紐約時報:到底Butler交易一團亂是誰的錯？ - NBA

來源: The New York Times
網址: https://tinyurl.com/ycf9ruak


Who’s to Blame for the Jimmy Butler Trade Mess?
Jimmy Butler交易一團亂到底是誰的錯？

by Marc Stein

Every delicious curiosity the N.B.A. can conceivably dish at the start of the
season is being swallowed up by one nagging question: When will the Minnesota
Timberwolves trade Jimmy Butler?
在NBA要開始了正規賽時，大家現在最好奇的是一個問題：到底什麼時候灰狼會把Jimmy
Butler交易掉？

Answer: Not until the Minnesota owner Glen Taylor finds the gumption to
override his own legendary indecisiveness and go through with a deal when a
perfectly good one presents itself.
答案：那得要等到灰狼老闆Glen Taylor找到他的智商，克服他眾所皆知的優柔寡斷，然後
當有好機會的時候願意去交易。

I reported last Wednesday that the Wolves and the Miami Heat had progressed
to an advanced stage of negotiations before the talks were derailed when
Minnesota tried to tweak the trade construction. On Sunday morning, ESPN
reported that it happened again — after the parties got so deep into trade
discussions that the teams had exchanged medical information for the players
involved.
上星期三提到本來灰狼跟熱火已經談交易已經到很後期，但是後來灰狼又想調一些交易內
容，最後交易告吹。星期天早上，ESPN報導同樣的狀況又發生了--雙方本來交易又談到很
後面的階段，雙方都已經在交換球員體檢報告了。

That the talks collapsed twice in such a short span should be surprising to
no one who has followed the Wolves during Taylor’s quarter-century of
ownership. This is the same owner who held on to Kevin Garnett as a player
and to Kevin McHale as a general manager for too long; who allowed himself to
be talked into hiring the ill-prepared David Kahn as McHale’s replacement;
who could have escaped his Butler nightmare by accepting a package from Miami
that would have been headlined by the promising swingman Josh Richardson and
a protected first-round pick.
若是有在follow灰狼的人，有了解Taylor這25年以來灰狼老闆的歷史，對於在這樣短的時
間交易可以破局兩次就一點也不意外了。這就是那位留球員Kevin Garnett跟總教練Kevin
McHale留的太久的老闆；就是那位讓自己被說服，聘請沒準備好的David Kahn來頂替
McHale位置的老闆；就是那位本可以接受熱火的提議，可以得到搖擺人Josh Richardson跟
受保護的一輪簽，輕鬆解決Butler交易惡夢的灰狼老闆。

Minnesota really can’t hope to do better under these circumstances, which
stem from Butler’s declaration just days before training camp that he would
not be re-signing with the Wolves in July as a free agent.
Butler在訓練營開始前幾天對外的聲明，說他明年七月不會跟灰狼再簽約，灰狼真的不能
期待在這樣的狀況下能得到更好的結果了。

Yet Taylor balked. Then balked again.
但是Taylor猶豫了。然後又猶豫一次。

Then you remember that this is how the Wolves have consistently operated
under Taylor, and it snuffs out the initial pangs of compassion one might
have felt for the Wolves’ quandary. He’s a very nice man, by all accounts,
who hasn’t been afraid to spend over the years and certainly cares deeply
about the franchise as a native Minnesotan. But to run a successful N.B.A.
team, hard decisions have to be made — sometimes quickly. Sadly for the
Wolves’ long-suffering fans, who just watched Butler’s arrival spark
Minnesota to its first playoff berth in 14 seasons, hard decisions seem to
freeze Taylor.
然後大家才想起那就是灰狼在Taylor帶領下做事的方式，這才會讓大家本來對灰狼所處的
困境的同情心所帶來的痛苦消除掉。從各方面來說，他是個非常好的人，在過去幾年間他
不在意花錢，而且身為土生土長明尼蘇達人，他也對灰狼隊非常的在意。但是，要經營一
支NBA的隊伍，要能夠做困難的決定--有時候要快點。但是對長久以來受苦的灰狼迷們，他
們才剛看到Butler的到來帶著灰狼重回14年以來第一次的季後賽，這困難的決定似乎讓
Taylor傻住了。

