The Rake Magazine

Catching up on a few things while my Kevin Garnett appreciation piece lingers on another few weeks...

* The KG magnet is working well in Boston. Of the Celtics signings to fill out their roster since the big trade, Scot Pollard is no great shakes but Eddie House is a nice little microwave to have from outside coming off the bench to spell Rondo and Ray Allen, and, the real coup, glue guy James Posey has agreed to come to Boston to firm up its suspect defense. Like House, Posey is also a threat from three-point territory. The real winner in all this is Kendrick Perkins, who will be wide open on the weakside low block every time the C's set up with KG on one block, Pierce and Allen on the wings, and gunners including Allen and House outside the arc.

* The flipside is the traded-KG magnetic force propelling Juwan Howard away from the Wolves. Howard's stated desire to be traded just weeks after he himself was acquired was eminently predictable following Garnett's departure, but the Wolves should resist compliance for at least a year. Anyone scanning Minnesota's roster will notice a void of veteran leadership, at a time when the post-KG wake promises to wash up all kinds of pecking order disputes, even as Randy Wittman implements the hard-ass discipline that has been the most frequent justification made for his rehiring. Bottom line, the Wolves need Howard's level head and mitigating demeanor, especially with clubhouse balm Mark Madsen waylaid by a watercraft incident. Too bad for Juwon, who isn't getting any younger and wants a shot at a ring-- or at least a chance to believe his role as lead babysitter will lead to tangible rewards before he retires.

* As if often the case, the best free-agent signings are teams retaining their keystone players (Gerald Wallace in Charlotte, Chauncey Billups in Detroit, Mo Williams in Milwaukee). Otherwise, there are a lot of gambles out there thus far. The Celts getting Posey is an exception--he's a perfect fit--and I'd add to that a quartet of point-guard signings. The diciest of the four is Chucky Atkins going from nothing-to-lose Memphis to the impending pressure-cooker of a Nuggets squad that can't afford to squander the Melo-AI-Camby combo one more year. Still, I think Atkins will be an upgrade over Steve Blake, who bears the scars of not stepping up in last year's playoffs versus the Spurs. Blake's return to Portland is a good idea for both sides, however, as he is the right guy to mentor Jarrett Jack and help along Greg Oden and company as the Blazers quicken into feared contenders for the next decade or so. Brevin Knight will give the Clips a nice little bridge between the fast-fading Sam Cassell and the recently drafted rookie. And Derek Fisher going back to the Lakers is a no-brainer all the way around.

In contrast, the big-man signings are fraught with risk. Did Jamaal Magloire permanently fall off the table that fast due to age and injuries, or will the chance to play with Kidd, Carter and Jefferson resurrect his low-post tenacity? Is Darko Milicic a tease or a burgeoning star? And how is he not redundant with Pau Gasol in Memphis? Mikki Moore was a wonderful story last year, and I'm glad he's getting paid, but he'll soon discover that playing with Bibby and Kelvin Martin is a tad different than Kidd and Jeff. Joe Smith is no upgrade over PJ Brown in Chicago (but perhaps a better fit with Ben Wallace, if not Joakim Noah).

Like the Sports Guy and many others, I believe Orlando grossly overpaid for Rashad Lewis, who does a lot of the big things and precious few of the little ones that turn a star into a superstar. But getting Adonal Foyle off the scrap heap to help Dwight Howard was a nice move. In signings that have more pronounced playoff implications, Grant Hill is a decent gamble for Phoenix, who is totally mortgaging its future (how many of their draft picks has Portland owner Paul Allen bought by now?) in order to win now. And Eddie Jones brings 10-12 minutes of quality defense and hustle to an already-stocked Dallas team whose biggest hurdle will be psychological in 2007-08.

