Don't Look Back

The Timberwolves' 20th season has come to an end, and just like many other seasons, this one mostly sucked. Most blogs would probably take a look back at the past season right now, but I'm not going to do that. There are plenty of other people that will take care of that elsewhere.

I'm going to jump right into looking toward the future. This will turn out to be a very interesting off season. The biggest question mark is the new GM. This is even bigger than the topic of McHale as head coach. The new GM will have the power to pick the new head coach so it might not even matter what McHale wants to do after spending a couple weeks up north. Popular opinion right now seems to point to a GM coming from outside the organization. If this is the case, it is hard to imagine that McHale will be back as head coach. Obviously, if McHale is not back, that will become the second most interesting question after the new GM is appointed.

It sounds like the front office and coaching decisions will probably be made well before the draft. That is good, because this could again be an important draft. The lottery is about a month away and the Wolves have a so-so shot at moving up. Lucking out into the number 1 or even the number 2 pick would really boost the rebuilding process.

Unfortunately, knowing the Wolves luck, there will probably be no moving up. That's unfortunate due to the weak draft class this year, but there should still be quality players available at the 5, 6, or 7 spots. Probably not All-Stars, but it would hard to not get someone more promising than someone like a Corey Brewer. If the Wolves get another player of Corey Brewer's calibur, we may be in for another long season next year.

Finally, there will be the free agent market and trade season coming up in July. There isn't enough cap space to be major free agency players, but the Wolves do have valuable expiring contracts in Cardinal and Miller. The new GM could work out a trade for a very good veteran using these chips and some of the extra draft picks. Someone like Kirk Hinrich could be within the Wolves sights this summer.

There is plenty there to hold the interest of the remaining Wolves fans for much of the summer. I don't see a real down time for Wolves news and speculation until late this summer. By that time training camp will only be a couple months away, and with a little luck Wolves fans can start to get excited for season number 21.