McHale will return.

[jn]

Seeing as how the system is down here at work I will take McHale's announcement to ramble a bit about the Wolves this year.  

A lot of what others here have commented on is absolutely correct.  For example I believe Joe and others noted that Cassell's situation is par for the course with Sam.  A big first year followed by decreased production and contract demands.  What makes it worse this time around is that he is also injured.  The Wolves didn't even get a disgruntled Sam this year.  They got a disgruntled Sam who lost most of his mobility.  

Along with that we all knew that Spree is a jackass and Kandi a sloth.  What's especially bad about that is that some of Spree's troubles are not just attitude.  He also just plain lost a step.  He can give you a big night now and again but he simply lost the energy to play well in back to backs.   Of course a better attitude might have helped overcome some of that.   :bash:

As for McHale it's no surprise that he is back.  I think for all his "I've got a handshake deal with the owner and I'd just as soon retire and go fishing" persona is just posturing.  He's put that persona on for a decade now and the real Kevin McHale still has the comptetiveness that mad him a success and also made him do things like shorten his career by trying to play through major injuries.  He himself said yesterday that he'll have a  lot easier time walking away a winner than bailing on a year like this.  Right now the pressure is all on him to hire a good coach and make the right roster moves.  Personally my measuring stick for him is can he find a decent draft pick this year to make up for the mistake that is Ndubi Ebi.  Ebi would not have started for either Illinois or NC this year and I doubt he would have even been first off the bench for NC.  

Another thing I have to call McHale out on was the idea that his taking over as coach would motivate Kandi.  For years the Wolves have talked about how great it was that McHale was always working with the big men in practice.  Well if McHale couldn't motivate him as a GM who was also already coaching him what difference would a change in title make?  

Insanely, it was also reported today that  Glen Taylor actually talked to Flip about coming back.  Has that ever happened in the NBA?  Word is that it's no longer a possibilty but it's very interesting that they even talked abou it at all.

As for the other players we've already beaten the topic of Hudson as "most disappointing" to death.  

Wally played well once he started coming off the bench.  On the one hand give him credit for publicly saying yes, he would be willing to give up his starting spot to get Hassell's defense on the floor but on the other hand that was only after his training camp bitching about making sure he was a starter.  

As for Hassell and Hoiberg it's hard to rip them.  IMO they consitently bring certain things this team needs.  Both hustle and don't complain, Hassell is good defender and knows his role on offense and Hoiberg was absolutely scary from three until his back started hurting at the end of the year.  Though there times these two had some problems I absolve them of blame.  They may know kiss my signet ring.  :hail:

KG put up the numbers again this year but there was something missing.  To me the main issue was his defense.  His individual D was slightly off and his help D was much worse than last year.  Maybe some of that was due to the fact that Sam, Spree, Huddy and Fred were getting beat more but it's still disconcerting.  I really think some of it was physical (he has a knee problem) and some of it was probably mental as well.  He obviously didn't have fun this year.  

Here's a question for everyone.  Given the level of underachievement and some of the personalites on this team didn't you really expect even bigger chemsitry problems?  I really expected more public explosions to reporters, more reports of locker room punch outs, practice walk outs and louder demands for trades  There was amazingly little of this.  

 

[westkoast]

Motivate Kandi?  If a paycheck cant do it, he cant do it himself, the whole Clippers organization, and McHale hasnt been able to from a higher position.....what the hell made him think he could if he took over as coach?   I think he needs to have a sit down with Samaki Walker and have him explain how lucky he is to still have a job even tho his lack of motivation is keeping him from playing at a decent level.

As long as the Wolves have a healthy KG they will be better than most of the league.  However if they ever do plan on getting to the finals he will need help and they cannot be named Sam Cassell or Latrella Spreewell.

[rickortreat]

This is such a sad situation, I feel bad for McHale and KG.  IMO, both of them really want to win, and Mac hasn't given KG the pieces he needs to get where they want to go.

I never liked Cassel or Spree and I think ther reason their being relatively quiet is that they know that makeing any negative noise won't help.  As it is, the only thing that would help either of them is to play better and they're on the downside in their careers.

This doesn't give McHale alot of opportunities for trades, that plus the Joe Smith debacle really hurt the team.

Whoever coaches the Wolves next needs a real plan to surround KG with the players he needs to win.  And he and McHale ought to work very hard to identify talent that will fit into the system they belive will get the team back into the playoffs.  Like a lot of teams, they need a good solid PF to take some of the pressure off KG, actually a real Center would be better, so KG could play PF.