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Full Transcript of McHale's Final Post-Game Press Conference (of the year? forever?) and a Hot Tip
The following is a full transcript of the press conference Wolves' coach Kevin McHale gave at the end of Wednesday night's season finale, a 97-90 defeat to the NBA's now-officially worst team of 2009-10, the Sacramento Kings. The entire transcription was done by Wolves' intern Matt Everhart, a hardy, idealistic soul who does this kind of grunt work for nothing because he loves the game and wants a shot at a real job. My sincere thanks and kudos to him for providing me with what I realized was a particularly acute snapshot of McHale's weirdly eloquent, homespun charm.
When possible, Matt filled in the name of the press questioner. And yes, this is not a parody, those really were Sid Hartman's contributions to the event.
After the transcript, I'm again a conduit for information regarding one of the people owner Glen Taylor is considering for the general manager's position.
In the next few days, I'll be back with some final thoughts on the Wolves' season, a few playoff predictions, and my plans for the blog between now and the NBA draft.
Kevin McHale:
Well, we didn't go out the way we wanted to, didn't play very well. We missed a lot of shots, had a lot of opportunities around the rim. They were switching everything, so we tried to go inside quite a bit, but didn't have too much results in there. Ike Diogu hurt us in the first half and we just couldn't seem to get anything going tonight. It was a funny night. We haven't had much energy at home lately, and kind of didn't have any again tonight."
Jon Krawczynski, Associated Press: Is it disappointing to finish up this way?
KM: "Yeah, you want your guys to play better and have some fun the last game and go out with a win, but you know, like I said, we just didn't seem to have much energy all night and had the ball point-blank quite a bit. They were switching a lot of things and we got inside quite a bit, but Craig was the only guy that was in there who was finishing, and he got in foul trouble, but I think Craig was on his way to having a big game, and instead he had foul trouble. He was the only one of our bigs that could kind of get the ball down there and be effective against the little guys. That's one thing that we talked about. I've talked to Love all year about his improvement, and he body-hunts upstairs, he's up and leaning and then he's traveling. You've got to get your rear-end down and find them with your hips, a lot of little stuff, but Kevin's a diligent kid, he'll figure it out."
Anonymous: [BR Note: I think it was Patrick Reusse]:You coached 63 games, does it feel like more or less?
KM: "I don't know. I actually enjoyed a lot of them. I enjoyed being with the guys. We have a really good group of guys, great kids. They played hard for the most part. They had a couple, like I said, home game funks were kind of...we played with so much more energy and so much more vigor on the road, it was very hard to figure out that. Even tonight, we had the mud thing going again. Like I said, the guys...I had a handful of games that was very upset with their effort. Tonight we get the ball, you can't get the ball point-blank that much and not score and expect to win games in the NBA, especially when you've got a team that switches everything. We had guards guarding bigs and littles, and all kinds of mismatches. We just weren't really able to take advantage of that tonight.
Britt Robson: Do you owe it to anybody to return to this team?
KM: "I really like those guys, and if I owe it to anybody, I owe it to the players to try to come in and help them. I think that they're young guys that have a lot of growing and learning to do, but I think they'll put in the work. Like I told them, I said you can lead the horse to water, but you can't make him drink; you can get the ball in the paint, but doggonit you've got to score down there. If I don't come back, I'll miss the guys, because they really are a quality group of guys. They're as nice a group of young men you'll ever find. They come in, they're resilient, they fight back, you ask them to give you something and they'll try to do it for you. There were times tonight that we didn't recognize mismatches and did a lot of stuff, but part of that is just that we had trouble all year with teams that switched and stuff. Our recognition, our posting, our posting off of it, a lot of little things that you get better at as you get better in our league. Then again, I looked at our bench and I thought I'd like to have Al in there against those guards down there. I think they would have stopped a lot of that switching. Craig was able to just manhandle them down there, and that's what you've got to do. Craig's been in the league a few years. Love will get there, I know Craig's first year he did the same thing. Everyone gets better."
Anonymous: Kevin, would you like to come back and is the timetable your decision?
KM: "Well, we'll see what happens. I'm not going to answer any of those question, so you can quit asking them. We'll see what happens."
Jon Krawczynski: What did you tell the guys after the game?
