I had the chance to meet and talk to him a couple weeks ago at the Portsmouth Invitational. Before last night, he was working for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He has been the director of player personnel, assistant GM, third GM, advisor and so on. His role has been defined and re-defined, and he was passed over to become the official GM last season. The Wolves owner, whoever he is, decided to turn the reins over to some schmuck named David Kahn. And Kahn has done a bang-up job, using his experience as a Hollywood talent scout to draft absolutely horribly, try to trade Al Jefferson his best player during the season, and cultivate the worst team in the league with no role identification and a bunch of guys who do the exact same things. So, just looking at it from a distance with not much information, it was a good move for Fred.
But after meeting and talking to him at Portsmouth it seems even better. Because the guy looked like a zombie. He looked like he was on autopilot, and had been on autopilot for the last 8 months. He was Peter Gibbons from Office Space. He was barely paying attention to the games, wasn't saying a peep to other NBA team brass or agents. Just looking at him in the eye, he had that get me outta here look.
So now he's got a new gig. A new challenge. He's never coached, but I am sure he will be ready. I wish him luck in building and developing his program. Hopefully, he can use his NBA playing career pedigree to attract a bunch of pros to play for him.
