David Kahn is back on the hunt now that he has finally removed Kurt Rambis from limbo and sent him back among the unemployed. He is looking for HIS coach. He thought he found him when he hired Rambis after a prolonged search after he took over as the Timberwolves’ general manager, fired Kevin McHale and then proceeded to completely remake the roster before hiring Rambis.
At that time, Kahn at least claimed there was method to his madness.
He had a vision: create a fun, entertaining, fast-paced team that would play hard and push the ball. The Timberwolves immediately adopted the marketing slogan: “Run With Us” with a photo of a wolfpack beneath it.
With that in mind, he drafted Ricky Rubio as the team’s centerpiece and traded away his plodding center in Al Jefferson. Then he did a bunch of random moves that made no sense to any NBA observers (drafting Jonny Flynn foremost among them).
Kahn though is not backing off his original mantra. He wants the Wolves to be a running team.
“Someone whose DNA is, ‘That’s how I coached. That’s how my teams have played. That’s how I believe we should play,'” Kahn said of who he is looking for in a coach. “Because we’ve very carefully built this roster over the last couple years to play this style of play.”
That was part of the confusion in hiring Rambis, who came from Phil Jackson’s triangle offense which is not well known for picking up the pace. Still, the Wolves played at the fastest pace in the league last year with 96.5 possesions per game and third in 2010. It was not like Minnesota was playing at a snail’s pace.
It suggests that Kahn’s vision might be slightly off for the team he had. Introducing Rubio will help and Love is an improving center, although he is hardly fleet of foot. Adding Derrick Williams through the draft and keeping Michael Beasley should also help the team if it decides to run.
But it all still comes down to a question of talent. This is an incredibly young team that just does not have a lot of proven players on the roster. Love and Brad Miller, acquired on draft night, are the only players on the roster with All Star games to their credit.
Kahn may want the Wolves to run, but defense and talent are a much bigger problem for the Timberwolves. And sticking to a running credo is not going to do much to fix that.
Photo via DayLife.com.
