Dear Wolves fans,
I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am to be the head coach of the Timberwolves. I want to thank Glen Taylor and David Kahn for giving me this opportunity.
As dedicated Wolves fans, you have been through some tough seasons recently. Nobody likes losing, especially me. But when I look at the players on this team now and how we are positioned for the upcoming seasons, I am truly optimistic that we have a bright future. There is some outstanding young talent on our team — talent that we can develop and nurture.
I look forward to building this young team into a playoff contender. I enjoy getting out on the floor with young players, instructing them and doing whatever it takes to help them improve. I’ve always been a big believer that extra time put in now will pay off in the future. So my coaching staff and myself will put in whatever time is necessary to make our players better.
#Timberwolves introduce Kurt Rambis. Look for Quentin Richardson to be soon traded to his fifth team this summer, perhaps yet this week
But he also gained the security of the top job in Minnesota as opposed to the guessing game in L.A., and there’s a lot to be said for that. Plus, there’s the real commitment of the reported four-year, $8 million deal, much better than the offer from Sacramento, even if it is about 125 miles from where Rambis grew up and an hour flight from Los Angeles if his family chose to stay there. Rambis knew he would some day be a possibility to succeed Jackson, refused to jump at a head-coaching job just to have a head-coaching job, and held firm until he heard the numbers that would get him to give up his place in line. Well played.
Player development was one of the three “thresholds” Kahn used in finalizing his search for a coach to replace McHale. The other two were the ability and willingness to coach a running, up-tempo style, and “player-management issues, meaning playing time.” In other words, sticking with an on-the-job training program until it hurts, absorbing losses for the potential greater good of gaining experience. Said Kahn: “We’re just not in the position where it’s important where you play just the veteran guys to try and squeak out a couple more wins.”
Presumably, based on the 22 and 24 victories Minnesota has amassed the past two seasons, that third threshold has been in place for a while.
All three of Kahn’s finalists for the position are said to have agreed to the thresholds. That suggests that Mark Jackson, the longtime NBA point guard turned ABC/ESPN analyst, and Rockets assistant Elston Turner somehow were less convincing in their “Yes” interview answers as they sought their first head-coaching job, or that Rambis was more persuasive in his nodding to Kahn’s precepts.
“I did have a final call with Kurt, one final call, to cover these areas because they were so important to me,” Kahn said. “I did want to make myself absolutely sure. Then we talked about these things [during a meeting with team owner Glen Taylor last week].”
Given Phil Jackson’s tenuous health, why wouldn’t Rambis just wait until Jackson retires – assuming that, as the lead assistant, he would be the heir apparent? Assume nothing, as they say. When I spoke with Rambis’ agent, Warren LeGarie, a few weeks ago at the Las Vegas Summer League, LeGarie insisted that his client had no clue what Lakers owner Jerry Buss was planning post-Jackson. More ominously, LeGarie said Buss has never gave Rambis any indication – never mind assurances – that he was the likely successor.
Rambis apparently just got tired of the wait. He hasn’t been a head coach since succeeding Del Harris and guiding the Lakers to a 24-13 record during the lockout-shortened 1999 season.
Yet the questions that accompany Rambis’ coaching debut – and that of any other head coach in the league – concerning the next steps of his team have far more to do with the attitude and aptitude of the GM and team owner. In this case, that’s Kahn and Glen Taylor.
Rambis and the Wolves have enough to obstacles to overcome, the return of center and main man Al Jefferson from knee surgery being just the largest. But if a decision day in early August is to be significant going forward, it also must be for a conscious choice at the top to let Rambis forge his own path.
This does not mean ceding every personnel move and all authority of the franchise over to Rambis. But any head coach must be able to feel that it’s his hand holding the reins when it comes to developing an overall strategy.
Kevin McHale is out of the basketball business for now, he said this morning, so he’s offering no opinion on the hiring of his Minnesota Timberwolves coaching successor (and former Los Angeles Lakers playing rival) Kurt Rambis.
“I’m just ‘Joe Citizen’ now,” McHale said. “I don’t want to comment.”
McHale also declined comment about a 1-percent ownership in the Timberwolves that owner Glen Taylor has been said to offer him as a severance deal. That would have a value of about $3 million.
McHale did say he’s been talking with several networks about a TV analyst job. A month ago, word was that he and Charles Barkley would team up on TNT for the coming season.
“We’ll see,” he said.
Minnesota Timberwolves
While other teams have gained more attention as belt-tighteners, the T’pups have quietly joined their ranks. Trading Craig Smith just to be rid of a $2.7 million obligation to Sebastian Telfair next year has to qualify as a low point, and one gets the impression they’re pretty happy to defer a $3 million obligation to Ricky Rubio a couple years into the future. They dumped Mike Miller and Randy Foye, eventually acquiring a non-guaranteed player they can waive (Chucky Atkins), and their only foray into free agency was a low-wattage bid for Ryan Hollins.
If Al Jefferson returns to his All-Star-caliber level of the first half of last season it lifts Minnesota half a notch above doormat status, but the Wolves leaked a lot of talent since their strong January last season.
