It’s really weird, when you think about it. They tried to keep the team as similar as possible, keep tons of the same players, as if they were trying to keep that core nucleus and retain that culture. But then Mayo was committed to also setting in a brand new, different, kinder, laid back culture…
So, what’s the point? Why retain all your own guys if you’re going to change the culture? Some of those guys will probably scoff at the new culture… Some will underperform because they needed to be driven harder like in the old culture to excel… It seems like a waste. You may as well have just tried to acquire the best players possible because they were all basically starting from ground zero anyway.
My best guess is that Wolf signed these guys assuming the culture would be similar and so Mayo would benefit from having guys return to back him up and reinforce that culture, but then Mayo went way off the reservation and did things “his way” instead.