KM: "I told them that no matter who is coaching and no matter where they're at, effort and energy are your department as a player, and you better bring that every single night and that when you do that, when you bring a concentrated effort every single night, good things start happening, but when your effort level or concentration level sometimes wanes or fluctuates, that's.... If good effort and concentration every night gets you 30 and 10 every night, you'd be Michael Jordan, and there's only one of him. Sometimes your best effort and concentration isn't all that...the results aren't all that good, but you're there every single night. You're checked in and ready to go. I think with young teams, and I really noticed it with our team, that they start off ok, but then a couple bad things happen and boy the heads go down. They just got to learn that the NBA game, I've heard one guy describe it one time, it's like you're stuck in a bottom of a well and there's 82 buckets of dirt coming on you, and you've got to be able to shake off the ones that don't feel good and step on the dirt and get out of the well. It's just a long, hard... If you stay down there, the dirt covers you up and you die, so you've got to be able to shake off the bad ones, step on the dirt, and keep moving up. It's a long, hard season. I think the tendency with young guys is that they let the dirt pile up on them a little bit before they battle back, but I was proud of the guys for battling. We've got some guys out there that are very, very competitive and they try every single night, and that's where everybody's got to get to. We've got some young guys out there who really battle and play hard all the time. Again, it's just...playing hard and battling doesn't necessarily mean you're going to win, it just means that it gives yourself a chance to win. Then it's skill level and improvement, and that's... No matter what happens, and I've been saying this since I got here since I played a while before I got here, there are very few players that come in--and the guys who come in as rookies and cause you to win, they're hall of fame players. Bird. Duncan. You can go through the list of guys who come in and help teams play, those are hall of fame guys. Everybody wants those, but if we're thinking that rookies are going to come in here and make everything fine... These guys in that room have got to get better, that's the big thing, that's how you really improve, and then you add rookies and they get better. I can tell you, whoever we draft next year will get his teeth kicked in a little bit, everybody does. It's a process."
Sid Hartman: You would have been a better coach if you had Jefferson all year
KM: "Well, we didn't. He was hurt."
Anonymous [BR: She is a female television or radio reporter]: Kevin, there are a lot of former players that have been coaches, and the guys don't respond to them, but every time you've coached, they respond to you. You said earlier this year that a lot of them are like your kids...
KM:"I've got my kids in the back, I like them a little bit better, especially tonight. Well actually tonight I love them a lot better than those other guys, but I'll try to get my love back for them tomorrow morning."
Anonyous: [BR: Same reporter, a followup]: Is that what they respond to you though, the players?
KM:"Well, look it. If there's one thing I know as a player, it's hard out there. If it was easy to be out there, everybody would do it. I always laugh, people always ask me when I decided to become an NBA player, like I decided. Like I woke up one night or one morning at 21 and said, I haven't been doing anything lately, I think I'll just join the NBA. It doesn't work like that. You start grinding when you're a 10-year-old kid. You go in your driveway and you play and you do all these things and then you go out there and you play your hardest, and you just look like dog meat and you fight and you fight and you've got nothing, but you fight. I tell them all the time, I appreciate guys who fight hard and give nothing more than they've got. When you're 9-for-10, believe me, everybody in the arena looks at you, great, you're looking good running up and down the floor, you've got energy to spare, the game is so easy it's ridiculous. It's when you're 1-for-9, what you've got, and believe me I was 1-for-9 a lot. It's the grind, and I think that's the one thing I understand in the guys. I will, and I do, get on them very very hard, but I also talk to them a bit and go up to them and ask them how they're doing and if they understand why I'm on them, and what I want out them, do they understand what they need to give and do they understand that sometimes they hold back. You can't hold back. You've got to give it your all. You've got to lay it on the line, and I've found that with a lot of players, they're afraid to lay it on the line because if it's not good enough, you have no fallback. If you always say, well, I didn't really try that hard... If you say, look, I busted my hump, did everything I could, the guy kicked my rear end, you go home and go to bed, that's all you can do. I understand that aspect of the guys, and we talk about that a lot. I like them, I genuinely like them. I think that when you genuinely like people, they usually respond and genuinely like you back. I don't look at any of these guys and think, you're screwing me out of my job or anything. I've never believed that. I've never thought a player would walk in front of a crowd of 15,000 people and said, I'm going to purposefully dog it so I can get the coach fired. I've heard of that happening, but I can't imagine it happening myself. My pride as a player wouldn't allow me to go out there and lay down on the job, no matter what happens. I think it's all those things when we talk a little bit. They're a good group of guys."
Jerry Zgoda (Star Tribune): What are you going to do now?
KM: "What am I going to do now? My son and I were going to fix the deck, I don't think my wife hired someone. She has no faith in my carpentry skills. I'm going to have to go out there and see what's happening. I've got some stuff to do around the house. We'll go up to the cabin early next week and open that up, and you know, do stuff I enjoy doing. Believe it or not, raking the pine needles and getting up there and starting a great big fire and burning everything up, I like that. I liked that when I was 12, and I still like it when I'm 51."
JB [BR: Not Sure who JB refers to. It might have been Tom Powers of the PiPress]: Your second go-around, how would you assess your performance as head coach?