* It is hard not to conclude that scandalized ref Tim Donaghy didn't blow whistles that shaved points to abet the alleged mob figures who allegedly had him by the short hairs due to gambling debts. And I understand and appreciate that the credibility of the entire NBA will take a hit for it. But as a constant watcher of NBA games, one of the things I selfishly fear is that the refs as a group will have suffered sufficient loss of face that the rules about players bitching over calls will effectively vanish. As one who tends to side with employees over management in most labor disputes, I was surprised at how much I welcomed the potential reduction in absurd bellyaching after every blown whistle. But after a month or so of enforcing the rule, the refs seemed to slowly but surely relax their intolerance--or worse, selectively enforce it--as the season went on. Amid all the calls for upgrading the refs and removing any taint of scandal from their ranks, I hope that a bone gets tossed to the quality refs who will have to endure a horrendous season in 07-08 in the wake of the Donaghy matter. Specifically, David Stern should reiterate that needless complaints--and I'm talking about melodramatic reactions and extended debates by players who clearly just hacked/charged/travelled/etc--will result in additional fouls. Let's clean up the game all the way around. I'll take that over dress codes any day.

* Finally, while it is true that the United States has been unbeaten throughout its performances in FIBA Americas Championship Series over the decades, I do believe the current squad obliterating the South Americans this summer is the best all-around ballclub since the fabled Dream Teamers of the 1980s. When you can throw out three rugged floor generals like Kidd, Deron Williams and Billups at the point, have three-point specialists Michael Redd and Mike Miller as backcourt options, trump any opponents' athletes with LeBron, Kobe, Melo and Tayshaun Prince as your swingmen, and finish off with Dwight Howard, Amare, and Tyson Chandler as your beef inside, you have got a team without discernable weakness.

* Quick prediction before it's too late: Boof Bonser ends his abysmal losing streak tonight in Baltimore against the O's (weather permitting).

* How sad is it to see the Strib continue to list the Twins in their "Wild Card Race" box between the standings and the probable starters? This morning, it showed the hometown nine tied with two other .500 teams at nine games out with 36 left to play, behind three other teams, who are, of course, behind the three division leaders in the playoff chase. Got that? In terms of playoff viability, the Twins are better off than five AL clubs, tied with two others, and behind six, with four ultimately earning a chance to play in the postseason. Put simply, they are dead. Dead. DEAD. I hope to conduct the autopsy with Brad Zellar and David Brauer in another roundtable around Labor Day, but until then, one quick whine: Why didn't Terry Ryan deal Torii Hunter two months ago, when he would have fetched a quality prospect for 2008 or 09 batting order that right now looks mighty thin?

* On the bright side, the Twins have a bevy of promising young arms, and perhaps an entertaining parlor game for a diehard Twins fan is to rank them in order of how you perceive their value over the next five years. Here's my list, including only those who have spent enough time in the bigs to create a viable impression.

1. Matt Garza
2. Glen Perkins
3. Boof Bonser
4. Francisco Liriano
5. Kevin Slowey
6. Scott Baker

I imagine most fans would have Liriano much higher, but the whip-snap motion he throws with now puts enormous torque on that elbow and shoulder and I don't think he can last without a major overhaul in his delivery. Likewise, Bonser is probably higher than most would put him, especially after his dreadful past ten weeks, but there is something about his makeup that makes me intuitively think he's going to be fine, as in a middle-rotation guy, for quite a while. And Perkins is a sleeper, a lefty with loads of confidence. Yeah, I know he's been dinged too, but I don't see the windup as being an accident waiting to happen the way it is with Liriano. I don't have a good reason for dumping on Scott Baker, other than he just doesn't look like he has good stuff to me, and is consequently prone to the home run ball. Now Baker has been brilliant more than once this season, and this after last year's abomination. I'd love to be proven wrong about him, because from the outside looking in, he seems like a competitor and a stand-up guy, the kind of pitcher teammates are pulling for. Anyway, let's hear your half-dozen.

