12:00 PM CT 10/15/08 By Alec Schimke TimberwolvesPress.com Beat Writer It’s hard to believe that Rashad McCants is now in his 4th season as Timberwolf, only Mark Madsen has been a T’Wolf longer. McCants is coming into this season after completing his best season last year as a pro when he averaged 14.9 points per game. When people have been talking about his upcoming season and the weapons that we now have now, Rashad often gets skipped and I think it’s a complete slap in the face to his game. Here’s a guy who doubled his career scoring average last year and showed the potential to be 20 point scorer on a nightly basis. Yet he doesn’t even get mentioned with Jefferson, Miller, Love and Foye? To be honest I think Rashad is the best scorer out of all of them. Looking at the media day photos there are several photos of Jefferson, Miller, Foye and Love together but none with McCants included. It’s pretty obvious what that photo is suggesting and it is mind boggling as to why McCants does not give the credit he deserves. Sure he has had his run in with Coach Wittman but who is Wittman to be sitting McCants, he is a coach with a career winning percentage of .333, why should we have any trust in his decisions? In my opinion the Timberwolves are not utilizing McCants the way they should and it could result in McCants bolting during free agency. For being the 14th selection in the 2004 draft, McCants has given us a lot of value for the pick. Not many players selected last in the lottery end up being 15-point scorers. If it wasn’t for McCants knee injury that slowed his progression in his second season, who knows how much better he would be right now. During this preseason McCants has looked fantastic minus the Toronto game. McCants is relying a lot less on his outside game and is attacking the basket at will and finishing. It’s not that we don’t want McCants shooting from the outside because he is an excellent shooter but it’s that he sometimes has a tendency to take bad shots from the wing. McCants has matured as a basketball player and you can tell so in his 4th season. He is taking less bad shots so far and has showed more energy on defense. There is no question he is a rising star in this league with all-star scoring potential. So why is Rashad still coming off the bench for us and why is he not perceived as highly as other players? What exactly is his relationship with the Timberwolves? Are the Timberwolves hurting Rashad McCants or is Rashad McCants hurting the Timberwolves? The Timberwolves should be smart enough and retain McCants for the long run as he I think he will be a 20 point scorer in a year or two. Then again if I’m Rashad McCants and I’m still coming off the bench in my 4th season and averaging 15 points a game I may want to go somewhere else where I am more appreciated. Not only do that I think McCants wants to be a star of a team and lets be honest he does have a scorer’s mentality which can be a good and bad thing. Rashad wants the ball and this year it will be a lot tougher for McCants to put up 15 points a game off the bench with Mike Miller, Kevin love and the rest of the returning players improving offensively.
Regardless of what Love, Miller, etc. are doing offensively, McCants needs to create opportunities for himself. He can't rely on his jump shot all of the time. He needs to slash, drive, and hit the rim. He has great potential to be a very solid player on our squad for years to come, but we can't wait around forever.