KM: "I thought that when we had Al, we were starting to figure out how to play. Like I said, with Al, the temptation is to throw it Al, and everybody gets stagnant; we were able to finally start getting some screening, rolling, moving, play fast and playing slow when Al came down and using Al as a main prong after you tried to get some pace and some other stuff, because I felt we got slow sometimes with Al. No one touched the ball. Once Al went out, I think I monkeyed around too much. I think we went too much pick-and-roll, too much stuff, and I wasn't happy with myself. We should have done more of what we did tonight: pound it inside. If we had done that, maybe guys would have been better tonight and we would have won our last game, but I think we tried drive and kick and a lot of stuff where we turned it over high, and they ran off those turnovers, and I think that really led to us stumbling a little bit more. I think the last couple weeks we got back to some other stuff we were doing, posted up more, did some other things we probably should have done the whole thing. I thought when Al went out, I thought well, let's open it up and really kind of play a different style and see it. That is the tough thing about injuries in the middle of the year, or taking over in the middle of the year, because you're kind of experimenting. You work the experiment for a couple weeks, and that one doesn't work, then you try another one, and before you know it, you've won one of your last nine games, and you go jeez, we better try something else. I probably monkeyed around a little too much with that stuff, and I should have stayed a little bit more with what we were doing. I tell you, like I told those guys, like I tell them all the time, if they forgive me my mistakes, I promise them that I'll forgive them their mistakes. That's what it is. This isn't high school, this isn't college where you're just cursing the guys out and beating the crap out of them, this is a co-operative effort between adults. There are times when you have to unfortunately have to act like an idiot and yell and scream at them, but that's too often. I made mistakes and I think you have to walk in there and tell the you made mistakes. Hell, if you're calling them out on their mistakes, you've got to be able to walk in and say look, I should have substituted you more, I should have played you more, you had a good rhythm going and I took you out at the wrong time. If you can't admit that, then I don't know, you're in the wrong business."
Jerry Zgoda: How long do you think this 'We'll see' process will take?
KM: "Like I said, we'll see."
Sid Hartman: That's a fancy shirt you have on!
KM: "I'm showing my chest hair..."
Sid Hartman: It looks like the one you wore when you got married.
KM: "I've worn more suits than I have in a long time, I'll tell you that."
Jerry Zgoda: Did you allow yourself to look around at the end think, this is the last time?
KM: "I just wanted to see if we were going to win. I tried to enjoy the guys and we'll see what happens. You know, if it is, it is, if it's not, it's not. All things change and comes to ends, and stuff like that, and you do different things, and life's a fun journey. You do different stuff. You try to enjoy what you're doing and do the best job you can at it, and move on from there."
That's it. It's as good of a snapshot as you're going to get of McHale in one 13-minute byte.
As for the tip...
Piecing a few roundabout comments from a variety of sources together, I believe one of the people on Glen Taylor's list of GM candidates is former Indiana Pacers' GM and current D League franchise owner David Kahn. It's my understanding that Taylor has brought Kahn in for interviews two or three times already, indicating he may be a serious candidate. I'll try and find out more about this from Taylor himself in the next day or two. And if I'm wrong in my understanding of what folks were trying to tip me off to, then of course I'll report that too.
Meanwhile, here's transcript of an interview Kahn did for Basketball Biz a year and a half ago: http://www.bizofbasketball.com/index.php?view=article&id=68%3AInterview+-+David+Kahn+-+D-League+Owner%2C+and+former+GM+Indiana+Pacers&Itemid=1&option=com_content
36 Reader Comments
I'll read this in its entirety at work tomorrow, but I skimmed it for Sid's comments...
And...
Wow...
OH. My. GOD.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Thanks, I can't wait to read the rest of it :-)
Britt, what are your thoughts on Kahn? He seemed a little opportunistic in the interview, but I suppose that could be a good thing. It also mentioned that he leaves personnel matters to the coaches of each respective franchise and has extensive experience managing a salary cap.
I suppose--after a long, grueling, unsuccessful, frustrating, injury-laden, excuse-ridden season--asking a harder question about why the team can't defend would be Midwestern Inappropriate. Apparently, it would be as difficult as a woman becoming spiritual leader of the Taliban.
Instead, we get chest hair, suits, deck repairing, cabin opening, pine needle raking and burning. I get that he's One Of Us, but what is all the back slapping about? They were bad with Al, and worse without him.
As much as folks like to remember how well the players "responded" to him back in the day when he first replaced Flip, they didn't make the playoffs then either, losing to terrible teams like Atlanta down the stretch.
I would politely suggest that if this team ever wants to be playoff-deep successful, someone integral to the team should raise the bar a little. Maybe that will finally, incredibly happen in the off-season, but the evidence isn't real compelling at this point, especially if no one talks all, or has a different strategy about playing defense.
Sid's comments remind me of my great grandpa, who sits in the corner and makes random comments that don't pertain to the flow of the dialog.
But I am not here to pick on Sid, I just wanted to say "thanks" to Britt for the high quality coverage of the wolves. I can say, among other things, that reading this blog helped me be a better coach for my sons team. Hope to read you soon elsewhere.
