Jeff: What the Deuce?

Jer, who would be writing this post if he had internet at home, started an IM discussion today with this:

"The wolves had two coaches last year, one went 20-20, the other went 12-30... which one do you think got the contract extension?"

The answer, of course, is Randy Whitmann, the one with the 12-30 record. The man who went 20-20 and got as much out of a hapless Wolves team as any other coach possibly could have (or 8 more wins than the man that replaced him), was fired. Before him the blame was laid on current Pistons coach Flip Saunders. The Wolves record the year they fired him and McHale took over? 44-38. Read that again. 44-38. This past season, the 3rd straight they've missed the playoffs, they were 32-50.

Where are we going with this? That's what we'd like to ask Glen Taylor and Kevin McHale. What's the plan here gentlemen?

Jer summed it up in our chat today as such:
"...well, all of these moves just prove that there really is no plan there. they are flying by the seat of their pants, and aren't really building anything...all of these crappy moves that they have made are partially because they are stupid, but if they had a plan in place, to build the franchise as a winner, they would at least have something to shoot at. Instead they do stuff like picking up two aging superstars well past their prime, and they only get one year out of them, then they give up too much to get rid of one of them.

"Seriously, that is THE bottom line: there is no long term plan!"

I had really never thought of it that way. One minute they're in "win now" mode by trading for Spree and Cassell, which worked well for a year. The next they're spending one of the few first rounders they've had the past decade on a project like high schooler Endi Ibi, who even if he hadn't been a total bust would have taken 3-5 years to make a contribution. Or the worst move McHale's made (which is saying something), crippling both their present AND future when he dealt Cassell and a #1 pick to the Clippers for Marko Jaric and then signed him to a horrible long term contract. Then the Celtics trade and the Mike James signing have left them with zero cap flexibility and 2 lost draft picks in the very near future. So you have one superstar taking up a third of their cap, 6 untradeable players, a few good young players, and Ricky Davis. This recipe has brought them 3 straight lottery seasons, and yet McHale, the man who put them in this position somehow thinks he's magically going to get them out.

How? Why? Where is this all going? I've decided that if they will not trade Garnett then they HAVE to trade the #7 pick, Davis, and one of the 6 awful contracts for another star, and even then they're probably not going to be left with enough to win in the West (by the way, because of the stupid 3 division format, I did not even realize that not only are both Portland and Seattle out West, they're both in the Wolves division. Yikes!). What do they do where do they go?

Probably the same place they've been going for the last decade- nowhere. Now who's pumped for the upcoming Wolves season?