had talked about drafting him, but when (Zach) LaVine was there, decided to go with him (LaVine) first. So he's really put together some young guys that have a lot of skills.
"It's too bad that Shabazz (Muhammad) and it's too bad that (Anthony) Bennett, who are part of this youth program, have missed quite a bit of games. But I think even in their limited time, they have shown that they have a lot more potential. So I think I, like the fans, kind of can see the potential for the future, and I'm excited about it. Don't know if the (NBA Draft Lottery) will be a big deal for us or not, and we just won't know that until we find out what our position is and who's available at that, but it might be something that happens that we hadn't anticipated.
"I'd say we never anticipated being in the lottery, especially one would think that no matter what would happen we would be in the top five. You know how that goes. Right now, we're already addressing (center Nikola Pekovic) to get him so that he can play more. That's been disappointing. The doctors have come up with a possible solution that requires surgery, and they're going to do that as soon as they can. . . . (Point guard Ricky Rubio) wants to get out and play, I can tell you that. He's not happy, but it's been his darn ankle that we've really missed him. . . . It's just been a year that I need to have a lot of patience, and I guess I have that."
FSN: When you hear accusations the franchise is "tanking," what's your reaction to that?
GT: "Because I'm close to the players and it's not my philosophy nor anybody else's, I don't have any problem just saying, 'Come and look at our players.' Our players would rather play, and our players want to win, you know? And we have let them just go to it. Some guys, they play in those overtimes. They're out there to win, but you can kind of see what happens when you have seven or eight players -- we've had seven some nights, eight players the other nights. They can play really good for a while, but when you don't substitute the young guys, they just get themselves into I'll just call it about a five-minute period where we basically lose the game. Sometimes, it happens in the third quarter, happens in the second quarter. Other than that, they play well. I know that none of our players want to lose. I know our coach doesn't want to lose. I know we're out there trying to do this for our fans, but I think, if one would just sit down and look at who's putting in the minutes, it's pretty hard to beat these teams that have veterans out there playing against them."
FSN: What can you say about Wiggins' stellar rookie season? Is he the rookie of the year in your mind? Why?
GT: "He is, and I think a couple of things happened. No. 1, I think when he came in at practice, Flip had a pretty high opinion of him, but if anything happened during that first month of practice, Flip, he just told me, 'I can see the potential of this kid,' but he says, 'We just have to start him and throw him out there.' That was Flip's decision, and I think we all saw that he made mistakes. He got beat up. He did some things that Flip said he just had to go through, but give him credit. I just think that you see him improving all along, and now, towards the end of the season, he's certainly a different player than he was at the beginning of the season. His willingness, a lot of it I would say is in his heart and in his mind. He's always had the athletic ability. But he's out there just taking responsibility that, 'I guess they're counting on me to do some scoring,' and then Flip has always pushed him on probably the most difficult player to guard at the two or three position, and he's been willing to do that all year. So I just see that he has learned so much and yet has put up some pretty good numbers."
FSN: You were excited to trade for Kevin Garnett back in February. He hasn't been able to play very much since he got here. Do you still believe he'll play here beyond this year?
GT: "Well, I haven't really talked to him about that, but I had mentioned earlier when we traded for him that I anticipated that. But I haven't asked him, and I haven't talked to him (about) how he's felt. I know he had trouble with his knees, and then we thought he was coming back, then he got that darn stomach flu or something. In that sense, I'm sure he's kind of grouchy. If I had to guess -- and that's what it would be, because I haven't talked to him -- my guess is that he'll want to come back, because I just think that I saw his spirit and how he's working with the players and his love for the game. I think, if he doesn't, it'll just be something with his knees or something that he just says 'I just can't go.' But I think his mind will want to come back. I think his heart will want to come back."
FSN: And if that's the case, you'd be willing to work out a new contract with him?
GT: "I think so, because I just think that he adds a different dimension to the team. We're going to have enough young guys. We're going to have enough talent. Now, it's funneling that talent into a winning type of environment, and I see KG being part of that -- not only by him coming in and playing, well let's just call it six minutes a half to demonstrate on the floor, but in the practice, locker room. He's been to every huddle on timeouts, and he's kind of, in a way, acting like what I would call an assistant coach in that he's trying to help the players."
FSN: What more can you tell me about Pekovic's Achilles surgery (scheduled for Wednesday in Charlotte, N.C.)?
