FanHouse Glen Taylor

In fairness to our friends in Minnesota, most NBA general managers these days are anonymous before they become NBA general managers. But David Kahn, the Wolve's new man-in-charge, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, is particularly unglamorous.

That's fine -- glamorous doesn't win championships. Ask the Michael Jordan-led Bobcats, or even Jerry West's six-year reclamation project in Memphis. But to say Kahn has not inspired local fans is ... well, an understatement. Self-nominated candidate Bill Simmons offered up a cannonball, too. Kahn has worked for the Pacers and in the D-League.

As a reminder, Kahn is at best Minnesota's third choice to lead the franchise's front office. Spurs exec Dennis Lindsey and Blazers assistant GM Tom Penn were reportedly offered the job, but ended up staying with their incumbent teams. Former Heat GM Randy Pfund pulled his name out of the running, though it's not clear whether he had been offered the job.

Blazers "capologist" Tom Penn became the third top candidate to leave Minnesota at the altar today. According to Ric Bucher, Penn took a better title, a bigger paycheck and a hearty backslap from Paul Allen to stay in Home Sweet PDX. The Wolves' search continues anew. Mascot Crunch is currently testing Shelden Williams' spelling skills.

To be brutally honest, these last two snubs in Minneapolis have been downright insulting. Randy Pfund will end up as an assistant general manager, assistant coach or lead scout somewhere when he likely could have had Minnesota's top job. Penn is one of numerous cooks in Kevin Pritchard's kitchen -- and this is a young Kevin Pritchard, who isn't likely going anywhere any time soon. Penn would rather stay there than deal with Glen Taylor and (potentially) Kevin McHale. (Publicly, Penn cites the comfort level with the Blazers. I didn't hear anything about a comfort level until Portland put on a "full court press," though.)

News this week that Randy Pfund, the former Heat GM who publicly announced his interest in the Timberwolves job, had withdrawn his name from consideration drew raised eyebrows at the least. Pfund, after all, has few front office prospects -- the market is just dry for personnel bosses right now. And just weeks ago he really pushed for consideration in Minnesota. What gives?

Marc Stein of ESPN.com has a clue. And that clue's name is Kevin McHale.

Back in December, Kevin McHale had a decision made for him. Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor fired coach Randy Wittman, and told McHale to get down to the bench to guide the team he had assembled as vice president of basketball operations.

It was an unkind blow for McHale, who had been in on the franchise's highs and lows as the team's top decision-maker for the previous 13 seasons. At the time, most figured McHale would ride out the rest of 2008-09 season, then move on.

Now, McHale's got a decision to make.

Over the weekend, the Jazz announced that Jerry Sloan would be back for his 22nd year as head coach in 2009-10, the longest stint for any head coach in any of the professional sports.

On the exact opposite of the longevity spectrum, the Thunder and Timberwolves are mulling the futures of Scott Brooks and Kevin McHale, respectively, two of the newest members of the NBA's head coaching fraternity. Will they remain with Sloan in that elite group?

It seemed pretty random the other day when Timberwolves' owner Glen Taylor made a remark that he was of the opinion that KG tanked the last five games of last season. After all, we're only about a month from the end of this season, and Taylor's comments sounded like someone who was bitter that Garnett was leading someone else's team to the league's best record.

Garnett himself took the high road, basically refusing to answer back. It now appears that everyone from the Timberwolves organization to the league office is sticking up for KG. An NBA official was reported to have called Taylor to chastise him for the comments, and the Timberwolves issued a long statement attempting to "clarify" the original remarks. Here's an excerpt:

Mr. Taylor never intended this to a "cheap shot" or to call into question KG's overall effort, competitiveness, etc. He did however, want to make clear that the decision for KG to not play the last five games of the season, and the subsequent accusations in the media that the team was tanking it, were a result of KG deciding not to play the final five games.

