This will not be a comprehensive or otherwise definitive take on the current state of the Timberwolves. I'd like to think that anyone who read the 60 or so Three-Pointers I put out this year has a pretty good glimpse into what I think are the strengths and weaknesses of the team. And what should be done about it is out of my hands.

Trades? I can dream stuff up all day: So what?

Fire McHale? I assumed it would happen more than a year ago, and today's announcement indicates that he's still on board. Why wasn't McHale fired was one of the first questions I asked owner Glen Taylor when we spoke *last October*. Since then, the franchise has canned its coach for a 20-20 record, seen his replacement go 12-30 and express a desire to bring him back, and *deliberately lost* basketball games for the better part of two weeks, if not longer. Maybe sometime after the May 22 draft lottery or after the summer draft pick I can begin to tolerate serious thought about this franchise again. But right now, quite frankly, there are better things to do in life and I suggest we all start doing them. If you want to add your comments to this thread, I may respond, but I must tell you that right now I am more interested in looking at the NBA playoffs, or starting to talk about the Twins and baseball, or even get into a little hockey if the Wild win again tonight.

In other words, that is not a good day for sober analysis. On the other hand, it seems like the right time to get a few things off my chest.

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* Mark Blount should be ashamed of himself. His "effort" over the final three months of the season was provocatively half-assed, making Michael Olowokandi look like a poster boy of professionalism by comparison. At least two or three times a game, and sometimes up to half a dozen, a smaller player would drive the lane where Blount was situated and score the layup with impunity, without worrying about a hard foul, block, or any consequence to him or his team. These things get around the league--you don't need scouts on the sideline to have the word spread that someone is chickenshit beneath the hoop--and had a lot to do with the Wolves collapse on the defensive end during the second half of the season.

* Ricky Davis and Blount care far more about making snide, snarky comments and feeling put-upon in a dual pity party than they do about improving themselves or this basketball team. Davis is a talented player who doesn't give a rat's ass about the greater good of team, and he's so pathological about it that I really don't think he can change. Justin Reed occasionally joined this cancerous little clique, making the Boston trade an outright disaster even if Wally Szczerbiak never plays another minute. Davis needs to go. Blount is probably untradeable, but if I were the Wolves, I'd bring a very nasty banger into training camp next year and force-feed Blount to him. It would do wonders for team chemistry.

* Today, about the only thing Kevin McHale could say in support of Randy Wittman was that he was a taskmaster who runs a tight locker room and would demand discipline and responsiveness from his team. McHale has spread a lot of bullshit in his time at the Target Center, but this may top the list. The idea of Wittman commanding respect from his troops is evidenced by....what? Who got called out most blatantly during Wittman's 4 months on the job? Not Davis, who got more minutes under Witt than he did under Dwane Casey. Not Blount, who played far far more minutes than he deserved from the All-Star break on, when rookie Craig Smith and energy guy Mark Madsen were blatantly better options. McHale also said today that in the current NBA, a guy like Smith can play the 4, that the game is gravitating to smaller and quicker front lines. He also stated that this team will get bigger and bang more, but more likely at the forwards than at the center position because of a lack of options. Well then, why didn't Wittman sit Blount down and start grooming Smith for that role? Yeah, he eventually did it, about three weeks after the most casual fan could see it had to be done. Bottom line, Wittman continued giving Blount and Davis heavy minutes, even as complained about selfish play and a lack of chemistry, and affirmed that he would make players pay for lack of effort. Then McHale comes along and says Wittman will be back because he is a taskmaster who will get the players' attention. How stupid do these people think we are? Meanwhile, the two players Witt really slighted were Trenton Hassell, who got benched for a perceived lack of hustle longer than anyone on the team--nearly two straight games--and then only grudgingly was allowed back in the lineup; and Kevin Garnett, who heard his coach say there wasn't enough locker room policing going on--a direct rip on KG, the de facto leader of the team. Maybe McHale and Wittman see a different game than I do, but Trenton Hassell and Kevin Garnett are not among my top 6 things wrong with this wretched franchise. In fact the VP of Personnel and the Coach rate much higher on my "could be upgraded" list than the team's two best on-ball defenders.

* Big Disappointment # 3, behind the listless, soft, quit-on-his team Blount and the narcissistic, unreliable, doesn't-understand-what-it- takes-to-win Davis, is Mike James, who proved rather decisively that he can't handle the pressure of being a key component of a quality team. Once the onus of meaningful games was lifted, James became similar to the player he was in Toronto--capable of scoring in bunches, and bringing energy to the offensive end (he defense remained awful). Last year it was Marko Jaric who demonstrated that he is not to be trusted when the game is on the line, but at least Jaric restricted his chokes to crunchtime. James cannot be trusted as long as his team means to contend and he is more than a bit role player in the proceedings.

* There is not a single player on this team that had a really good year. Not one. Garnett is showing signs of slippage, especially on defense, where he can't scramble and recover or casually outjump and snatch rebounds or deter penetration the way he did in his prime. Davis is the team's most fraudulant stat-stuffer since Micheal Williams. Randy Foye was inconsistent to a fault, even for a rookie looking an important, unfamiliar position. (McHale said today that he envisions Foye playing "off the ball" more in the backcourt next year.) Hassell and Jaric provided offense the way November or March occasionally provide a warm sunny day. Mark Blount provided a first 45 games of hustle and quality shooting that made his last 35 or so games all that much more abominable by comparison. James is a flunky, a sidekick, pure and simple. And so on, down the list.

There. End of rant. Time to start remembering why I enjoy basketball so much--I'll do some thumbnail playoff series impressions and picks in the next post.