McHale, Wittman Return to Timberwolves

 

MINNEAPOLIS - They wore bags on their heads and carried signs that read, "Fire McHale!" The Minnesota Timberwolves fans who want Kevin McHale out are becoming more and more vocal, and some turned out to express their displeasure at the season finale. But McHale isn't going anywhere.

McHale said Thursday he will return as vice president of basketball operations next season and plans on bringing star Kevin Garnett and coach Randy Wittman back with him.

"I don't want to walk away with the team in this state," said McHale, who said this year's team resembled the "dysfunctional" squad he inherited when he was named vice president in 1995.

In a season-ending news conference, McHale addressed a long, frustrating year in which his Wolves finished 32-50 and missed the playoffs for the third straight season.

"It was a bad season. There's no other way you can say it," McHale said. "It was a bad year and I did a bad job. That's the way it is."

Many fans have become frustrated with McHale for not surrounding Garnett with a more competitive team.

It's been a rapid fall from grace for the Hibbing native and former University of Minnesota star, who owner Glen Taylor hired 12 years ago to turn around one of the NBA's sorriest franchises.

McHale drafted Garnett in 1995 and worked deals for Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell that landed the Wolves in the Western Conference finals in 2004, but it's been all downhill from there.

Minnesota hasn't made the playoffs since, and fans have grown impatient after watching McHale assemble a team filled with small guards and big contracts.

"That happens," McHale said. "There is a frustration level with the fans and I think everybody understands that. It's our job to try to see what we can do to correct that without banking on those ping pong balls and just getting lucky."

Problems started in January when McHale fired coach Dwane Casey with the Timberwolves at 20-20. Wittman took over in a move that McHale hoped would jumpstart the lethargic team, but the Wolves went 12-30 with the taskmaster at the helm.

"I don't think it ever became an experiment," McHale said. "It became a disaster, but I don't think it became an experiment. It didn't work well."

McHale praised Wittman's leadership and discipline, saying he hoped the coach would benefit from having a full offseason and training camp to instill his scheme.

"We have to try to put together a product on the floor that's a lot more competitive and a lot more pleasing to watch," McHale said. "I mean there were times out there where I thought we were very hard to watch. You'd be watching the game and I'd be like, 'Ugh. That's bad.'"

Garnett, the heart and soul of a team that had little of both, has an opt-out clause in his contract after next season, causing many to speculate that the Wolves could move him to avoid losing him without compensation after next season.

"We're not planning on trading Kevin," McHale said.

Garnett missed the last five games of the season with a sore right quadriceps and was at home in California when the Wolves were blown out by Memphis.

It was the team's seventh straight loss to end the season, a string that helped them hold onto their 2007 lottery pick. Minnesota finished tied with Portland for the sixth-worst record in the league, guaranteeing a spot in the top 10 of the June's draft lottery.

Had the Wolves not finished with a top 10 pick, they would have had to give their selection to the Clippers as part of the Marko Jaric-Sam Cassell trade two years ago.

Wittman says there will have to be drastic changes for the Timberwolves to get back to respectability.

"We've got a lot of soul-searching from an individual standpoint," Wittman said. "We should be disappointed. I'm disappointed. I think everybody in that locker room should feel disappointed."

The biggest obstacle in the way of improvement for the Timberwolves are the contracts that McHale has doled out. The team has 12 guaranteed contracts next season, including cap-crushing deals with Mark Blount, Troy Hudson and Mike James.

That limits McHale's options in the offseason to the draft and trades. However he does it, McHale has to make changes to improve team chemistry and eliminate some of the selfishness that plagued the team this season.

"We have to have guys who are willing to go out there and do some more sacrificing for each other," McHale said.

 

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