Peter--
I understand your frustration. And typically, the day after the season is the time when McHale (then as VP of personnel) and the front office gets grilled. Right after the final game of the season, especially one that ends the association of most everyone in the room for about six months, is a little surreal, and not a lot of substance is broached.
That said, if you really want to know why the team doesn't play defense very well, check out the roster. Shelden Williams came on a bit at the very end, but precisely at the time Ryan Gomes seemed to regress, and aside from Cardinal and to a lesser extent Ollie and Madsen (in other words, all the relatively unathletic vets) there was no defensive "stopper" after Brewer went down.
Meanwhile, the starting lineup for the final tilt had what every wag in the place called a "senior day" feel to it: Ollie, Madsen, Cardinal, Collins, and Miller. I figure this was either an attempt to get the team to play D or the most blatant message yet to Miller that shooting the ball was his top priority.
Mufasa--
I don't know Kahn at all. I had to look him up to get any info on the guy. But I know he's not a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed young protege of one of the stat-oriented clubs like Portland or Houston, which is the kind of guy I'd like to see them go after.
(BTW, I had a wonderful 5-minute discussion/debate with Jim Stack back in the media dining room just before the game that renews my fondness for the guy. I'll get into it a little in a day or two, but will add right now that Stack is not afraid of forthright discussion--that's twice now he's encouraged it, as a matter of fact--and is somebody I'd be happy to see stick around if the team decides to stand pat.)
Forgive me for stating the obvious, but this fiasco needs to be blown up in the off season. If only for the sake of showing the few remaining fans that they actually give a shit and want to see the team survive.
I just can't muster the slightest positive feeling about any guy on the roster, except Kevin Love.Miller, Jefferson, Foye and Gomes...They are all deeply flawed and certainly don't belong together if they belong at all.
When I listened to the Sunday morning WCCO sports show, which I hadn't done for 3-4 years, I was surprised how unjournalistic Sid sounds these days. But from what I hear he's kind of a figurehead (I did a sportswriting workshop as an intern at the Strib six years ago and heard the guy giving the tour say that Sid just dictates his columns into a tape recorder and someone else writes them up).
As for the Wolves, I as a fan would also like to see wholesale change but also like Stack and realize that throwing out the baby with the bath water, in the front office or with players, wouldn't be a good idea, either. The post-Jordan Bulls had Ron Artest and Elton Brand and set back their rebuilding process by trading them away. Even if some guys are mismatched parts, trading them now when many of them aren't at peak value would just prolong this situation.
Personally, I'd like to see them draft guys who aren't bad perimeter defenders with their first-rounders, draft international guys with their second-rounders, offer their mid-level exception to a large group of vets and sign the first one who accepts to a 2-3 yr deal ('Sheed, McDyess, Kidd, Andre Miller, Bibby, Shawn Marion, Grant Hill), or offer $2-3 mil to a guy like Rasho Nesterovic. Ideally, they can also use Miller's and/or Cardinal's deals with Pekovic's rights to add a Chandler-type player.
There will be opportunities. Marc Stein and Ric Bucher were on Bill Simmons' podcast this week and mentioned that about 2/3 to 3/4 of the teams will be sellers this year while the rest will be buyers. Maybe the Wolves can't be as ambitious as Mark Cuban (who offered to eat two of the Hornets' bad contracts if they'd give him Chris Paul), but this offseason seems like a better time to maximize their assets. With that in mind, only Jefferson can be considered untouchable.
If they do some good work this offseason, I'll start going to the games again.
What I found most confusing about David Kahn is that he supposedly lets other people make personnel decisions, wouldn't this be opening the door for another committee approach? Something Glen Taylor has explicitly said he wants to avoid.
That being said, hiring a more executive type like Kahn could be a good thing if Kahn is willing to put the right people in place to evaluate players (Yay Efficiency Stats).
When you consider Kahn's experience, it seems like he would be taking the place of Glen Taylor in the food chain, rather then anyone else. Kahn would hire the coaches, personnel directors, scouts, etc...Allow for them to make the decisions, but then have final say when need be. No more opportunity for *Insert Minnesota Sports Figure* and friends!
I've officially talked myself into the David Kahn era.
Paging,
I think the problem is that there are no babies, only bath water. We would have been the worst team in the league without the Jan. run, and were pretty damn close with it.
Our three best scorers (Miller, Foye, Al)are all selfish and one dimensional, and the remaining guys should be bench players at best. This isn't the first month of the season...we've had a full two years look at this core group, and it is awful.
Now realistically, we are not going to trade the whole team, but we do need to take the attitude that no player is untouchable and we must approach the draft based on talent NOT need. From where I sit the need is an upgrade at every position. The time to get bold and aggressive is past due.
TwinsTime--
I don't mind negativity but it needs to be substantial and not just reflex cynicism. Specifically, you say that the Wolves' three best scorers are all one dimensional, but the problem (and I would argue the selfishness) with Miller this season was he wasn't one-dimensional enough--shooting the ball. Career highs in rebounds and assists indicate that he was hardly the player you describe.