I think we were all aware of that, but thanks for bringing it up a year later. The most interesting thing about these unwarranted comments though is how quickly the T'Wolves, and even the league office raced to backtrack and show their support for KG. And why not? He's had a huge hand in reviving the Celtics, and while I've questioned whether or not he's a clutch performer, no one can question his work ethic or intensity.

David Aldridge, doing what he does, got KG after the Celtics blew out the Rockets on Tuesday night and after warming him up with a few "teammate softballs", did his journalistic duty and asked him about Glen Taylor's accusations that involved the words "Kevin Garnett" and "tanking". Ticket was not particularly happy about it, and he did a little jersey tugging too, but as Charles Barkley pointed out later, at least he kind of took the high road.



I mean, Barkley definitely would have said something that involved a bleep, right?

Reporters asked Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor about the team's recent hot streak here at the tail end of 2008. There was also some discussion, via a local newspaper writer's notion that the team should begin to not play as well, about the issue of tanking. Obviously, the young Wolves would like a nice draft lottery pick and obviously winning does not help that. In case you were confused about what tanking consisted of. Taylor clearly was not. Because he think Kevin Garnett was involved in some.

Taylor said the columnist 'said a little bit last year that we sort of like tanked it. I don't think that. I don't like that so much. I don't like that.

'It was more like KG tanked it. I think the other guys still wanted to play. But it sure changed the team and didn't make us (as good).'

I tend to think you have to either be a) seriously unconcerned with the consequences of speaking babbletalk to a bunch of gentlemen holding microphones or b) completely convicted in your belief, if you're going to make that statement publicly. And since Taylor is smart enough to make and hold onto the substantial amount of money needed to own a team, or at the very least find himself in a position of ownership, then I'm going with option B.

Garnett's agent has already called the comments "ridiculous" and state what most of us in the public believe, that not only nothing was "more important than bringing a championship to Minnesota" but that he was one of the most intense players ever to step foot on the court, and the last guy you would ever think would tank. If Taylor's comments are true, and personally I have trouble actually believing it, then the Ticket was more exhausted and ready to collectively strangle the T-Wolves front office leave Minnesota than any of us really knew.

Update: Charles Barkley got absolutely livid about Taylor's comments before the Houston-Boston game.
Update2: KG responds after the Celtics blow out the the Rockets.
Sorry, No Photos

As Ziller noted last week, the Class of 2004 is having major trouble getting contract extensions. Sure, Dwight Howard has his max deal. But Luol Deng hasn't received a reasonable offer, and Josh Smith's employers have decided to gamble next summer.

It looks the Minnesota Timberwolves have opted to go against the grain. Owner Glen Taylor has made it known that Al Jefferson will get an extension before the October 31st deadline. And if he doesn't, they'll match whatever other teams propose in 2008. From the Pioneer Press:

"We don't have to sign him now," Taylor said. "Next year, we can match somebody. I'm not worried about this. We're probably going to match (any other offer). No matter what the offer is, we're probably going to match.

"That's the risk. If he plays a great year, he'll get a great offer. If he plays an average year, he probably won't even get an offer because everybody will know we're going to match him anyway. I think that's the risk (Jefferson and his agent) take, too, by not signing."

We've debated on here before whether or not Al Jefferson is a max player. Which is to say, he's practically one now, and at worst will definitely be one at season's end. Taylor's strategy makes sense, in that he really has nothing to lose; if anything, he could get a bargain if Jefferson has trouble adjusting. But one thing he can't do is let Big Al get away: After all, this was the main chip in the Kevin Garnett trade. Lose him, and you've given up KG for nothing.

For the first time ever, Kevin Garnett (or at least his agent) has spoken up about where he'd like to end up. Although the exact location hasn't been determined yet, he certainly won't be ending up in Boston. Here's what Garnett's agent Andy Miller told ESPN.com about the potential Boston trade:

"The Boston trade isn't happening. If a trade were to happen, that's not a destination that we're interested in pursuing."

As well, sources have told ESPN's Marc Stein that Garnett wants to move to a warm-weather city and a team that can claim legitimate championship potential.