I’m not sure if McHale is trying to squeeze round pegs into square holes to quite that extent, but yeah, you get that sense. My favorite part was the 6’4” guard thing, too.

Most disturbing about that interview was, again, the attitude that the Wolves just need time to gel, adding pieces here and there. There’s absolutely no acknowledgement or recognition of major fundamental design flaws to the team.

Beyond that, there were some flat out weird comments. He predictably championed the idea of a post presence, and how he feels there aren’t any in these playoffs. Nevermind that, in these conference finals, we have two HOF shoo-ins in Tim Duncan (possibly the greatest post presence to ever play the game) and Kevin Garnett, and Pau Gasol ain’t chopped liver.

He also said a couple times the New Orleans is hurting for a post presence, without acknowledging they have a pretty good young combo in West and Chandler.

Anyway, and I think this is vintage McHale. He was most informative, likeable, and engaging when he was able to take off his Wolves GM cap and offer up his opinions on things like the predraft workouts. Sure, he’s often predictably curmudgeonly when he does this, but it’s still interesting. (Maybe it’s because he’s venting his “back in my day, when men were men” schtick in a more harmless avenue than the Wolves roster. Who knows.)

I always thought McHale’s best post-playing career niche was televison commentator. When he isn’t in Wolves PR defense mode, he does have a likeable personality, and offering scattershot opinions on players and the league seems right up his alley, whereas he’s never seemed all that happy as a GM. I’m just surprised he’s still doing it, although at this point I suspect his competitive spirit is set on trying to right the Wolves and prove a point to people.

...was kind of creepy too. His take on NOLA was a bit weird too. I get what he’s saying about Paul, but I don’t think they are lacking a decent frontcourt presence. If anything, they’re in the market for a wing player who can score on his own instead of having to rely on a guy who is barely 6 feet when the game is on the line.

Here’s hoping his color commentator days come sooner rather than later.