For much of the 2012/13 season, we heard that Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor was seeking a partner that could eventually assume control of the franchise. But after being unable to find an investor that would be a good fit and that would keep the team in Minnesota, Taylor has gone in the other direction, buying out the shares of six minority owners, as Sid Hartman of the Star Tribune writes.
Taylor also remains involved with the basketball side of things, staying in contact with head of basketball operations Flip Saunders about the upcoming draft and free agency. The Wolves owner spoke to Hartman about a number of topics of note, so let's round up his most interesting quotes….
On increasing his stake in the franchise by buying out minority owners:
"I was looking at bringing somebody else in to do that, and it never worked out. So I just had told the partners that wanted to sell out, that had been with me for about 18 years, that if they wanted to sell out that I would buy their stock. I had about half of them do that, the other half stayed in. I just left that option up to them. They made their decisions, and everybody is happy with how it worked out."
On trading up or down in the draft:
"Well, we’re willing to do that, and I know that Flip has talked to some teams. But it has to be that we could trade up to where we could get the exact player that we want to get. I don’t know if that is going to work out. But we’re looking at all options. We’re willing to trade up or trade down in order to land the players that we need."
On Taylor's involvement in the draft:
"Traditionally what I have done, and I’ve already talked to Flip about this, I’m going to come up about noon and we’ll go through all the scenarios, which we have already, we’ve gone through them. If there needs to be a contact for me to contact any owners, that’s the time I’ll do that, before the draft, just in case there’s some deals we want to get an agreement on. Then I’ll stay there in case there has to be a decision to either move up or down or sell a draft pick or to buy one."
On the possibility of trading Derrick Williams:
"There are teams that have called us and asked us if we are going to trade him, but I think that everybody saw the same thing that you saw, including the coach. Once we got him out on the floor and he had a chance to play, he started to play better. We have to remember that he still a very young man and a player that has a lot of potential. So we may trade somebody on our team, but it’s not going to be [him], unless it really would help our team."
On Rick Adelman's status:
"I think everything is going good. His wife [Mary Kay, who has been facing health issues] continues to make progress and she’s driving and getting back closer to a more normal way of living in every way. We assume that everything is going fine and Rick will be back."