Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor plans to hire a basketball personnel decision-maker to replace former vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale and predicts it will be “sooner rather than later” in the time between next week’s regular-season finish and the June 25 draft.
After studying the front-office operations of several top NBA teams, Taylor said he has decided upon a “more traditional” structure in which final decisions will be made by one person rather than the current committee of General Manager Jim Stack and assistant general managers Fred Hoiberg, Rob Babcock and Zarko Durisic.
He said he has interviewed and psychologically tested candidates both inside and outside the organization after asking other NBA teams for permission to talk to a number of people he would not specify. He said he has one more candidate to interview.
From Sid Hartman:
Flip Saunders said of his future: “I’m confident I will coach someplace next year.” If the Wolves coach this fall isn’t Kevin McHale, look for club owner Glen Taylor to give Saunders every consideration to return to the Wolves.
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Game previews:
The Wolves are a banged up team heading into the two-game West Coast trip early this week. Head coach Kevin McHale told reporters that Rodney Carney suffered a hip injury in the loss to Denver on Sunday night. Carney joined Craig Smith, Randy Foye, and Kevin Love in the group of the walking wounded Wolves. Foye will not make the trip to Los Angeles and Golden State but Love is feeling better after a bout with the flu on Sunday.
That’s a prospect that Foye, who has missed the past four games, isn’t ready to accept.
The Wolves might not have much to play for, but he was working hard on the treadmill after practice Monday and said he’s determined to get back on the court.
“Yes, I want to play,” he said. “I just want to get back out there and see how it feels, even if it’s 20-25 minutes a game.”
The Wolves did get some good news on the injury front Monday.
Rookie forward Kevin Love returned to practice after missing Sunday’s game because of the flu, and forward Craig Smith said he’s nearly 100 percent recovered from a calf strain that has cost him the past four games.
The decision on whether or not to retain Carney’s services seems fraught with risk both ways. The leaper began the season as an afterthought, helped trigger the Wolves’ January surge, made a significant dip where he couldn’t score and didn’t defend all that well, and has gone on another scoring burst over the past three or four weeks. The argument in favor is that he is one of Minnesota’s precious few athletes, he won’t be very expensive–probably less than the $2.5 million per season that Smith and Telfair signed for in the last offseason–and he can expand the defenses in ways that McCants/Miller couldn’t/didn’t this season.
The argument against, which is the way I lean, is that Carney is hopefully redundant with a healthy Corey Brewer, a player the Wolves invested a lottery pick in two seasons ago.
Tom McKean/TrueHoop on the Timberwolves and other “elite NBA teams that never won titles.”
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