* The Tribe beat the Tigers in the rubber game of their big Central Division series this afternoon and the good news in Cleveland is that Jake Westbrook pitched another gem, locking up with Nate Robertson in a scoreless duel over nine innings before Cleveland took it, 3-1 in 10, on a two-run single by perpetual utility man Chris Gomez (!); this after another late season pickup, Kenny Lofton, knocked in the game's first run. Bottom line, with C.C. Sabathia, Fausto Carmona and now Westbrook all wheeling, Cleveland has a playoff rotation to rival the Red Sox trio of Beckett-Dice K-Schilling, whereas the Angels can only go two-deep reliably (Lackey-Escobar). The Wild Card, in more ways than one, is the Yankees, who should lead with Wang as their ace and then have a guy, Andy Pettite, who has won them a bunch of games in the postseason, followed by Clemens and/or Mussina, with the ultratalented Phil Hughes as an intriguing long reliever should one of the starters spit the bit and Torre needs a stopgap while his bashers eclipse the deficit.

* And yes, I think the hated Yankees are going to be the Wild Card out of the AL. Seattle has been a fun story, currently own a two-game lead, and are playing like they have nothing to lose. Once they realize they do, in fact, have a playoff spot to lose, can they keep their composure. Up until now, they have been extremely lucky, going 71-53 despite outscoring their opponents by a mere 624-603, due mostly to timely hitting from a balanced order (among the starting lineup, DH Jose Vidro is last with a respectable 49 rbis, four ahead of Kubel and three behind Mauer) and a great bullpen led by closer JJ Putz. But Putz has shown signs of fatigue and I still suspect that good pitching can throttle everyone but Ichiro in this lineup. Of course Seattle could also be kindred spirits to the 1987 Twins, and win it all on sheer luck and gumption. I'd love to see it.

In the National League, there's a glorious clusterfuck of the sort that should make Bud Selig wet his pants. Only the Mets seem to be a sure thing, and six teams are within 3 and half games of either the division lead or the wild card berth, not counting the three division leaders. That's more than half the NL franchises with legitimate hopes for the postseason on the weekend before Labor Day. I've been pulling for the Brewers and D-backs, two squads loaded with burgeoning young talent, all season, and Arizona currently owns a 3 and half game lead on the Padres. As of now, I think San Diego's superior pitching pulls out a third straight division crown, leaving Arizona to battle it out with Atlanta and the Dodgers for the wild card. The Phillies suffered a huge loss with their only solid starter, Cole Hamels hitting the DL (a bigger blow than the Pads' Chris Young likewise going down, because SD has superior depth and a more forgiving ballpark). Milwaukee? Hard to see how they stay with the Cubs, who have better pitching and a superior starting lineup. And the slapstick pennant race has given the snakebitten Cardinals enough oxygen that the old vets might stitch it together to surmount the Cubbies, the Cubs being the Cubs and all.

* Last, and probably least, isn't it time for all the haters to give it up for Carlos Silva, the much, much, much derided Twins starter who has a decent shot at eating up 200 innings by season's end? Joe Christensen said as much in today's paper, another good piece following on his article last Sunday on the silver lining of the Twins pitching prospects getting seasoning this year. It almost makes up for his tireless advocacy to re-sign Torii Hunter. Of course in that he is hardly alone, with Jimmy Souhan being the biggest Hunter booster. If I had a ballot, I'd vote Hunter the Twins MVP for 2007. But that doesn't mean I want to see the organization paying him $12 to $18 million, minimum, four years from now.

As the blues tune laments, some folks are born under a bad sign, and Eddie Griffin was one. Despite all the stupid, wrong-headed things Griffin did to sabotage his basketball career, not to mention his life, over and over again, I never heard one of his teammates or basketball bosses speak of him in anger, only sadness and concern, or, when he was really going well a couple years back, guarded optimism and a sense of quiet but fierce protection. In the locker room, Griffin spoke in a shy monotone, almost never smiled nor grimaced, even when KG was singing his praises from the adjoining locker.

And yet the demons obviously ran deep. On the court, regardless of the advice given him, you could see that Griffin lived to block shots and shoot three-pointers, dedicating himself to those tasks--he was masterful at one, miserable at the other--with an almost autistic focus. He did inexplicable things, like fail to get eye surgery that could have--or at least should have--dramatically improved his game. He was an inscrutable dude. Off the court, the mystery darkened. Griffin's rap sheet was tragicomically long and sordid. After getting himself booted off his college team as a freshman and bounced off his first, and then second, NBA squad, for various incidents related to drug use, violence and depression, Griffin landed with the Timberwolves. And for a few blissful months it seemed like a mutually beneficial relationship.

