I have found a rumor regarding the Timberwolves' interest with hiring Dwayne Casey as their head coach. Sepeculations is that Taylor would be willing to pay the remaining 2 years for Kurt Rambis. So if there's any truth to this, I'm sure Twolves fans are somewhat rejoicing about the news / rumor. Well, I am...

A little birdie says the Timberwolves are committed to paying the $4 million they still owe coach Kurt Rambis for the remaining two years of his contract. If Rambis isn't brought back, former Wolves coach Dwane Casey, who was 20-17 with the Wolves before losing his final three games in January of 2007, would seem a worthy candidate to return. Casey is an assistant with the Dallas Mavericks.

Read more: http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/nba?eref=sihp#ixzz1P5OvxBgd


Dwayne Casey have coached the Minnesota Timberwolves after replacing Kevin McHale. And now, he will be replacing Kurt Rambis. Wow. He replaced a bad coach, and is going to replace another bad coach. What i mean by a bad coach is bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad coach... you get the point. For McHale, we could argue about his coaching. And if you win that arguement.. Well, he's a bad bad bad bad bad bad bad General Manager.
Let's look at how Casey panned out as the TWolves coach before. I got this from basketball-reference.com

That's not bad. Not bad at all. I don't have great expectations from him with our current young core. But if Casey can bring this group to a 30 Win season, I say, this team is finally on the right track.

Let's look at what roster he had during coaching career with the Wolves.

2005-06 Minnesota Timberwolves Roster

Coach: Dwane Casey (33-49)

2006-07 Minnesota Timberwolves Roster

Coach: Dwane Casey (20-20), Randy Wittman (12-30)

So, besides KG, I don't think there's any player there that you could rely on to push the Wolves for the playoff spot. Comparing that rosters, with this year's roster, I expect the team to at least reach 30+ wins with the excuse that they haven't really found the chemistry under a new coach and that they are still a young team.

Currently this year's Roster:

Players

Pos. # Nat. Name Height Weight DOB (Y–M–D) From F 8 Beasley, Michael 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 235 lb (107 kg) 1989–01–09 Kansas State G 19 Ellington, Wayne 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 202 lb (92 kg) 1987–11–29 North Carolina G 10 Flynn, Jonny 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 185 lb (84 kg) 1989–02–06 Syracuse F 32 Hayward, Lazar 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 225 lb (102 kg) 1986–11–26 Marquette F 4 Johnson, Wesley 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 205 lb (93 kg) 1987–07–11 Syracuse F 42 Love, Kevin (C) 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 260 lb (118 kg) 1988–09–07 UCLA C 31 Miličić, Darko 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 275 lb (125 kg) 1985–06–20 Serbia C 14 Peković, Nikola 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 265 lb (120 kg) 1986–01–03 Montenegro PF 15 Randolph, Anthony 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 225 lb (102 kg) 1989–07–15 LSU G 13 Ridnour, Luke 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 175 lb (79 kg) 1981–02–13 Oregon PG 9 Rubio, Ricky 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 190 lb (86 kg) 1990–10–21 Spain* G 3 Telfair, Sebastian (FA) 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 175 lb (79 kg) 1985–06–09 Abraham Lincoln HS (NY)* F/C 44 Tolliver, Anthony 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 243 lb (110 kg) 1985–06–01 Creighton G 5 Webster, Martell 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 235 lb (107 kg) 1986–12–04 Seattle Prep (WA)*

As for Casey's ability to improve young players, I'm really not sure if he's a coach that could help young players to reach their potential. But right now, I really don't care that much. Because Casey will still be an upgrade over Rambis.

So what's your opinion with this coaching change?

[basketball-reference.com & wikipedia.org]