Mark Madsen blogs about the team’s winning streak, Al Jefferson’s birthday party and why the player should be an all-star, and McHale’s coaching style.
McHale has a new tradition that no coach I’ve ever played for has used. At the end of practice or a game or before a game when everybody on the team puts their hand in for the break, (“one, two, three, TEAM, or WIN, chant), McHale takes a different approach. Everybody puts their hand in and then McHale will single out one guy and ask for example, “Craig Smith, what do you have for us today?” Craig might say “Family” (as he did once) and then on “three” everyone chants “FAMILY!” I like this as it keeps everyone on their toes and everyone thinking about what they want the chant to be if McHale picks them.
It’s hard to know what exactly to make of this recent surge, aside from the fact that it has made watching Wolves games considerably less painful. We can point to some real improvements: they’ve moved the ball better and played better defense. It’s helped that Sebastian Telfair has been getting more burn and that Foye has settled into his role as a two-guard; it’s helped that Rashad McCants has played less; it’s helped that Kevin Love has played better (by the way, when I mentioned last week that Love rebounds well, it was an understatement–he’s actually in the top ten in the league in rebounds per minute; he’s picked up 22 in his last 43 minutes played alone); it’s really helped that none of those last six wins have come against teams with winning records.
Guard Randy Foye, who tied his career high with 32 points in just three quarters, sounded the same theme.
“I feel as though our confidence is growing,” he said. “Not only because we’re getting the wins, (but) because we’re winning the way that we want to win. We’re playing together, we’re getting stops on defense and we’re rebounding.”
Hard to believe this is the same team that started 0-8 under McHale, who improved to 6-10 since replacing the fired Randy Wittman less than a month ago.
Lost in the shuffle early this season — either nursing a calf injury, as an inactive player or seeing zero to few minutes in games (mostly in garbage time) — Cardinal, 31, lately has emerged. He’s routinely been one of the first players off the bench. While he hasn’t put up big numbers, he is capable of making big plays.
It’s not likely that McHale will remain the coach of the Wolves, but it must be acknowledged that he’s doing a pretty good job considering the circumstances. The team has consistently gotten better and is working on building a more winning culture around the franchise.
The Timberwolves site lists their top 5 games of last year.
From C.J./Star Tribune:
Rashad McCants is seeing more court time with Khloe Kardashian than the Timberwolves these days…
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