But Griffin justifiably endured his share of bad jokes after the incident last off-season, when he was allegedly masturbating at the time of his car accident and, confronted with the damage, offered to replace the damaged car with anything but a Bentley. It is amazing to think that little more than a year later, having pissed away at least three distinct second-chances, Griffin would ignore a railroad intersection warning and crash through the barrier into a moving train at 1:30 in the morning last Friday, creating a conflagration that required dental records to identify the body. The blessing is that he apparently took no one with him on the final ride down.

Or, an alternate title, we can call this the Ultimate Open Thread. Because my promised Kevin Garnett appreciation was simply too weighty a task to try and squeeze in among 75 other deadlines as I scramble to get out of town on a car trip across Canada to the Maine coast.

Maybe I'll get it together once ensconced in the woods, but as all vacationers know, that's not likely. Look for it after August 18. In the meantime, I will try and check in to approve comments and ask folks at The Rake to do the same, but it probably won't happen as rapidly as usual. I'd still love to get your takes on all things sports, and will chime in myself once I get settled in a couple of days. In the meantime, enjoy this cool weather and keep the topics hot.

Thanks.

Ever since the big Garnett trade went through I've been debating whether to throw up a KG appreciation, an assessment of the post-KG Wolves, or both. For the past 24 hours, any Garnett piece would have been a big, mushy valentine--it may still be, when I take a crack at it tomorrow or Friday. A look at the current status of the Wolves, however, is an exercise for the head instead of the heart, and has enough contrarian aspects to be worth the snap judgments, third-guessing, and speculation that comes from assessing, two months before training camp, a young, totally jumbled team that could and should still undergo significant personnel changes between now and opening day.

First of all, the next three or four years will either rescue or solidify Kevin McHale's current reputation as a dreadful personnel guru. There's plenty about McHale's tenure to bash and ridicule, and I've done my share. But even if you discount the bad luck and woe stemming from the Googs and Marbury petty jealousies, the Joe Smith fiasco, the Malik Sealy death, and the Sammy and Spree snit (little of which had much to do with McHale's lack of acumen, even the illegal Smith signing, which most Wolves insiders don't lay at McHale's feet), a fundamental problem with the Garnett-McHale tandem was their vast difference is philosophical styles. As a player and then GM, McHale sees the game almost totally through the prism of the painted area of the court. As he has said on numerous occasions, whoever wins the paint wins the game. The irony was that for many successful seasons, Minnesota's style was defined by Flip Saunders and KG, who were about as paint-phobic as a plus-.500 coach and a seven-foot superstar could possibly be.

McHale constantly preaches that there are three ways to score in the paint: feed in to a capable low-post player, penetrate off the dribble, and grab offensive rebounds. Leaving aside the fact that McHale himself has rebutted that philosophy with dunderheaded moves, from Mark Blount on down, for the past three drafts and now with the KG trade, he is reinforcing that paint mantra with a vengeance. Al Jefferson is your classic low-block presence. Randy Foye, Rashad McCants, and Gerald Green are penetrators first and foremost. Craig Smith and Chris Richard are offensive glass cleaners first and foremost, and Corey Brewer will penetrate and crash the boards much more than your average swingman.

As a player, McHale ranks with Hakeem Olajuwon for possessing the best interior footwork in NBA history. His inability to instill much of that in a long succession of sub-mediocre Wolves' big men is a mystery, but, speaking just about this particular facet of the game, he's never had a diamond in the rough quite like Al Jefferson. Those who rag on Jefferson are foolish. Those, like ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith (whose Native American name is most certainly Loud Flapping Jaw), who claim that Jefferson will suffer moving over to the more competitive Western Conference, didn't do what one of my smart readers, Jason in San Francisco, did and break down Jefferson's conference splits: Big Al was 15.9 ppg and 10.7 rpg in 41 games against Eastern Conference foes, and 16.3 ppg and 11.3 rpg in 28 games against the West. And because he is so low-post oriented, he already has a higher shooting percentage (51.3 for his career, 51.4 last year) and a greater share of offensive rebounds in his total boards than does Garnett.

