Kahn and McHale have second meeting

Alan Draper

Sports Editor

June 4 2009 3 min read

President of basketball operations David Kahn cleared up the McHale-coaching situation after the morning pre-draft workouts.

“We met last night and had another good meeting. Due to his travel schedule, probably won’t be able to see each other until next week.”

“Nothing is going to happen this week, I will assure you all of that. Nothing. I don’t have a timetable; I don’t think it would be appropriate to have a timetable. Again, this is my fault; I created a day-to-day aspect of it that I would like to pull back from.”

From Jerry Zgoda/Star Tribune:

New Timberwolves president of basketball operations David Kahn and Kevin McHale will meet for a third time sometime next week after having dinner together again on Tuesday to discuss the team’s coaching job, which Kahn said he feels no rush to resolve.

“The most important thing is to do this the right way,” Kahn said after watching pre-draft workouts at Target Center on Wednesday morning. “I don’t have a timetable. I don’t think it’d be appropriate to have a timetable. You cannot allow yourself to be driven by schedule in making those types of decisions. You need to be driven by the process and make sure the process delivers the best result. There’s really nothing I sense or feel that means it has to happen now.

“I’m a big believer in thoroughness and detail and preparation.”

From Don Seeholzer/Pioneer Press:

Kahn cautioned not to read anything into the fact the coaching situation remains unresolved and said he isn’t worried about losing a potential candidate to another team.

Former Phoenix Suns and Seattle SuperSonics coach Paul Westphal is the reported front-runner for the only current head coaching vacancy, with the Sacramento Kings, who are expected to fill it by early next week.

The Wolves have kept abreast of that situation, but with the focus on the June 25 NBA draft, Kahn repeated that he has no deadline for making a decision.

“You know, one year in Indiana we hired a coach I think in July,” he said. “There was another time in Indiana where I believe a coach was hired in late August, with Rick Carlisle.”

Even if he wanted to, Kahn said he doesn’t have “the bandwidth” to start a coaching search while simultaneously preparing for a draft in which the Wolves have three first-round picks.

From Darren “Doogie” Wolfson/Star Tribune:

It’s time for Kahn to cut the chord. McHale is being treated as if he were Phil Jackson or John Wooden. He can motivate the players – so can many others. He doesn’t have a playbook or even design plays in-game. That responsibility fell last season to assistant Jerry Sichting. I am struggling to come up with even one semi-plausible reason to retain him.

From Dan Barreiro/KFAN:

Closed circuit to Kahn: Make a call here. You’re not negotiating with Red Auerbach in his coaching prime. Get a deal done with the Ostrich…or move on so you have time to get the next coach in here so maybe he can eventually be involved in viewing what talent might be available.

From Bob Sansevere/Pioneer Press:

Item: Kevin McHale has not been attending NBA workouts at Target Center.

I think: He’s done as coach of the Timberwolves. If there were even a scant chance he was returning as coach, he would be there watching prospective Wolves.

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