You also say the team has had two years to look at the core group, but you obviously leave out a person you just described as one of the three best scorers--Miller--who has been here one year. And in your first post of the day, you mentioned Love as being one of the people who gave you a positive feeling--he's a rookie. How does 40% of the top five players on the team being new constitute two years of a "core group."
Next time, bring your A game or consign yourself to parsing Joe Mauer's back and the odd troubles of Kevin Slowey.
I would agree with Twins Time. Other than maybe Love, there is not a single player on this roster that should be considered untouchable. I think Peter is spot on when he says that expectations for this team have been lowered so far that fans would be happy with a 35 win season and downright ecstatic with a 8 seed in the playoffs.
There is no culture of winning around here. And McHale personifies that with his "somedays you have it, somedays you don't" and "shucks, they sure try hard" mentality. He seems way too content with losing and so do most of the guys on the team. Of course, and maybe most importantly, so does Glen Taylor.
Britt,
Those are valid nitpickings...I should have flushed things out a bit better. The one dimensional point was directed at the defensive shortcomings of those three players. I'll concede that Miller is a pretty decent passer, unlike the other two.
I don't consider Miller part of the core as I've always viewed him as short term trade bait (which unfortunately didn't materialize this year). The point has already been made on this blog about Miller padding his non-shooting stats and trying to showcase himself for his next contract...I generally agree.
So, I'll rephrase... we've seen two years of the core (ex. Love). Can you agree the results have been awful?
Hey Britt,
I'm interested in why you phrased what you likely knew would be your only question in the manner that you did. "Do you owe it to anybody to return to this team?" Were you just trying to get a uniquely asked question about the future out there (note that he spoke to your inquiry while quickly rejecting the next question that was more direct) or were you hoping to glean something specific from his response?
And regardless of intent, were you able to gain any insight from his fairly stock answer? Any thoughts about who he chose not to mention (Glen Taylor, himself)?
I don't disagree that there are some negatives. However, a team that supposedly is "on the rise" (OKC) just finished with one fewer win than the Wolves despite having no significant injuries (unless Desmond Mason counts, and it doesn't). The main difference is that people think Durant is a much better player than Jefferson, that OKC doesn't have any redundant parts, and that the potential of Green and Westbrook is higher than the potential of Love and Foye. The only one that is true for certain is that the Wolves have some redundant parts.
Pagingstanleyroberts: The difference between Oklahoma City and Minnesota is that the Thunder and Sam Presti seem to have a clear plan as to the future of their franchise. They know what they are doing and they are executing the plan to the best of their ability. I don't get that same impression from the Wolves. I don't think we have a plan - despite the "blueprint" - and even if we did, there are so many moving parts that we couldn't possibly hope to execute it properly.
Paging Stanley Roberts- is on the mark-when pointing out people are too giddy about OKC at this point in time. Especially when you consider that at similar ages to Durant/Westbrook- Garnett/Marbury were in the playoffs.
I don't need to explain further how this went wrong.
There are other issues with the Thunder such as Russell Westbrook's Shooting and Jeff Green's Rebounding along with Overall Defensive production going forward.
Although the Thunder can clearly add some more high-level assets going forward in the draft and on account of cap space. I don't think anyone would deny that Sam Presti has a very good reputation on the other hand.
The thing that probably seperates the Thunder from the Wolves is upside of what they currently have on the roster.
I don't know how much better Al, Foye, Gomes or Rhino are really going to get. Where as with the Thunder players like Durant, Westbrook, and Thabo could clearly improve.
This discussion though would probably look very different if the Wolves had ended up with Kevin Durant and the Thunder had to pick Number 7 in the 2007 draft.
I can't say I know a ton about Kahn. I will add though if he was a right-hand man to Donnie Walsh- he's got a pretty nice pedigree. He also seems to have a pretty unique background of expereiences that he could bring to a Front Office.
Lowered expectations, celebrations of mediocrity, moral victories and excuse-making are hallmarks of the Minnesota sports landscape and it seems to get worse every year. Sports fans in the Twin Cities have been beaten down to the point where a 30 victory Wolves season, an 8th seed one and done Wild year, a non-competitive Vikings playoff loss, another illegitimate yet contending Twins club, yet another irrelevant Gophers bowl game or first round tournament loss are all lauded as successes by a majority of media and fans.
That two of the most recognizable sports media figures are ludicrous cheerleaders like Shooter and Sid Hartman says a lot, as does decades of complaining from the teams themselves about small markets, revenue shares, poor facilities blah blah. Minnesota’s teams, aside from perhaps the Vikings, don’t see themselves as organizations with the desire and resources to win and win big. The goal is to be competitive and that attitude filters down from the men in charge to the media to the fans to the players and coaches themselves.
And so we get a laughably pathetic end-of-the road press conference from McHale where he’s hurled softballs and talks about raking pine needles.
