<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Over the Timberwolves' 12 remaining and relatively insignificant games, head coach Dwane Casey will continue to evaluate players, looking for development, challenging their capabilities. At the same time, the evaluator will be getting evaluated, too. Wolves owner Glen Taylor has said many times this month that the job performance of Casey, the assistant coaches and the players will be reviewed after the season ends April 19. Casey, wrapping up his first season as an NBA head coach, has no quarrel with that. "I don't feel like we're just now beginning to be evaluated," he said. "I've been in coaching a long time -- you're evaluated every day. We should be. [But] that's something that's important right now, to evaluate what we have, what we need, what we need to improve on, to be better at coaching." After 11 seasons as an assistant in Seattle, Casey, 48, was hired by Taylor and vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale with full knowledge that this would be his first NBA head coaching job. He took over a team with one bona fide superstar (Kevin Garnett) but three players missing from last year's rotation (Latrell Sprewell, Sam Cassell, Fred Hoiberg) and a fourth (Troy Hudson) who mostly has been injured. In late January, McHale traded two more holdovers (Wally Szczerbiak, Michael Olowokandi) for four newcomers who seen had heavy use, juggling the team's pecking order and fiddling with its chemistry. Since the Boston trade, the Wolves have gone 10-20, the kind of number that gets hung on a coach. Same with the overall mark: 29-41. Players amass stats, general managers have trades and draft picks, but head coaches lug wins and losses for life. "Hopefully I have a lot of years in this league to bounce back," Casey said after the Wolves' practice Tuesday. "If you stay in it long enough, you're going to have years that are not going to be the way you want them. That makes you, as a coach, better. "It doesn't bother me. Lord knows, I'm working as hard as I can to get our situation better, to improve as a coach and to improve the players that we have." Early in Casey's first season, the Wolves were 12-6 and his goal of carving out a defensive identity appeared to be met; through 38 games, they were holding teams to 90.0 points, on average. Over the past 32 games, however, opponents have averaged 97.0. Rebounding is down from last season, a -1.6 differential vs. +1.7, and defensive field-goal percentage is about the same (44.0 percent). The most glaring problems have been losing leads and losing close games. Last season, the Wolves were 35-17 when ahead at halftime, 36-5 leading through three quarters. This season, they are 21-19, 23-11 respectively. And while the Wolves a year ago were 5-6 in one-possession games (three points) and 18-14 in two-possession games (six points), this season they are 1-9 and 12-20. With a six-game swing in their record, they would be 35-35 right now and in contention for a playoff spot. "We've had some tough losses. We've had some injuries," forward Mark Madsen said. "I've never had a coach who works as hard as coach Casey. Who breaks things down and does everything in his power to win games."</div> Source
