Tas and Skeets/The Basketball Jones discuss the Wolves situation in their daily podcast.
There’s no hiding behind the coach, and no speculating as to whether you’ve put together a team that should be able to produce. It’s just the GM and what he hath wrought. McHale passed this test the first time around. Without Garnett, though, it’ll be a little tougher. And if he comes through, we just might all learn something.
From Stop-n-Pop/Canis Hoopus- The Glen and Kevin Show!!!
From Alec Schimke/TimberwolvesPress: Thoughts On The Firing of Randy Wittman
From Andrew Thell/Empty The Bench: McHale Fires Wittman, Appoints Only Successor He Can Trust to Maintain Minnesota’s High Standards of Ineptitude
From Scott Henneboehle/Wolves Watch: Ask and Ye Shall Receive: Wittman fired after 4-15 start
From RandBall:
[By the way, one unnamed person, upon hearing the news, summed it up by saying, “So they fired Dracula but kept Frankenstein?”]
1. Wittman got what he deserved. You could see it in the body language of players. You could hear it whenever Wittman talked about a loss. This train went off the tracks fast and early. The preseason and first 19 games of this season were like Lindsay Lohan’s career. Excitement and promise faded to ranting, hand-wringing and car wrecks (figurative in one case, literal in another). Now it’s time for some rehab.
Now, much of the blame for the present debacle must certainly go to Wittman. With his bewildering and inconsistent rotation, his punitive substitutions, his often PE teacher-ish demeanor, he is certainly responsible for his team’s badly frayed psyche. And the on-court result–the painfully timid, anonymous play, the absence of a stylistic identity–that’s also largely his bad. But Randy Wittman didn’t draft Rashad McCants over Danny Granger (currently dropping 23.1 per game), nor did he trade Brandon Roy for Randy Foye…
Give me the Minnesota model. Whether it was Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor forcing the option down McHale’s throat or it was McHale offering himself up for whatever reason, the guy who has had the power over personnel now is responsible for getting the most out of that personnel, rather than being able to point a finger to someone else’s shortcoming.
McHale is reported to have discussed the move with Al Jefferson prior to the decision. Jefferson was in support of the move and pledged to help McHale make it happen. Rarely does a coaching change mid-stream result in a playoff run, the hope for the Timberwolves is to at least be competitive and see what happens.
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