State of the Wolves, pre-lottery edition, part 1

The 2007-2008 Minnesota Timberwolves had no serious chance to be competitive, no hope to make the playoffs, and no real reason to inspire the fan base to care.  And they proved to live up to pretty much all of those non-expectations.

The Wolves started the season on a pace to be one of the worst teams in league history, and finished the year with a surge of wins that made no sense and served little purpose.

In the process, they played themselves into being the third worst team in the league prior to a draft with only two sure-fire standouts.  So the Wolves now find themselves with a 72% chance of being left out of the Michael Beasley-Derrick Rose draft party.

Let’s face it — there’s little hope of the Wolves becoming a championship contender with Kevin McHale in charge unless they beat the lottery odds and have a great player fall into their lap.  And, as we saw for a dozen years of Kevin Garnett, even the presence of a great player doesn’t mean that McHale is capable of adding the right pieces around a great player to make a championship-caliber team.

So let’s look at the pieces the Wolves do have and where they go from here. 

Head Coach Randy Wittman:  What did we learn about Wittman this year?  Not a whole lot.  I suppose one can look at the Wolves’ late-season success as an indicator that the team didn’t completely tune him out.  Other than that, I’m not sure what else we really know.  The Wolves were at their best after Ryan Gomes settled in and when they got competent play at the point from either Sebastian Telfair or Randy Foye.  The sense here is that Wittman is still overmatched, and not the guy to take the Wolves to the next level.

Al Jefferson:  As the centerpiece of the Kevin Garnett trade, Jefferson lived up to expectations.  He proved to be a terrific low-post scorer and came through with superb performances in the Wolves’ biggest wins of the year.  There are certainly areas of development — defense and passing, most notably — but Jefferson is poised to be at or near an All-Star level of performance for the next decade.  The question the Wolves have to answer, come draft time, is if they can afford to play Jefferson as much at the 5 as they did in the second half of the season.  He’s a natural 4 in the Wittman system, and thrived more there than in the middle.

Ryan Gomes:  After a dreadful start, Gomes emerged as the second-best player on the team in the second half.  A capable scorer and rebounder, Gomes is a nice piece to have — and would be a great player coming off the bench for a good team.  Played better at power forward than small forward.  A restricted free agent, Gomes should be (and by most accounts is) the Wolves’ top priority among their free agents.

Corey Brewer:  The rookie from Florida was the biggest disappointment of the year.  A shaky jump shot and skinny frame caused him problems all season long.  Defensively, Brewer made significant progress over the course of the year.  But until his offensive game matures, Brewer is going to struggle mightily for consistent minutes.

Rashad McCants:  On the plus side, McCants went through the season without any problems from his microfracture knee surgery before the 2006-2007 season.  He also produced his finest stats of this career, averaging nearly 15 points a game and shooting 40% from three-point range.  On the down side, McCants contunes to frustrate with inconsistent effort and consistently subpar defense.  McCants — other than Antoine Walker and his massive expiring contract — is probably the Wolves’ most attractive and most likely trade bait.

Randy Foye:  Foye looked awful initially upon his return from his knee problems.  He played better near the end of the year, but I still don’t feel he’s done enough to cement his spot as the sure-fire point guard of the future.  If the Wolves end up with Derrick Rose or Jerryd Bayless, it could be back to the 2 for Randy.

More coming later in Part 2.