Blame Taylor? Or Thibs?
怪Taylor？還是老錫？

A common refrain in N.B.A. circles these days holds that it’s the Wolves’
coach and team president, Tom Thibodeau, who is slow-playing or outright
sabotaging trade talks because he can’t bear to surrender his former Chicago
Bulls cornerstone. Even though Butler can walk away from the Wolves without
compensation for the team if he is not dealt before the Feb. 7 trade
deadline, it is believed that Thibodeau would welcome Butler back to the team
unconditionally — no matter how uncomfortable that may make things for
Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins.
在NBA的幾個圈子裡大家共同的想法是，應該是灰狼教練以及球隊營運長，Tom Thibodeau
的錯，他故意慢慢來抑或是公然破壞交易對談的原因是他捨不得放掉他原本公牛的基石球
員Butler。如果Butler在二月7日前沒被交易走，即便是Butler可以離開灰狼，灰狼得不到
半點補償的狀況下，大家也相信老錫會無條件歡迎Butler歸隊--不管這會如何讓隊上的KAT或是
跟圍巾不舒服。

Towns and Wiggins, of course, are the two young Minnesota cornerstones whose
chilly relationships with Butler are said to be a key reason Butler wants to
leave — and who were among the targets during Butler’s reportedly heated
return to the practice floor Wednesday.
當然，KAT跟圍巾，這兩位年輕的灰狼隊基石球員與Butler冷到骨子裡的關係也是Butler之
所以想離開的原因--這也是星期三灰狼練習時據報導Butler針對的那兩位球員。

Thibodeau and his general manager, Scott Layden, will also ultimately have to
answer for their inability to probe harder and sooner for the depths of Butler
’s discontent, even if you wish to believe Thibodeau’s claims that the
Wolves were legitimately unaware of how badly he wanted out until his Sept.
18 trade request.
就算大家想要相信老錫說灰狼真的在九月18日Butler說要交易之前完全不知道Butler有多
想要離開灰狼，老錫跟總管Scott Layden，這兩位最終仍得要為他們自己沒及早得知
Butler有多不爽的無能負責。

The reality, though, is that none of that could have happened if Taylor didn’
t allow it to happen.
但是，事實是，若不是因為Taylor讓情況繼續下去，以上這些事情都不會發生。

If Thibodeau has indeed been putting his own interests ahead of the club’s,
and if he and Layden weren’t as proactive as they should have been in
assessing Butler’s long-term desires, it’s still on the owner for letting
his top basketball decision makers operate in that manner. Blame Butler all
you want for what was widely painted as an 11th-hour trade demand, but Taylor
should have pressed his front office to make these determinations much
earlier in the off-season.
若老錫真的把他自己的利益擺在球隊利益之前，抑或是老錫跟Layden在評估Butler的不爽
應該主動些卻沒有，那也是球團老闆容許他的球隊決策者用那樣的方式在領導球隊。大家
可以怪Butler為甚麼在時間緊迫的時候才提出他吹密，但是Taylor大可以壓著他的制服組
在休賽季早期就把決策做好。

Also: How can the Wolves claim to have not known of the creative tension
between their two best players? Or that they may have a deeper disconnect to
address after Towns was offered a five-year, $190 million contract extension
in July but chose not to actually sign it until Butler’s trade request had
been made public? Whispers about the Butler-Towns dynamic and Butler’s
uncertain future in Minnesota have been going around the league all summer.
而且，灰狼怎麼能說他們不知道他們兩個最好的球員之間有逐漸升高的緊張關係？而且他
們也沒有說明，為何本來七月就給了KAT五年一億9000萬鎂的延長合約，但是直到Butler公
開喊吹密之後，他們才真正跟KAT簽約？有關Bulter跟KAT的互動以及Butler對在灰狼的未
來不確定的流言在聯盟已經是整個夏天都在傳了。

Numerous teams have complained in recent days that Thibodeau and Layden are
acting like two men who really don’t want to make a deal. But that hasn’t
stopped the Heat from engaging in numerous rounds of talks with the Wolves
and presenting them with what appears to be a pretty palatable offer given
Minnesota’s lack of leverage.
許多隊伍近日都抱怨，老錫跟Layden最近的舉動根本就是不像是想要交易的樣子，不過那
沒有讓熱火放棄與灰狼數次的對談，而且基於灰狼目前所擁有的籌碼，熱火給的條件似乎
是很可以接受的了。

