The Timberwolves Head Coach Randy Wittman was fired earlier today. Wolves GM Kevin McHale will take over as the interim coach.
Wittman is the fourth coaching casualty of this young season following Sam Mitchell’s firing by the Raptors, Eddie Jordan’s dismissal by the Wizards, and the sacking of PJ Carlesimo by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
ESPN reports
Kevin McHale is back on the bench for the Minnesota Timberwolves … and out of the front office.
Huh? Kevin McHale has left his front office position, I wasn’t expecting that.
The Wolves announced the widely anticipated firing of Randy Wittman on Monday morning once McHale agreed to take over as head coach, but still managed to deliver a surprise with the news that the much-maligned McHale is relinquishing his long-held duties as Minnesota’s vice president of basketball operations.
An official press release from the club states that McHale has assumed “head coaching responsibilities of the team on a full-time basis from this point forward” so he can “concentrate on his coaching duties.”
It was not immediately clear if McHale will have any chance to return to a personnel post in the future or if staying with the organization he joined in 1993 depends on him succeeding on the bench. The Wolves have also yet to announce whether the bulk of McHale’s front-office duties will be absorbed by general manager Jim Stack or assistant general manager Fred Hoiberg, with Hoiberg regarded as McHale’s eventual successor for some time.
McHale and Wolves owner Glen Taylor will be addressing the media at a 3 p.m. ET news conference after McHale coaches his first practice.
Some words from Wolves Owner Glen Taylor and also Kevin himself
“There were certain goals and expectations that we had for this team at the start of the season and we have not lived up to them,” Taylor said in Monday’s statement, after proclaiming Wittman safe roughly two weeks ago.
“I am disappointed in our record and believe that we have more talent than our record indicates. A change had to be made and, with three-fourths of the season remaining, there is still time to make substantial progress this year. … Kevin has assembled the players on this team and believes in their talent and skill level.
“It is my expectation that Kevin will be able to get the most out of our team and our players in his new role as head coach. He has been involved in the NBA game for almost 30 years, is a tremendous teacher and has a wealth of basketball knowledge. I am confident that our players will respond to the new voice and perspective that Kevin will provide.”
Said McHale: “I truly believe that we have a talented group of players in our locker room who have a great amount of potential. I’m confident that we can get this turned around and get back to playing a brand of basketball that our fans can be proud of.”
Great decision to fire Randy Wittman. It’s almost two years late since he never should have been hired in the first place, but later is better than never so well done.
This will be Wittman’s last head coaching job, he doesn’t deserve another opportunity.
The decision to remove McHale from his GM duties caught me off guard though. Not sure what to make of that. I would have liked to have seen him given some real time to rebuild this team before the Wolves made a decision on his future.
It’ll be interesting to see who the Wolves choose to replace McHale, whether it’s an in house candidate or an external hire? and whether they’re there to fill a short term vacancy while McHale coaches or are a long term appointment? We’ll stay tuned on these two important issues.
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ESPN had two articles on the situation earlier in the day. The first was a report by Marc Stein saying that the Wolves would fire Wittman if McHale would take over.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are on the brink of firing Randy Wittman after Saturday night’s 23-point home loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, according to NBA coaching sources.
But Wolves owner Glen Taylor, sources say, wants Timberwolves vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale to agree to take Wittman’s place on the bench before going ahead with a coaching change.
Yet it’s believed that McHale is resistant to coaching again, even on an interim basis, despite the fact that Minnesota’s much-maligned vice president of basketball operations has been successful as an interim coach before, guiding Minnesota to a 19-12 record in the second half of the 2004-05 season after firing Flip Saunders with the Wolves at 25-26.
It would appear that Minnesota’s in-house options for replacing Wittman would appear to be limited if McHale declines to return to the bench, but sources say another possibility is general manager Jim Stack, who has expressed interest in coaching in the past.
On the Wolves failing to meet expectations
McHale nonetheless said coming into the season that he thought that this team — using last season’s respectable 17-26 finish as a springboard — could make a run at .500 ball. The Wolves are well off that pace, losing 15 of 18 games since an opening-night win over Sacramento and looking increasingly disengaged under Wittman, judging by their four consecutive double-digit losses this week. The last two defeats, away to New Jersey and the loss at home to the Clippers, came by a combined 52 points.
“It’s obvious that something has to change,” one team source said Sunday.
Most of the Wolves underperformance has come on the offensive end where they rank 25th in offensive efficiency. Too many weapons for such a poor mark.
More on Wittman and has dysmal coaching record
If this is indeed the end for Wittman, he’ll leave the Wolves’ bench with one of the lowest career winning percentages of all-time at .326. He has a career record of 100-207, going 62-102 in two seasons as Cleveland’s coach (1999-2000 and 2000-01) and a record of 38-105 since taking over from Dwane Casey on Jan. 23, 2007. The Wolves were 20-20 in the 2006-07 season when Casey was dismissed, then went 12-30 under Wittman in Garnett’s last days in Minnesota.
After Saturday’s heavy loss, when asked about his job security, Wittman told reporters: “If you start worrying about it, there’s nothing you can worry about. When you get hired, you’re bound to get fired. No, you don’t worry about it. I’m not. I’ve got to prepare these guys on where they need to get better, and that’s what I’ve got to do.”
The second article was by Chris Sheridan and he focused on McHale’s role in the current Wolves environment and whether he’s done a good enough job in rebuilding this squad. It’s not a well organized article but I’ll pick out some of the decent parts to it which are worth reading.
Rebuilding is never easy, and starting over after trading away a franchise cornerstone like Kevin Garnett is even more difficult, but one has to wonder how much patience owner Glen Taylor has remaining as his franchise founders among the dregs of the West. The jury is still out on whether McHale made the right move in June when he dealt the draft rights to O.J. Mayo, along with the burdensome contracts of Marko Jaric and Antoine Walker, to the Memphis Grizzlies for Miller, Kevin Love and the burdensome contract of Brian Cardinal, who is on the books for one more season after this one at $6.75 million.
Love is averaging 9.0 points, and Miller was shooting 38 percent from 3-point range before turning his ankle, whereas Mayo leads all rookies in scoring.
Another of McHale’s offseason moves — signing Sebastian Telfair to a three-year deal — has not paid dividends, as Telfair has come off the bench behind 35-year-old Kevin Ollie the past two games
Love is averaging 9.0 points, and Miller was shooting 38 percent from 3-point range before turning his ankle, whereas Mayo leads all rookies in scoring.
Another of McHale’s offseason moves — signing Sebastian Telfair to a three-year deal — has not paid dividends, as Telfair has come off the bench behind 35-year-old Kevin Ollie the past two games
Sheridan concludes by saying
and even as McHale decides whether Wittman is the right man to coach them, Taylor must eventually decide whether McHale remains the best person to run them.
And a strong case can be made that McHale and Wittman have run the franchise into the ground.
As the two of them — is it OK to call them Glum and Glummer? — exited the Meadowlands on Friday night, it was hard to envision a long-term future that’ll include both of them.
Posted on December 8, 2008 by Dave