Wolves whimper into end of season
With a final record of 24-58, there won’t be a lot to for which to remember this season of Timberwolves basketball. The team let go of a coach it should have fired last off-season, and replaced him with a Waiting for Godot-like coach in Kevin McHale who seemed like a failure, then seemed like a genius for a month, then finished out the season proving that the first impression was the correct one, as he finished the season 20-43.
Now, following a seven-point loss to Sacramento, the Wolves and owner Glen Taylor have a lot of thinking to do. The smart thing would be to dump McHale, hire a new director of basketball operations – probably Fred Hoiberg – and let Hoiberg conduct a search for a new head coach.
Heck, if they do it fast enough, they might even be able to lure Flip Saunders away from the Washington Wizards before he signs with them, and get this team back on track. With three first-round draft picks in this year’s draft, there will be lots of help coming to whomever is the team’s next coach, as well as franchise cornerstone Big Al Jefferson.
The Wolves tied with Memphis for fifth-worst record, meaning a drawing will be held for rights to the fifth-best chance to move up in the lottery, and the sixth-best chance. Their other two picks will be at 17 and 28. With that kind of loot, the Wolves can either get a lot of help fast, or package two or even all three picks to move up, if the lottery doesn’t favor them – and it never has.
Kevin Love is starting to look like a player who can stick with this team, but aside from Love, Jefferson and Foye, there’s a lot of question marks and I tend to think three draft picks might be better than packaging them to obtain only one solid helper. But let’s see how the draft falls. Maybe the Wolves will luck out, get the top pick, and then package 17 and 28 to move up to 14 or so and get two really solid guys.
But first the team needs some weight loss pills to get rid of some dead weight. Starting with McHale.
