Wild, Timberwolves re-orient franchises

Funny how these things work; we went so long with no general managers, and suddenly two teams make hires on the same day.

The Wild will announce Pittsburgh assistant general manager Chuck Fletcher as the team's new GM today. Before we react, a key piece of information:

This is Chuck Fletcher.

We wouldn't have needed the picture had the Wild hired Pierre McGuire or Pat Quinn, but Fletcher's going to be the guy in charge of the franchise now, and we should at least take the time to learn what he looks like.

Three other things we should know about Fletcher:

1. His dad is Cliff Fletcher, who ran the Flames and Maple Leafs successfully in the 80s and 90s (and later failed in Phoenix, but so would have anyone.) Fletcher took over Toronto briefly last year after the team finally fired John Ferguson Jr., so between that and the younger Fletcher landing in the stew that Doug Risebrough has cooked up here, we know that neither is afraid of the occasional lost cause.
2. In the past, Fletcher has been responsible for negotiating player contracts and for player evaluation and drafting. I really can't think of anything else that a GM is responsible for, but you can make a case that Risebrough was terrible at both, so that's an upgrade.
3. Current Leafs GM Brian Burke absolutely loves the guy. As near as I can tell, this is the only strike against Fletcher.

The next step will be for Fletcher to hire a coach, then get down to the business of getting ready for the draft, which takes place near the end of June. Fletcher will have his hands full, but all indications are that he's up to the task.

And then there's the Wolves.

Owner Glen Taylor hired former Pacers executive David Kahn, and when we say former, we mean former. Kahn's been out of the league since 2002, and if it's one thing that the Timberwolves don't want, it's somebody with his finger on the pulse, I think we can all agree on that.

Here's a picture of Kahn, for the uninitiated:

This isn't fair.

Here's the real picture:

Might not be fair, but the resemblance is striking, isn't it?

Three things we should know about Kahn:

1. Between his Pacers tenure and this hire, Kahn owned a couple of D-League franchises, and if there's better training for running the Timberwolves, I can't think of it.
2. He once said in an interview that one of the proudest moments in his career involved engineering a deal for Jamaal Tinsley, who was forbidden from attending Pacers practices this past year despite being under contract. So: good one, right?
   
3. He was, at best, the team's fourth choice for the job, but the leading three candidates turned the team down. To say that this hire is underwhelming would be rather an understatement.

The next step for Kahn will be... actually, nobody knows. Taylor seems set on keeping pretty much the entire organization around, including acting GM Fred Hoiberg and coach Kevin McHale, so at the moment it's hard to imagine any real changes being made. And given that Kahn is a lawyer turned sports management guy, whose main strength is working on the cap and not evaluating talent, it's hard to see how this really helps the basketball side of the equation at Target Center.

One good hire, one bad hire. One fanbase excited, another one depressed (if Wolves fans can be said to be capable of getting any more depressed.)

Funny how these things work.