But I'm making what will become an all-too-frequent mistakes over the next few years, which is comparing Jefferson and KG as if it is apples to apples. Not only will Jefferson never be as talented nor as versatile as Garnett (expecting otherwise does him a great disservice and belittles KG's legacy here), he is a much different kind of player--one who happens to mesh perfectly with McHale's preferred style of play. That, far more than his friendship with Ainge, is why McHale pursued the Boston trade (even more than Stoudamire in Phoenix, Horford via the Atlanta pick, or Bynum in LA).

Put simply, Jefferson is the new centerpiece of the Timberwolves. And while he will never be as valuable as Kevin Garnett, he's nine years younger, with a very high upside, the best of a bevy of potentially gifted players who figure to grow together over the rest of this decade.

Alongside Jefferson, I would include Corey Brewer and Randy Foye, in that order, as automatic members of new core group of Timberwolves. Without having seen Brewer play a single NBA game (a summer league tilt over the internet doesn't count), I am pretty sure he can play NBA-caliber defense and will bust his ass to refine his overall game, which already looks to have an upside along the lines of Bruce Bowen and Raja Bell, provided he can sink that trey a little more often. Foye will probably suffer more than any Timberwolf from KG's absence, but has a load of confidence and a season of experience at the point to help him through the rough patches. He isn't afraid to take--and will often make--the big shot. Furthermore, Brewer and Foye are both relatively selfless, high-character guys, which figures to be a very important aspect of the new McHale-Wittman regime. Let's hope so, anyway. In case anyone missed the huge, blinking, neon memo, the Wolves are full and total rebuilding mode, and emphasizing character and synergistic compatibility over large but selfish talent is the only sensible way to grow. And that should help make a few potentially controversial moves a lot easier to execute.

Like, at the very least, breaking up the cancerous Ricky Davis-Mark Blount tandem--or, better yet, sending them both to another Western Conference rival. Blount, Davis and Justin Reed formed a toxic little ex-Celtics clique on the sidelines and in the locker room last season, and the since-departed Reed was finished a distant third as the main complainer-conniver-malingerer jerk of the trio. Not to put too fine a point on it, I'd renounce the rights to Mark Blount if you can't swing the Blount for Adonal Foyle trade other smart readers here have proposed. Blount is the antithesis of the new-direction Wolves: He's old, expensive, treats the paint like kryptonite at both ends of the floor, and has shown a pronounced tendency to lie down like a dog when the mood suits him--like, say, the 10 weeks after the all star break last season. Even if he had a dramatic change of heart and performed with the inspiration and flashes of talent (nailing jumpers and showing hard on the pick and roll) that occurred during the first half of last season, he's a permanently bad fit robbing minutes from younger, systematically more compatible teammates. And if you played him the 5-15 minutes a game he'd otherwise merit, his attitude would either become a huge distraction and/or expose Wittman's tough guy stance of rank hypocrisy. How many more games are you going to win in 2007-08 with Blount on roster? More games than the lessons and lasting example of his presence this year will help you lose in 2009-10?

Davis is a thornier dilemma. First, with Garnett gone, ball-movement decision-making becomes the most pressing of the team's many flaws; in my opinion it also happens to be the strongest aspect of Davis's game. Add in that Davis can realistically (though still inaccurately) regard himself as a team leader this upcoming season, that he is playing for a new contract, and that his plethora of skills besides ball movement will be less redundant with KG gone, and you can see how he might be convinced to become a positive force, to the point where I shed a crocodile tear or two when he is inevitably unloaded at mid-season or when his deal expires at the end of the year.

