[外電] Erratic-ated
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/sports/basketball/16530382.htm
'We just had these unbelievable swings inside of a week, inside of a game. We
were just very erratic with our style of play. It wasn't anything you could
put your finger on. It wasn't from a lack of hard work.'
PORTLAND, Ore. — From game to game, week to week, Timberwolves vice
president of basketball operations Kevin McHale didn't know what he would get
from Dwane Casey's team.
That inconsistency led McHale to make a coaching change Tuesday. He fired
Casey 1? seasons into Casey's tenure and installed lead assistant Randy
Wittman as the interim replacement. The decision came with the Wolves (20-20)
struggling with a four-game losing streak that included a double-overtime
loss Friday to the Detroit Pistons in which Ricky Davis essentially quit on
his team by refusing to re-enter the game and Kevin Garnett throwing a punch
at an opponent.
McHale lauded Casey's strong work habits and classy personality, but
ultimately the unpredictable swings on the court ended Casey's relatively
brief run, despite the Wolves being in position as the No. 8 seed in the
Western Conference had the playoffs started Tuesday.
"When you watch the team play against some of the top teams, and you see a
level of play and you say, 'Here we go, we're starting to get something,' and
then you see them play two nights later against a team, and you go, 'Holy
cow, that cannot possibly be the same team,' " McHale said from the Twin
Cities. "I know the players didn't get a whole lot worse from Tuesday to
Thursday, but the play sure did."
There was no "watershed moment" in the decision to replace Casey, McHale
said. He talked with team owner Glen Taylor on Tuesday morning and finalized
the decision after weeks of debating whether the move was the right one.
"It had been discussed off and on," McHale said. "Every time you thought,
well, geez, I just don't know if this is going to go, we'd turn around and
win three or four. 'All right, here we go again. We got something going.'
Then we'd turn around and lose three or four in a row... . 'What the hell?
Where are we at?' "
Casey, who went 53-69 in Minnesota, said all season that his team was a work
in progress, that his players needed more time together. It was almost
exactly one year ago that the Wolves traded one-time all-star Wally
Szczerbiak to the Boston Celtics as part of a seven-player trade that shook
up the team. Last summer, the team invested a four-year, $23.5 million
contract in a new starting point guard, Mike James, and made a draft day
trade for Randy Foye, adding to a roster overloaded with guards.
McHale, who wasn't with the team on this road trip, informed Casey of the
decision by phone, with general manager Jim Stack in the room with Casey.
"I asked why, and they said, 'Inconsistency,' " Casey, 49, said in a phone
interview. "And they were right. We weren't consistent, but so are about 90
percent of the teams in the NBA. I totally respected their decision."
The players didn't jell as well as McHale and team management had hoped.
"I'm not sure anybody looks at it like a quick fix," McHale said. "We were
never able, the entire year, to establish a style of play we could bank on.
We'd show strides and then backslide a little bit.
"We just had these unbelievable swings inside of a week, inside of a game. We
were just very erratic with our style of play. It wasn't anything you could
put your finger on. It wasn't from a lack of hard work."
Casey was hired June 17, 2005, as the seventh coach in franchise history
after a decade as an assistant coach in Seattle, where he developed a
reputation for being well prepared for games with an emphasis on defense. He
was deemed the right fit to replace Flip Saunders.
He leaves believing that he left the organization in better shape than when
he took over.
"The bottom line is they're in the playoff hunt, and that's the key," Casey
said. "We go from the lottery to the playoffs."
The Wolves were 33-49 last season under Casey. Playing a big role in many of
the losses down the stretch was the court time spent developing point guard
Marcus Banks, no longer with the team.
This season, Casey played rookies Randy Foye and Craig Smith as big pieces of
the rotation, while still trying to win games.
"I didn't get accomplished what I wanted to," Casey said. "Last year was a
disappointment, but I think out of that you get Randy Foye (on draft night).
His development is on course. Craig Smith is another guy whose development is
on course. Rashad McCants' (injury) situation was unfortunate. I think we've
got that process started, infused with youth. This year we were in the
playoff hunt."
McHale said he didn't know what personality the team had consistently.
"That was the thing," he said. "If it took on Dwane's personality, it would
have been just a blue-collar (team), just getting after it. That's who Dwane
Casey is. … That impact that a guy has on a team, we never locked onto that
and became that type of team."
McHale said he didn't give Casey the perfect roster, but the team in recent
weeks had shown glimpses of the way it could perform. With victories over
elite teams such as San Antonio, Detroit and Houston, the Wolves proved they
could play at a higher level.
Now it's up to Wittman to bring the most out of this team. He returned to the
Wolves for his third stint last summer, immediately making him the subject of
speculation that he would replace Casey if a coaching change were made. He
was a finalist for the job that originally went to Casey.
After his first practice at the helm at the Portland Trail Blazers' practice
facility, Wittman said he wouldn't make any immediate radical changes.
"We've got to get back to being a defensive team," he said. "We're a
defensive team. And we're going to win with our defense. That's an area that
I think we have to get back to, being consistent. During that winning streak
we were as good as anybody defensively, and then it slipped. That leads to
20-20. We've got to get off that roller coaster."
Wolves all-star Kevin Garnett said the players must take some of the
responsibility for Casey's dismissal. Forty-two games remain for the team to
turn things around, starting with tonight's game at Portland.
"The focus is us winning, to not take three steps back, and, if anything, let
this motivate us," Garnett said. "The coaches get you ready. They set the
game plan, but the players make plays and they win games. It's through the
direction of a coach. We all at the end of the day should have some
responsibility and look at ourselves in this termination. When someone in
your family leaves, it's not on just one person, it's on everybody."
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