Miami, Brooklyn and the Los Angeles Clippers are the teams known to interest
Butler most in the long term. The fact that one of those three is willing to
furnish a young player as highly rated as Richardson, along with a potential
first-round pick, would enable the Wolves to recoup a good bit of what they
gave up (Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and the draft pick that became Lauri
Markkanen) to acquire Butler.
熱火，籃網跟快艇是幾支對Butler有長久興趣的球隊，事實上其中一隊願意給出像是
Richardson這樣的年輕球員，再加上第一輪簽，這可以讓灰狼因為之前為了要交易來
Butler而給出的球員(Zac Lavine，Kris Dunn，選秀簽，後來是Lauri Markkanen)後可以
補強不少。

Yet it apparently wasn’t enough for Taylor, who now risks alienating Miami
to the point that the Heat czar Pat Riley pushes away from the table. I can’
t understand how even Taylor doesn’t see it after all these years of gaffes
— Kahn’s selection of Jonny Flynn over Stephen Curry with the sixth pick of
the 2009 draft is merely the most egregious.
但是很明顯的這對Taylor還不夠，現在他把熱火往外推，讓熱火Pat Riley離開會議桌。讓
人無法理解，在這麼多年的出錯之後，為何Taylor還是看不清呢--Kahn在2009年第六順位
選秀沒選Stephen Curry而選了Jonny Flynn就是最大的錯誤。

The End of the Road
最終的結果

It should be very clear to Minnesota by now that this is not 2010 all over
again: The Wolves can’t just bring Butler back the way the Denver Nuggets
did with Carmelo Anthony eight years ago, when the Nuggets engaged the Nets
in some serious Melo trade talks on the eve of camp but didn’t end up
dealing him to the Knicks until February. The Nuggets’ locker room dynamic
back then wasn’t nearly as combustible as Minnesota’s is now. As lifeless
and distracted as the Wolves have looked during the exhibition season,
followed by Wednesday’s tense practice-floor scenes reported by ESPN and
Yahoo, can you imagine Butler, Towns and Wiggins trying to coexist long
enough for Taylor to find a trade he’s willing to approve?
對灰狼來說，很明顯的這跟2011年不是同一回事：灰狼不可能就是像金塊八年前把Carmelo
Anthony帶回來一樣，那時金塊在開訓前夕跟籃網有認真談到交易Melo，但是他們最後是到
二月的時候才把他交易到尼克。那時候金塊休息室裡的氣氛可不像灰狼那麼火爆。看著熱
身賽灰狼的漫不經心跟缺少活力，加上星期三ESPN報導灰狼練習時的緊張場面，大家能想
像，Butler，KAT跟圍巾這三個人可以繼續共處到Taylor找到一樁交易他願意的時候嗎？

Toronto, Houston, Boston, San Antonio, Philadelphia and, of course, LeBron
James’s Los Angeles Lakers — there are so many teams, for so many
intriguing reasons, we should be obsessing over as opening night draws near.
There’s also the small matter of the Golden State Warriors preparing to work
in the mercurial DeMarcus Cousins as they chase a fourth championship in five
seasons.
暴龍，火箭，青賽，馬刺，76人，還有LBJ在的湖人--有這麼多隊伍，有各式各樣的理由，
讓大家在開幕戰越來越近的時候對這些隊伍著迷。還有一件小事是跟勇士有關的，在他們
追逐五年內第四個冠軍的時候，他們要怎麼把表弟給加進他們的隊伍裡。

But before we can dive into that buffet of hoops mystery, we find ourselves
waiting on action from Taylor and the Timberwolves yet again. Sympathy for
their plight would be easier to muster if we hadn’t seen it all before.
但是在開始享受籃球的神祕饗宴前，似乎發現我們又在等Taylor跟灰狼看他們甚麼時候要
動作。如果我們沒看過之前發生的所有事，對他們現在的困境，給他們一些同情心似乎簡
單多了。

--
標題 [公告] NBA 板 開始舉辦樂透!
4、雙十 = 兩隊四節打完107比107進入延長賽
開獎結果: 雙十

--