If you're the Minnesota Timberwolves, can you call this season rock bottom?
Seriously, Kevin McHale, can you admit that this is as bad as it gets?
Can we call Tuesday night an embarrassment? Minnesota shot a franchise-worst 29.6 percent from the field, losing 91-65 at home to Dallas. The best team in the league came into Kevin Garnett's house and slapped him upside the face.
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| It was a nice start for Kevin McHale, but now the V.P. must go. (Getty Images) |
It all started great. McHale came up as owner Glen Taylor's anointed savior, the greatest player in state history contributing in yet another capacity. From television analyst to special assistant to assistant GM to VP of basketball operations -- king of the castle.
Fate treated him well. He hired good buddy Flip Saunders, drafted the great Garnett and watched the playoff appearances pile up. After that came the 50-win seasons, all in succession.
Such an impressive fraud.
We know Garnett is one of the finest players ever to grace the NBA. When discussing the greatest power forwards of all time, he's in the conversation. He has even surpassed McHale's level, despite having never won a championship. K.G.'s greatness has been that overwhelming.
How then can Garnett, growing into a monster before everyone's eyes, fail to win a division in his first eight seasons? How can a 7-footer doing things no one had ever seen -- and making more money than anyone has ever earned -- fail to win a playoff series until 2004?
How can a player who averages more than 20 points, 11 rebounds and four assists per game over an entire career, one in which he's missed a total of 20 games in 12 seasons, be such a non-factor when it matters most?
The answer is simple: management.
Management that traded Ray Allen and a future first-round draft choice for Stephon Marbury, picking the wrong tag-team partner. Management that drafted Paul Grant, Rasho Nesterovic, Wally Szczerbiak and Will Avery with subsequent top draft picks. Szczerbiak wasn't a bad choice, but that's misleading, too. Selecting sixth in 1999, McHale could've had Richard Hamilton or Shawn Marion.
Management that went out and brokered an illegal deal with power forward Joe Smith, now recognized as one of the biggest busts among No. 1 draft picks in league history, to circumvent the salary cap. It cost the team $3.5 million in fines and its next three first-round draft choices.
