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Timberwolves: McHale offers perspective on prospects, perceptions
http://www.startribune.com/511/story/473071.html
Kevin McHale, with 11 seasons on the job as Timberwolves vice president
of basketball operations, ranks third among NBA general managers (official
or de facto) in longevity with one team.
After two seasons in which his team went 77-87, changed coaches twice and
shed all but four players from the 2004 conference finals squad, McHale has
his work cut out for him this offseason.
He will be looking for talent in the NBA draft, for help via trades and
free agency and for confidence from Twin Cities fans and one cranky
superstar (Kevin Garnett) so that, with some midlevel tweaking, the
Wolves again can pursue a championship.
Before heading to Orlando this week for the NBA's pre-draft camp of
prospects, McHale sat for an interview with staff writer Steve Aschburner:
Q Your season ended six weeks ago. The NBA draft is in four weeks.
What have you been doing lately?
A Trading scenarios are starting to pop up, teams are lining up. You're
involved. Once your team is set and things start happening in training
camp, people are very reluctant to make moves. But at the trading deadline
it's fun, and at this time of year it's fun.
Q As much fun as it was 10 years ago?
A Ten years ago it was all new. I enjoy the challenge more now. We had some
moderate success back then and were moving in the right direction. All of
a sudden now, we've played very poorly and underachieved the last couple
of years.
I've said all along, we have to make some changes but I don't think we need
to change eight players. In a rotation -- which we didn't have, which I
think was one of the problems this year -- when you play eight or nine guys,
changing two or three is changing 25 or 35 percent of your team.
Q Do you need a summer like 2003, when you traded for Sam Cassell and Latrell
Sprewell and went to the Western Conference finals?
A I'll be truthful, at that point, the changes we made, you threw them out
there and you thought, "This ought to be interesting." You knew there was
an upside to it and you knew there was a potential downside to it.
I don't know if so much dynamic change is called for. The difference between
winning 58 [in 2003-04] or winning 48 was a shot here or a shot there. And
the difference between winning 44 or 33 this year was a shot here, a shot
there. It's always a much finer line than people think. We had just a
brutal record in close games.
Q In fact, the Wolves were 11-18 in games decided by six points or less,
4-10 at three points or less. You lost 15 games -- most in the league --
when leading through three quarters, and you were 1-5 in overtime. Do you
fix that with X's and O's or is it confidence and other intangibles?
A Both. When you're not playing well, it's a lot of stuff. It's a lack of
confidence, it's a lack of continuity, it's a chemistry issue. It's "Are we
running the right things at the right time for the right people?"
The good news is, in sports normally, if you can fix one thing, three or
four things fall in place very quickly.
Q After a 12-6 start, the Wolves went 21-43, including 14-28 after the
seven-player trade with the Celtics. How disruptive was that and how fragile
was this team psychologically?
A I don't know if there ever was a connection of, "This is who we are. This
is our style." We started off being pretty good defensively and I saw us
knitting some, but then we lost a lot of close games and I think we lost
our way. We started trying to dink around with the offense and change things
here, change things there. When you get start drifting, what was important
yesterday isn't important today because "We lost last night because of
'this,' " and now you're trying to work on that. So you're
always playing behind.
Q Was that due to Dwane Casey being a rookie coach?
A I think Dwane, as a first-year head coach, got a little off-kilter.
But I think he recognized that and said, "I've got to get back to the
basics of who I am as a coach." I've seen veteran coaches do it. You
start losing a lot of close games, you start second-guessing everything.
Q Are you as confident in this job as you were as a player?
A No, you have much more control as a player. Amount of control, it goes
[in order] players, coaches, GMs, then fans. The farther you get away from
that control, the higher your frustration level gets.
Q When you fired Flip Saunders, one of the reasons cited was that a coach
can wear out his message over an extended stay. Can a GM?
A I think so. That's why I've got to look at it and see, if new blood and
new ideas come in, if it's time to step down. My competitiveness is, we're
close enough. But I have no problem, when the time comes, in going to
[owner Glen Taylor] and saying, "This isn't working. It's time for you
to make a change."
If I felt that, I would leave.
Q Who in the NBA is good at what you do?
A [Memphis president and Lakers Hall of Famer] Jerry West would be the gold
standard, for longevity and everything else. You're going to make mistakes
on talent, you're going to make mistakes on putting teams together. But
overall, Jerry has had a standard that's been very high for his teams.