GT: "They're thinking now of going in and removing part of a bone that may be pressing into some tissue that's causing him the pain. So we've had him look at three doctors, and they think that that may be the answer to his question. We have tried numerous other medications, everything, basically, and he still has pain, and they sent him to three different doctors, and my understanding before that was they're going to go in there and what I would call shave down a bone that's probably pressing into some tissue that's causing him some pain. If they can do that, then give him some time, they thought he can get up and play without pain. That was my understanding."
FSN: How much do you look at draft prospects? Are you excited about the potential of getting a lucrative pick and adding another young buck to this mix?
GT: "Well, if you're just asking me personally, I've always been interested in all parts of it. We have some really good scouts and good people. They make the reports to Flip based off what they see out there. Flip then has his idea, and they all communicate with me. I don't get anything that they aren't giving Flip, but I do get most of what Flip sees and then talk to Flip, and they direct me to watch certain games on TV. They say, 'Well, there's the fellow. Watch him.' Like the Ohio State kid (guard D'Angelo Russell) and stuff like that. They said this kid's got some potential and anyone would draft him maybe there, and then obviously the couple big guys (Duke's Jahlil Okafor, Kentucky's Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein) I knew about. I've watched them in games this year. I think (our scouts have) gone down and picked out five guys that I think for sure . . . we should be able to get one of these five. It's not that they're not going to ask me what I think, but I think they're just keeping me informed of when they get there why they might pick a certain guy."
FSN: Flip has said you and he haven't discussed his coaching role beyond this season. Has your stance on that changed at all, or would you like to get somebody else in that position when the time is right?
GT: "Well, let's start with what hasn't changed. I still like the idea of having Flip over the responsibility of selecting players, putting the team together, working with him on that, and I don't want to overburden him with coaching. My thought was always that if you could have yourself the right coach, then I'd like to have Flip just have the president of basketball operations (responsibilities) and take care of all that and have a coach and have him responsible for the coaching. But last year, we had that situation where we didn't find the coach, and Flip took on the coaching, and eventually I approved of that because of what he thought was best.
"What I'm saying now is that I have not talked to Flip about next year, but I'm not going to start out saying that he has to get another coach. He has worked like the dickens this year to get these guys ready, and he's taken a lot of losses and stuff just because he's working for the future, and if he thought it was in the best interest of the team to continue on for another year or so, I'm sure I would go with that. I guess that part has changed, but I still, the long-term thing, I don't know that I've changed that. Now Flip may just disagree with me and say that, 'I've learned that I can do both these jobs, and I think I can do them well.' Maybe he'll persuade me in the future that I'm wrong on this, but the basic premise that I had, I still believe. But in the short run, I have no reason to believe that he hasn't done everything this year that the coach could've done and probably even more."
FSN: I wanted to ask you about your ownership stake in Minnesota's recently-announced Major League Soccer team. Why'd you decided to go in with Minnesota United FC owner (and Wolves courtside-seat season ticket holder) Dr. Bill McGuire?
GT: "I would say it first started with Bill. I have just known Bill as a business man first. He always comes to the games. He loves basketball, so I've known him as a friend and as a business person. I knew that he got involved in soccer. Soccer's not something that I know a lot about or have strong feelings about, but as he was working to get soccer to Minnesota, he asked me if I might get involved. I would say it was more promoting Minnesota as a potential place to bring soccer. So I met with (MLS) commissioner (Don Garber about three months ago in Minneapolis). He asked me to do that in my position of being chairman of the board of the NBA in a sense of saying what I knew about Minnesota that was good. I didn't have to sell Bill. (Garber) knew Bill, but I was selling Minnesota. So I got myself sort of involved, and then I think Bill kind of came back to me and said, 'If you're saying all those good things, why don't you get more involved?' And I just kind of said, 'Well, Bill, let's just kind of let it go, and I'll keep working and helping you.' Then at the end here, he asked me, 'Well, why don't you be one of my partners?' The Pohlads (Twins owners) are going to be that; I met with Bob and Jim, and that's how it sort of went. It wasn't something that I ever thought I'd get involved in, but I do have a great respect for Bill."
FSN: Are you guys any further along on the downtown Minneapolis soccer-specific stadium plan? The big question surrounding everything is whether it will require public funding or not. Where do you weigh in on that debate?
GT: "Bill is leading the charge on that, so I'm not speaking for Bill right now. It would just seem like, to me, that we should inquire as to the governmental units where this would help them, because I think it will, in some places, be a good thing for a city or a county or a state, and we should inquire as to where there are areas that we can mutually help each other and see if we can get something done with that knowing that we are going to make a huge commitment privately. But I think you should ask first and try to work with governmental units to see if there's part of it that maybe could help you."
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