Well this whole thing really seems to give the impression that McHale is gone.
When you parse it down the whole air of it is that he is not coming back.
I definitely don't want Hoiberg to take over. And having heard Stack's name in connection to the Wolves for years, I really don't want him either.
It seems pretty clear to me, despite Britt's vouching for Stack, that we need someone from outside the organization.
This whole group has been so riddled with incompetence and stupidity that I just don't trust anyone associated with it.
Of course I don't know much. I'm not an insider. But as an avid reader and Wolf-watcher I can guess that if Stack gets the reins it will be more of the same.
You know he will keep on some of the idiots that he feels sorry for. One of them will look at him with puppy-dog eyes and say,
"Jim! Please! I have 10 kids! And the wife needs new Guccis!"
and Jim will say,
"Oh, alright. I guess we can keep you on, Gomer."
And then the Wolves are screwed!
If Taylor goes with an internal candidate for GM it's going to be interesting to see how he tries to sell it to the public.
I think the "We are are on the right track and we'll continue to improve approach" is not going to sell any more season tickets. But, there's a reason Mr. Taylor is a billionaire and I am not.
I just think Taylor is living millions of dollars on the table by selecting an internal candidate. Picking up a new, young executive has to sell some new season tickets and excite the fan base. Maybe Mr. Taylor thinks Fred Hoibert is that new young executive.
Thanks for your HOT TIP, Britt. At least we know 1 of the 6 external candidates. It's sad for MN sports coverage that the one actual name comes not from the two major papers.
Relax, WBL. It's just a game. Sid Hartman is hilarious and a link to the Minneapolis Lakers of yore - what's not to like? We've got Mr. Robson here to explain things and ask the tough questions, so let old man Sid be. Plus it's the offseason now - the only time of the year that a T-wolves fan can truly be optimistic. Remember how sweet Big Al's moves are? Remember when Foye went off for awhile? Love looks like the sort of scrappy, intelligent player that will only get better with age, and the rest of the guys seem to at least be trying, most of the time. If nothing but banners in the rafters and around the clock talking head coverage is good enough for you then go buy a Kobe jersey; the rest of us won't miss you if and when the Wolves do get moving in the right direction again. And if they suck forever then so be it - true Minnesota sports fans stay loyal and never say die. Look at the Arizona Cardinals this year. Look at the Diamondbacks last year. The Bulls and Hawks sucked forever but are in the playoffs this year. The dang Charlotte Bobcats almost made it this year, and when the Wolves finally return, it will be sweet.
@Flandango: I'm sorry, but that's a ridiculous argument.
First of all "the Bulls and Hawks sucked forever"...umm, I guess you missed the late 80s and the 90s, huh?
But more importantly, I don't think its terrible or disloyal to expect more from a sports organiztion about their committment and desire to produce winners. If I want to root for a winner I have to root for the Lakers? That seems terribly depressing...
Sorry, but if the Mavericks can turn their poor excuse for a franchise around, I don't think its out of the question for the Wolves to do the same. Of course, in Dallas' case, what changed was the owner. Which I think is the real problem with the Wolves.
Great stuff Britt.
The Kahn interview is a bit contradictory; he boasts about his deals for Foster and Tinsley and at the same time talks about how he stays out of player-personnel decisions. Regardless, it's hard to stomach he stays completely out of those decisions.
His track record for the Pacers is above-average; he acquired Artest, Brad Miller and Jermaine O'Neal through some good trades and helped a rebuilding team get to the playoffs. The guy seems to be very driven. It'd be nice to hear more about him, but it sounds like he is a big improvement over our current situation.
Just a thought - how about Mullin as the new Guru of Basketball? He's clearly on the outs in Oakland, and while he's made some bad deals there, he also made the picks and trades that led that team to the playoffs a few years ago.
Tim Allen - you should be able to infer from the fact that I'm posting on a basketball blog that I am aware of the most famous basketball player of all time, his team, and some of the other great players and good teams that were around in his era. However, both the Bulls and the Hawks did suck for quite a long time (though you're right, not "forever"). The thing is, I don't just want to "root for a winner". I want to root for the Wolves, and I will, regardless of whether or not they're winning. That's why the intense negativity and judgmental attitudes gets to me sometimes. I mean damn, go do something else with your time if the Wolves after-game press conferences are not up to your standards.
To clarify, I agree that OKC has more to show for their plan than the Wolves do. I've always considered them to have a better future, and a guy like Westbrook would obviously have more upside than a guy like Foye because of his athleticism and wingspan. I just don't think Krstic and Sefolosha have shown enough to imply that they can be key cogs on a title contender. But it's disconcerting that their record is worse than the Wolves' despite having a healthy team. I think having a healthy Jefferson would've pushed the Wolves to 30 wins, easily.
Garwood B--
Yeah, I worded the question specifically to appeal to his loyalty to the players, in the hopes that it would open him up to the point where he might divulge a little more of his thinking on the "will he stay or go" question.