He had the '80s Lakers, then he went through some tough times, then he
put together the Shaq-and-Kobe Lakers. He went down to Memphis and got
them into the playoffs.
Q Who is the league's best head coach?
A [San Antonio's Gregg] Popovich has been the best coach in our league
over a long period of time. A guy who is hard on the players but yet,
they respect him and they play for him. He can be as demanding as he wants
but he doesn't alienate them. He has a weird thing going that not a lot of
people can get.
If you try to be their friend all the time, that doesn't work, and if you
beat them into the ground all the time, that doesn't work.
Q The Wolves have beefed up their staff of assistant coaches and scouts.
Expanding by design?
A We've always had 'X' amount of people involved. Freddie [Hoiberg] is on
board with the basketball and business departments, which is good. There
are a couple of [added] people, but it's not like there's tenfold more.
I personally like a lot of dialogue. You can have a few more opinions, pros
and cons. We have some lively discussions.
Q Will that lead to better draft picks and roster moves?
A Everybody doesn't agree on everything. When you're projecting ... if it
were a science, the way people want to make it, Karl Malone never goes 13th.
Michael Jordan never goes third. There's no formula.
Q What does having the No. 6 pick in this year's draft mean to you?
A It means you had a bad year. There will be a very good player there, but
if you're expecting him to come in and turn your franchise around, I don't
think that's realistic. He's going to be a kid who will play in this league
for 10 years, have a very good NBA career. Anything other than that, it's
hard to say.
Q How do you rate your draft record over 11 years?
A Made some mistakes. Made some good choices, made some bad choices. It is,
kind of, what it is. You look at players who are better who were taken after
and you say, "Why didn't I see that in that guy? And I saw that guy play
nine, 10 times." But then, a lot of those guys, there were teams that had
three picks in the first round and didn't take him either.
Q Even if the fans were patient and you were willing to stick around for
another 11 years, wouldn't this franchise have a clock ticking on Kevin
Garnett's career?
A We're very aware. I've talked to KG about that, and we want to build
around Kevin as much as we can. That means you've got to be cognizant of
how many young guys vs. guys in their prime, and different things.
Q So does a lottery pick fit with building around Garnett?
A If you're being honest with yourself, you say that lottery pick may not
play a lot next year. I'd be surprised if we get, at [No. 6], a player as
ready to play mentally and physically as Rashad [McCants] was at [No. 14]
last year. He just had to learn the NBA game and he played much better down
the stretch.
Q Wouldn't an established veteran -- someone you could get by trading
the pick, say Al Harrington or Jamaal Magloire -- fit better?
A Those guys are under contract. I can't talk about them. But of course
there's a point where you say, this player would be way better for our
team for the next four or five years than that rookie. Then you make the
[trade] decision.
Q Garnett voiced frustration late in the season and didn't play in the
final six games. What is his mood these days?
A Kevin wants to win. Kevin is very competitive. The last conversation we
had -- about a week ago, he came in for a couple of hours and we talked --
he said he understands where we're at with this team and how, hopefully,
a piece or two could make a real difference.
Q When other GMs call up and ask about Garnett, how do you respond?
A We're not trading Kevin Garnett.
Q You say that before you hear what they're offering?
A Well, yeah, because the teams that would call up have nothing I would
trade him for anyway. We're not going to trade Kevin Garnett.
Q Garnett has played 34,543 regular-season and playoff minutes, almost
as many as you played in your entire career (35,834). Can he be an elite
player for several more years?
A He had a phenomenal two-month stretch last season, within the losing.
So I don't see that falling off the face of the earth. He has played a
lot of minutes, and that's one thing I would like to see [reduced]. I've
been a proponent of that the last four or five years, trying to get his
minutes down, and haven't had much success [with the coaches].
Q How key is free agency this summer and do you have the tools to do enough?
A We can be very active, I think. We have the [$5 million] midlevel
exception. We have a [$4.2 million] trade exception. We have the
[bi-annual $1.7 million] exception, and we have the trade market.
We want to add a player or two, maybe three.
Q How much longer do you do this?
A It's hard to say. There are times when I look at it and think, well,
I'd like to do something else for a while. But then your competitive
juices start flowing and you say, "I want to get this thing right.
I don't want to leave when it's not good."
I was much more apt a few years ago to get out than I am right now
when things are bad. I haven't quit at many things in my life.
Closing in on 50, it's probably not a good time to start.
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