On the flip side, Davis could raze this ballclub more thoroughly and effectively than anyone but Jefferson (if Big Al decides he doesn't like Minnesota, this franchise is in for a mess of hurt and apathy). Ricky's history with the Wolves and elsewhere is that defensively he plays when he feels like it. Rotation-wise, he pouts whenever he has to sit. And when it comes to acting out, he's not exactly passive-aggressive, as that ersatz bathroom break during the Lakers game that probably cost Dwane Casey his job attests. I've heard from a number of back-channel sources on the Wolves and in the media that Casey couldn't stand coaching Davis. And anyone remotely paying attention has seen the blatant inconsistencies in effort during the 110 games or so he's logged with the Wolves. Others might also raise the misguided triple-double mistake he made early in his career, which I regard as stupid but not as damning as his Jekyll and Hyde defense, which is just tantalizingly solid enough to generate sufficient trust to do real damage when he betrays the faith.

Both Davis and Blount reportedly were not high on Jefferson's favorites list when all were in Boston, which, frankly, speaks well of Jefferson's character and judgment. If it comes to a pissing on turf match between the Bobbsey Twins and Big Al, may the younger man prevail. Ditto the potential clash between Davis and Rashad McCants, who ostensibly will be competing for playing time with Pretty Ricky and has his own contract extension to consider.

Right now, McCants is the biggest wild card in the Wolves's future. If he can combine the offensive game he flexed in the final six weeks of his rookie season with the generosity of spirit and defensive commitment he displayed throughout last season on both the sidelines (while recovering from microfracture surgery) and on the court, he could be a stud who joins Jefferson, Brewer and Foye as building blocks to the playoffs. If he starts hogging the ball, spacing out on defensive rotations, clapping his hands for the rock out on the perimeter and generally favoring the "born to be hated" side of tattooed duality, then he will forever be unremembered or lamented as a poor man's JR Rider.

The Davis-McCants conundrum gets to a literally larger and more crowded personnel issue facing the new-look Timberwolves between now and opening day: Assuming Brewer gets at least 30 minutes a night as one of your swingmen, how are the rest of the minutes divvied up in the cattle call for the other swingman spot? Are Wittman and McHale arrogant and perhaps foolish enough to think that Davis and McCants can productively co-exist, let alone florish, for even half a season? Remember, McCants venerated KG. If he's going to suck up the enormous psychological blow of Garnett's absence, he's going to need the oxygen of a regular and fairly sustained stint on the court, at least 25-30 minutes a game. Does anyone think Davis can be appeased with less than 35 minutes a game (about four minutes less than he averaged last year) on a non-KG team? And we haven't even started talking about Trenton Hassell, Gerald Green, or, if he isn't flipped back to point guard, Marko Jaric.

Obviously, I think hard decisions need to be made about Davis and McCants before opening day. Wittman has to tell Davis that big minutes are not guaranteed, that defensive consistency and offensive ball movement matter most, that if he is in the top three on the team in minutes he should be the team's assist leader, the second best perimeter defender behind Brewer, and a stalwart presence in the locker room--let the points come when they come. Oh, and no shots with more than 20 seconds on the clock and no leaking out for cheap layups that more frequently produce cheap putbacks for the opposition. If and when Davis bucks the discipline, he needs to fill the Troy Hudson memorial seat at the end of the bench and not move for about a week. At the same time, Wittman needs to inform McCants that for the first three or four months of the season, his patience and perseverance are being auditioned as much as his talent; that Davis will be going via a trade before spring and that he should use the time to hone his game and be able to step in as the full-fledged two-way dynamo he is capable of becoming.

Or, if the Wolves are really sold on McCants, peddle Davis before the season starts and begin the trial by fire with Foye at the point. Or, deal both Davis and McCants for help at point guard and center and let Marko Jaric be Foye's ball-movement savvy backcourt mate. I'd mention Trenton Hassell, but I think the dust-up between Hassell and Wittman last season, plus the redundancy of Hassell with Brewer and the attractiveness of Hassell's on-ball defense to a few potential contenders, combine to almost guarantee that he'll be gone before the opening tap. There are no shortage of decisions to make, and they're as important as leaving the blocks cleanly during a long relay race.

