Revisionist history: Kevin McHale on April 17, 2008
Posted on December 8th, 2008 – 3:33 PMBy Michael Rand
Here are the first few paragraphs from Jerry Zgoda’s story in April:
A day after his team completed its first 60-loss season since he accepted the job 13 years ago, Timberwolves vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale on Thursday said he is committed to his job until the franchise returns to the playoffs headed toward a championship, a development he claimed is not as far away as you might think.
McHale said he thinks the Wolves — a team that won five of its first 39 games after being completely remade after last summer’s Kevin Garnett trade — can follow their 22-60 season by winning as many as 20 more games next season in a league that he says has few great teams. That is, if the Wolves stay healthy. Guard Randy Foye missed this season’s first three months, an absence McHale deemed significant in his team’s slow start.
That leap would make them a .500 team.
“I think we should next year,” he said. “I don’t think we’re that far away, to be truthful. I think we can be a lot more competitive. … I do like our young guys, our core group moving forward. I think there’s really people here to build around.”
So let’s see. We’ll whip up some quick math. A 20-game improvement would mean a 42-40 overall record. McHale the VP helped the Wolves to a 4-15 record. Now that Wittman is gone (and following the longest press conference in history), we have learned that McHale the coach will need to guide the Wolves to a 38-25 record in their remaining games to make good on his optimistic prediction. Any takers on that bet? And remember, Foye is healthy. Keep that in mind.
9 Responses to "Revisionist history: Kevin McHale on April 17, 2008"
If AZGG is right and Wittman did get fired for dancing like Elaine, I think we can all rest easy that McHale will soon join him.
Thanks for pointing that out Mr. Randball.
Rand
Mr. McHale said they could win AS MANY AS 20 more games. That extra ‘as many as’ saved his Shiancoe. They’ll win more games than 22 so in his mind he is right.
I only listened to a snip it of the press conference on the radio. Was the whole thing as painful as the first 5 minutes? Why can’t Taylor just say that he is going to blow this thing up at the end of the year and that McHale is just having to earn a paycheck for a change? If the 2009 season starts with McHale as the coach a McHale Man March is going to be necessary.
How many games did Rand say they’d win? A search of RandBall archives was futile and only made me thirsty for Zima.
Perhaps if MN teams could ever hire head coaches that weren’t total dorks, we’d get somewhere. Did you catch Tomlin on the sidelines yesterday? That guy is, as the kids say, hella cool.
I’d direct AZGG to Michael’s outrageous and spurious claim, but it might lead her to my brilliant “the least surprising finish for the Gophers will be be 3-2 or 4-1″ call. Nobody wants to read that.
Enjoy the Insight Bowl, everybody!
So who replaces McHale in the front office? Can said replacement immediately turn around and fire McHale? Because that would be, um “hella cool” (did I get that right AZ? Am I still a youngun?)
I think that the next VP of Operations will be judged solely on his or her ability to extricate McHale in toto from our organization.
Quote from Rand: “The Timberwolves will win a minimum of 38 games this year.”
I picked 32 wins, so it’s not like I’ve been much closer to right so far…
I took Stu’s nudge as a challenge and tracked it down. Speaking of optimistic predictions (which might be a great RandBall category, if one were into that kind of intraweb efficiency)…
/she who lacks HTML skills, but possesses single-minded perserverance when it comes to calling out pots who call kettles black
Muxhut - you are mad dope. Jon - not so much, techno-savvy thunderstealer.
McHale reminds me a bartender I once worked with. Whenever I didn’t muddle the mint and lime juice for the Mojoitos to his satisfaction, he would grab the muddler from me and, in front of the client, demonstrate the proper way to muddle.
McHale is going to show Wittman a thing or two about the proper way to muddle things up.