TwinsTime--
Fair enough, and thanks for the civil, measured response.
Those who are angry in their frustration or who feel that Minnesotans accept too low of a standard, well, I'm really not sure motivation is the lever right now. I'm not blaming anybody--folks have read more than one snit-oriented game review from me, and I can't shut up about my criticism of Miller--but I do want to reestablish some perspective.
What motivates an owner or front office guy to alter behavior is less anger than diminished revenue. A couple months ago, the Wolves ranked dead last in the NBA in percentage of tickets sold in the arena--I think they were 24th out of 30 in overall attendance but apparently Target Center is larger than many venues and thus we were last in how full our building was. I haven't checked recently to see if that was bumped up, but I know that some folks used last year's $3 season ticket deal when the lottery number-ticket price connection promotion was implemented. Ditto this year, the price is being lowballed and the sales pitch is hard-sell, meaning that overall revenues are terrible.
What this all means is that the fans have voted. I'm still around because I'm always going to be around--I love the NBA. But I understand the frustration and hope Taylor understands it too. The people still reading this blog are likewise die-hards; you may temporarily go away for awhile, but the game is in your blood. That's why the quality of commenting is so strong here.
Which is all to say that Taylor almost has to shake things up. There is occasionally virtue in not panicking and going for quick fixes. But at this point, substantial changes have to be made, if only to draw back the curious and the front-runners who might perceive they can be on the ground floor of a new era. Ironically, the same o same o, the familiarity factor that normally is shrewd public relations, make work in the opposite direction this time. I sense Wolves fans, casual and die-hard alike, want a change. The time is ripe. And that doesn't mean I believe McHale to be an unfit coach, or that Stack can't be good at what he does. In fact I like McHale's coaching and have been favorably impressed in my (admittedly small) dealings with Stack. But the investments in a chronically losing proposition have been too significant not to bring in someone unencumbered by the prevailing culture. And the more power that person has, the better. It may be disastrous, but it won't be clouded by overly wishful thinking.
Sam Young will save us all.
McHale is all but gone. He was to blame for many of the team's failings, but not all. Luck, or the lack of it, played a huge role. Hopefully he will return at some future date, redeemed as a Minnesota icon. He remains a common sense fun-loving soul that many of us identify with as being particularly "Minnesotan" in outlook.
There seems to be this major thread that everything McHale said was puffery. Sid and the chest hair aside, I guess I'm in the minority in that I found his comments really telling about the direction of the franchise this year and going forward.
"I thought when Al went out, I thought well, let's open it up and really kind of play a different style and see it."
"I just wanted to see if we were going to win. I tried to enjoy the guys and we'll see what happens."
Those comments are telling in not only what they reveal but what they don't. There's no company line there. No evaluation versus a strategic plan. We call it "management by objectives" in my line of work and when I do my year-end assessment, I evaluate myself against the goals that I, my manager, and the guys with the word "chief" in their titles established at the beginning of the year. Things come up and you manage around them, still working toward some overall goal.
"There were certain goals and expectations that we had for this team at the start of the season, and we have not lived up to them," Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said in a statement when Wittman was fired.
So, what were the goals for McHale when he was hired? Did they change after Al went down?
McHale's comments make it seem like the goals and expectations of this season (particularly after Al went down) were to muddle through, win as often as possible, enjoy playing the game, and throw Kevin Love into the deep end and let him learn.
As a fan, that's obviously not enough for me. Wasn't the team going to have a defensive identity this year? How'd that work out? Did we identify any pieces that fit into the "blue-print for success", or the desired identity of the team? Is that identity the same as it was last year? Did we build or grow in any major way or was it totally a lost year?
Maybe we'll have a better idea of those questions after Taylor's press conference. Hopefully Taylor will address this quote from when McHale was hired:
"Kevin has assembled the players on this team, and believes in their talent and skill level. It is my expectation that Kevin will be able to get the most out of our team and our players in his new role as head coach."
Glen, based on that quote and how you heard Kevin assess his own performance, how would you assess Kevin's performance and the direction of the team going into next season?
GBJ: just from looking at it from down here, I think McHale did pretty well considering what he had to work with. The guys played hard up until the (almost) very end and that is encouraging. I agree with what Britt said in that the fans - die hard or otherwise- really need to see a change in the "country club" culture that currently is in place. The first step was kicking McHale down to coach. We all know that, whether or not McHale coaches next year, he is NOT the long term solution for the Wolves. That being said, when the new GM/VPOBO comes in, he needs to get rid of McHale, rather than letting him coach one more go round and we lose a year of learning a new system. I've been a Wolves fan since they first appeared and while I'm not as fanatical about them as some, I will continue to root for the wolves and hope they will become a playoff team again.
WBL: I'm sure that while our professional teams are not champions every year, they keep us excited about their respective sports. Just think about how die-hard Clipper fans are. . .