For example, what about Ryan Gomes? Yeah, he was a "throw-in" on the KG trade at the last minute, and only makes $770,000 on a contract due to expire at the end of the year. He also is built like the proverbial brick shithouse--6-7, 250 pounds--is a high character guy, and started 60 games for the Celts while logging 2275 minutes, which would have put him 4th on the Wolves last year behind only KG, Davis and Blount, and ahead of Foye, James, Hassell, Jaric, etc. The guy is a curious 'tweener along the lines of Justin Reed, only much, much better, with more beef and a hair less quickness. He'll turn 25 on September 1, and is another reason why Trenton Hassell is going to get the short straw when it comes to assembling this roster. I couldn't begin to tell you where Gomes will fit in, but he was very popular in Boston, which suddenly has a very exciting team in need of some glue guys, so I suggest that if the Wolves plan on keeping him when his contract expires after this year, that the seduction process begin soon and include a nice niche in the substitution rotation.

I also don't have a clue as to how the Wolves maximize a front line that, aside from Jefferson, locker room stalwart Juwon Howard (who needs to be kept in the mix), and the hopefully departed Blount, is comprised of a trio of undersized grinders in Craig Smith, Mark Madsen, and Chris Richard. I think Richard is better than D-league material; that Smith will continue to improve (if only because half of those unfair blocking fouls he was whistled for will be ruled charges); and that for all the guffaws about Madsen's amateurish appearance, the guys helps more often than he hurts when thrown in for short 5-10 minute bursts.

The bottom line on all of this is that the last three drafts and the KG trade have generated a whole bunch of really interesting pieces with which to jigsaw together a basketball team, including some draft picks and some salary cap space. It will be up to the front office, specifically Wittman, McHale, Taylor and Hoiberg, to combine these pieces in a way that creates synergy instead of chaos. I understand the cynicism toward McHale and Wittman, whose recent track records inspire opprobrium. When former Strib beat writer Steve Aschburner asked me for a projected win count during a preseason exhibition game last year, my honest but wide-berthed answer was they'd win between 28 and 40 games and miss the playoffs. A year later, two months before training camp, I'd lower those parameters to between 15 and 30 wins. But I already feel better about this team than I did about last year's. There is young talent here; can it be meshed and molded properly? That's a more enticing prospect to watch unfold--whether the answer is yes or no--than watching the poignant frustrations pile up for an aging superstar compelled to endure the inconsistencies of his overpaid, underachieving teammates.

I know this post is becoming a novel, but one last thing. Just as bashing McHale and Wittman before they've had a chance to glisten or besmirch their clean slate serves no purpose beyond primal therapy, lamenting the delay in trading Garnett is, for me at least, 20/20 hindsight. Should the Wolves have pounced on the offer of Luol Deng, Tyson Chandler, and the #2 pick from Chicago a year ago? Yeah, it looks like it. But I see no dishonor in Glen Taylor trying to make it work for as long as possible--and at least a year longer than he should have--in deference to his loyal superstar. This is where Kevin McHale earns our scorn, in the time between the Sammy and Spree revolt and last week's blockbuster concession to the reality that KG's time in Minnesota was destined for a bad and sad denoument.

I started this thing by saying that, post-trade, McHale has a chance to rebut or reinforce negative perceptions. The same is true of Garnett, albeit in much more favorable circumstances. All that talk about not stepping up and never having quality teammates are off the table beginning this season in Boston. It is a near optimal situation for the three Celtic stars, who all became accustomed to carrying their respective teams these last few years. None have ever had a teammate as good as one--let alone both--of the others. It is like toiling by yourself in the fields and suddenly being assisted by two quality workers; it gives you far more energy and inspiration than if the three of you had all started working together. I expect to see the Celts, at minimum, in the Eastern Conference finals. I expect to see the Wolves flounder for at least a year or two, but can't help but notice the dim light at the end of a long tunnel. Just desserts, all around.