Firing Casey Will Not Solve The Timberwolves Problems
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by user Leslie Monteiro
Dwane Casey had to know that he was in danger of losing his job going back to last February when Timberwolves inept owner Glen Taylor called him out. Taylor talked about how his team should be playing better and how his assistant coaches may be overmatched. At the end of the season, Casey was told to fire his assistants in Vince Taylor and Johnny Davis. He did that and he hired Randy Wittman and Bob Oceipka as his new assistant coaches. There is no question that Wittman took this job with the idea that he would be Casey’s replacement. Why would he leave the Orlando Magic to the Wolves for the same position? Something had to be up. Finally, the dirty deed was done yesterday afternoon. Casey was fired yesterday afternoon after his team suffered a horrible loss to the Utah Jazz on Monday night.
It was going to come sooner or later. Casey was a losing streak away from being fired. In fact, he was going to be fired right after the Christmas break. He saved his job thanks to the Timberwolves rallying from a 20-point deficit to beat the Charlotte Bobcats at Charlotte. His team was able to get off to a 7-2 start in January. Unfortunately, that was not going to be enough. Casey apparently lost his boss when the Wolves got their tails kicked by the Lakers at the Target Center on December 20th. Wolves were outscored 34-7 in the fourth quarter against the Lakers as the Lakers bench scorers made that run. The owner was furious and he apparently reprimanded his coach for this loss. This was the final straw for him. Taylor and Wolves vice-president of basketball operations Kevin McHale were waiting for a losing streak to fire the head coach. The four-game current losing streak was all they needed to do what they had to do.
Casey had to go. He was not going to get the job done. He was not doing well as a gamenight coach as he would get outcoach often. The players stopped listening to him. The team was not playing defense and it just seemed that they were not disciplined. The Wolves braintrust apparently thought it was not going to get better. This was a panic move considering a long, losing streak would KO their chances of making the playoffs in the tough, Western Conference. Wolves have lost four in a row and they are in danger of not winning a game out in the West Coast trip. They are hoping Wittman, who is the new coach, would try to salvage something out of this trip.
The architect of this roster should have been fired with Casey. McHale has created this roster. He brought guys who have zero athleticism and zero basketball intelligence. His team has guys that does not play defense. He has created a roster full of losers. Most of his draft picks have been bust over the years. Besides Randy Foye, Mark Blount, and Garnett, which player in the roster has any value to this team? Those guys are inconsistent. If a player is inconsistent, it means that he is never good. For the last three years, McHale’s team has not won much and they have not been entertaining. McHale has fired two coaches under his watch. Since the two coaches have paid the price for McHale’s failed vision, it is time for the vice-president of basketball operations to take accountability for this.
McHale had an opportunity to do that last night in a press conference. He did not do that. Instead, he blubbered like a bumbling idiot when he discussed his decision to fire Casey. He threw his coach under the bus for the team’s problems. He never called his players out. He did not blame himself for giving a horrible roster for Casey to work with.
The only thing worst than McHale's speech was the soft-ball questions by the soft, Twin Cities media. Not one scribe actually called out McHale for his job performance. McHale was better off not holding a press conference.
How does McHale still holds on to his job? If a CEO or president of a company made horrible moves for their company, that person loses his job. Of course if an employee works for Taylor, there is zero accountability if you are in his corner. Wolves fans can go rip McHale all they want, but the buck should stop with Taylor. Taylor is McHale’s boss. He can fire him. Sadly, he will not. McHale is here for life. Taylor does not have the guts to fire him. He does not like to fire his friends no matter how bad they are. As long as Taylor keeps sticking with this guy, this team will never be in the level of the Suns, Spurs, Mavericks, or the Pistons. Heck they will never be considered a good team.
Wittman is not the solution. He is not going to make these players better. They are who they are. What this team need is a legitimate coach and a new core of players. They need to dump players such as Davis, Trenton Hassell, Jaric, and Griffin for the sake of addition by substraction. They may have to trade Garnett to start over. There is no way this team is a playoff team and Wittman screaming at them is not going to change things. Wittman will make the same impact that McHale made when he replaced Flip. McHale could not lead the Wolves in the playoffs.
Wolves fans can go rip McHale all they want, but they ought to put the blame where it really belongs. The buck stops with Taylor. He is a huge part of this problem as a result of him not firing his guy, McHale. It is not just McHale that is his problem. He never hired a basketball guy that runs his franchise. He has friends and family to run this franchise. His two son-in-laws have higher powers in this organization. They have had zero success either. Isn’t it time for the owner of this team to weed out those people out and hire a guy that had a clue? He had a chance to hire Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo when the Suns let him walk last year. He never did that as he stood by McHale for whatever reason. Kiki Vandeweghe was and is still available. He would have been great based on what he did in building that Nuggets team after being bad for years. He again decided to bypass him. Unreal, eh.
The owner of this team has to realize that keeping people that he likes is going to hurt the franchise. Fans will get turned off by that approach. There is a reason why no one in Minnesota cares about the Wolves. The team has never been successful outside of 2004 and they have been mismanaged for years. Something has to change. He has to get rid of his people and hire people that knows how to get the job done. He should hire Paul Silas to coach this team and he should hire Kiki Vandeweghe to run this organization. Those two hires will put the team back to prominence.
If he can not deal with doing that, he ought to sell the team. He probably should because he has proven that running basketball franchise is not his thing.
Casey may be gone, but the problem is not going away because Taylor and McHale are not going away.
There is no joy in Mudville.
Casey was hired because he was cheap and he was a very nice man that had potential.
Barreiro had a rant on Taylor and McHale. He mocked those two for forming a country club of nice men. Wittman was hired because he is part of the club. I don't think it has anything to do with acumen. Wittman does not have those.
When you fired a coach, you come up with a legitimate coach not hiring a puppet or someone who is part of the 600 First Avenue Country Club as Barriero suggest on his drivetime show.