Crazy thought...or not...
Jefferson and one of our first rounders for Chris Bosh (plus change to balance). If we can't convince Bosh to stay we turn him into a few promising youngsters/picks and cap relief mid season.
A substantial talent upgrade, a much better fit (start running), a marketing coup, and it looks like Toronto will lose him anyways.
I don't mean to rip on Minnesota sports fans, I just think the self analysis is interestnig.
The public has turned on McHale, sort of. But he's still a "common sense Minnesotan" and as Ruesse said, we pine for the old fun-loving McHale - never mind that he drove the Wolves into the ground and has left them at a point so low it's reasonable to predict they will end up moving out of town.
Was it all McHale's fault? Absolutely not, but most of it was. And as for those who argue "hey, at least we aren't the Clipper or 90's Hawks" ask yourself whether this team would have made the playoffs ever in its history if they hadn't received the 5th pick - rather than say the 3rd or 4th - in 1995 draft. That was luck as good as any bad the franchise has had.
The Iron Ranger's folksy chit chat and local heritage more or less allowed him to stick around in his job for years longer then he would have in any other city before the tide turned against him to the point where ownership had to get rid of him due to fan and media unrest. No one should feel sorry for the guy, and as for the argument that he's a "pretty good coach" there's no evidence to back it up - other than some games where, gosh darn it, the kids tried really hard. That's not enough, and it Minnesota it shouldn't be treated as such.
To add to what Britt and WinMO said, I don't think there's a person on this board who wouldn't rather see a better team than this at this point. Strangely, not trading KG until now was good for the status quo in management because fans would still come to see him play, no matter how bad the team was, and the team didn't get this bad when he was here.
But there's a limit. There's only so much that fans can do. Taylor's not reading these sites and agonizing over what people think, so the only way he's going to make changes is if people stop showing up to Target Center. I made that choice, but I can't stop watching the games regularly (even if it's not every game), and I'm going to enjoy it when they win while knowing that they have a ways to go. But it's not the job of any fan to stress over where they're at, so why do it? No matter how much a fan likes basketball, no matter how much they pore over and understand the old and the new stats, no matter how closely they follow the teams, the only vote they have is with their wallet. That's the first thing most business owners understand. It's not completely logical or ethical, but it can be effective.
runny -- Chris Bosh is not a substantial talent upgrade over Jefferson. He might be a better fit, but there are some/many GMs in this league who wouldn't trade him straight up for Jefferson. His team was barely better than the Wolves this year despite him being healthy and having a much better second star (Calderon) than anyone on the Wolves' roster. Also, if the Raptors were convinced Bosh was leaving and that they had to move him, I'm pretty sure the Wolves could offer Jefferson straight up for him and the Raptors would take it.
Well, once again, I have to disagree with most of you posting here (although Britt, if you read carefully what you're saying you might find you're much closer than you think to the "stay pat + add on + get a defensive assistant coach" position I'm espousing). I just happen to think we have a much better team than most of you. And as to second-guessing whether a change in GM or coach will fill the bleachers again? Sorry, but I can't think of anything LESS important come opening day.
So, how good a coach is McHale? Bottom line, we really don't know. We do know that he is able to give a brutally honest assessment of himself and his players (which is no small measure of the man). We also know that he was one of the best low-post men in the game and has brought both Big Al and Rhino along wonderfully on below-the-rim play (he's always participated in coaching practices, even as GM). I personally also think that he's doing a good job with a very young KLove and is getting the most out of what he has to work with for the rest.
Sure, people dump on McHale something terrible for the Roy-Foye trade. But every organization has "one that got away" (...and several that stayed that you wish they hadn't!) And even at that, the jury is still out on Foye.
He's athletic and talented and has a great attitude otherwise, but seems to think that fourth-quarter heroics are what makes him a great ball player. He's got to understand that if he's only shooting 4-for-14, the team will probably be in a position where it's gonna need those fourth quarter heroics... and the odds are 2-in-3 that he'll end up the goat not the hero. Better (as the Spurs playing style demonstrates) to constantly put forth your best team effort and little by little pull away so that the game is not even in question at the end.
In closing, are we talking about the same David Kahn that presided over the decline of a great franchise in Indiana, almost to the point of extinction in that basketball fanatics' city? And what's so great about his promotion of the D-League (...seems to me it should be called the Limbo League). Sure, he can probably talk the same language as Taylor - their both being owners - but I've read some interviews from Jerome O'Neil about how heavy things were for his last four years in Indy, and if you think there's despair in Minnesota now...
Anyway, that's my two cents worth... :-)
yes, i do agree There's only so much that fans can do. Taylor's not reading these sites and agonizing over what people think, so the only way he's going to make changes is if people stop showing up to Target Center. I made that choice, but I can't stop watching the games regularly (even if it's not every game), and I'm going to enjoy it when they win while knowing that they have a ways to go
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