Kevin Garnett would like to play one more season, but he is unsure whether his body can endure the grind of the 82-game schedule, Steve Aschburner of NBA.com writes. “Yes, theoretically, he’d like to play. But he has some doubts of his knees holding up,” owner Glen Taylor said. “I think he’s worried if he can play. I worry about that too. When I talked to him last year, I said, ‘Is it your knees or what?’ He said, ‘It’s my whole leg.’ ” Garnett also told Taylor that he’d really like to play next year because he expects Minnesota to make the playoffs.
New president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau said earlier in the week that he is giving Garnett as much time as he needs to make a decision because “the great ones deserve time.” Garnett has $8MM and one season remaining on his current deal and Aschburner notes that the team likely won’t use that cap space if he does retire, so it can wait on the big man’s decision.
Garnett’s agent, Andy Miller, told Aschburner that he hasn’t heard anything that would make him believe Garnett would not return. Aschburner notes that one of the reasons Garnett was willing to waive his no trade clause back in 2015 to come back to the Wolves was because the late Flip Saunders pitched Garnett with the idea of buying an ownership share of the franchise.
Taylor recently sold 15% of the franchise and he said he never had conversations with Garnett about a potential ownership stake. “I never participated in that. Kevin said it to some reporter and it got into the paper. I thought it was inappropriate for me to talk to him about it because he was a player. I never had that discussion with Kevin at all. But I sort of believed it because I assumed he was saying, that was his goal,” Taylor said. However, Taylor did not rule out the possibility. “I’m always open to something like that,” Taylor said, “because he would kind of represent a Minnesota owner.”
Taylor also insinuated that if Garnett decided to retire, a good portion of his $8MM salary would be made available to him via a buyout, so that the future Hall of Famer wouldn’t have to return for the money, Aschburner adds. Taylor knows retirement will be difficult for the power forward. “When he retires, he’s got to figure out a nice way to do it. I don’t know what it is, but I want to help him,” Taylor added. “The transition won’t be easy.”
Garnett saw only 14.6 minutes per contest over 38 games last season. The team went 14-24 in games he played and 15-29 in games he did not.
I wont know how to handle it if Kevin Garnett retires now too. I thought I had another year to prepare for this. Stop doing this to me lol
Garnett isn’t going to retire this is going to be his last season
The only one that managed to do it right was Duncan. No retirement tour. But then again I guess there needed to be a reason to go see the lakers play
Duncan retired at least a couple of years too early, in my opinion
are you crazy? Duncan was physically done for last year, let alone a couple years
thats why he led the league in defensive plus minus
I feel the emblematic moment for Timmy’s decision lay in that Ibaka-blocked dunk attempt in the decisive last few minutes of the series against OKC. He looked at the ground and seemed so frustrated. His IQ, instincts and value to the team hadn’t wavered, but that loss of what was never great athleticism seemed to have really shaken him. I think it’s right, and in perfect Spurs style.
I remember what play you are talking about. I guess. Duncan wasnt really ever an elite athlete. At least people can stop with the false narrative that he needs to retire b/c he was done though. That sentiment is ridiculous Duncan is still one of the highest valued bigs in the game
Duncan should’ve retired when they won their last championship. Some people stay around longer than they should
Kobe also let it slip out by accident when he was in a bad mood on the bench lol. He wasn’t going to say anything apparently.
Kevin Garnett came into the league the same year as the Raptors, which (probably because I’m Canadian, mostly because I had just been put on the junior high team at my school in grade 5) and I was hoping to catch the t-wolves in toronto this year if garnett didn’t retire. I hope that still happens.