Glory Days

by Stop-n-Pop on May 29, 2008 5:00 AM CDT Comment 2 comments

As many of you may have already heard, Kevin McHale emerged from his secret bunker yesterday to talk to PA & Dubay on KFAN. You can listen to the interview here.

There were a few interesting nuggets from the interview; the biggest of which, to me, was McHale touting the versatility and potential of having 2 6'4" guards in the starting lineup.

"I think that anytime you can get a couple of 6'3-6'4" guards...you can take advantage of some of the smaller guards in the league."

Hmmmmmm...2 6'4" guards...where have we heard that one before?

1985-86 Boston Celtics:

Dennis Johnson: 6'4"
Danny Ainge: 6'4"

If ever you wonder about what the Iron Ranger is thinking about with the current crop of Timberwolves, all you need to do is ask yourself this: How does player x relate to the 86 Celtics?

As has been pointed out many times before, McHale's entire basketball outlook is encased in the amber of the 86 Celts. As far as he's concerned, basketball reached its pinnacle on the parquet floor in Boston 22 years ago and it's been downhill ever since.

The way things stand right now, McHale has the updated version of himself in Al Jefferson. That's about it. Randy Foye and Rashad McCants are both listed at 6'4" but neither has the game or grit of Ainge and Johnson. Foye seems to have the mental potential while McCants has the physical game, but it remains to be seen if either of them can put it together enough to be the 6'4" combo guard that McHale loves to the tune of Dennis and Danny.

Soooooo...if you subscribe to this take, here's a few questions to answer:

Who is more Larry Bird: Danilo Gallinari or Kevin Love?
Who is more Robert Parrish: Brook or Robin Lopez?
Is OJ Mayo more Danny or Dennis than either Foye or McCants?

What say you?

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That's funny...

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.

by jianfu on May 29, 2008 9:42 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

The whole 2% death joke...

...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.

by Stop-n-Pop on May 29, 2008 9:51 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs