<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"><font size="1">The violation of the gospel according to McHale occurred sometime during Timberwolves practice Wednesday. One team seized a defensive rebound, and no big man from the other side made a beeline for the paint on the other end. Kevin McHale's shrill whistle stopped play. It is one thing for a Wolves frontcourt player to make a mistake in front of a substitute teacher; it is another to do so in front of the headmaster. "When (another team) gets it, one of my bigs has got to beat a path down to the paint," McHale said. "That was a point of contention today. They got a little tired, got a little lazy." Any hope for "easy" among Minnesota's post players disappeared along with Flip Saunders. The Wolves' new coach is a hall-of-fame post presence who has said he "lived" in the paint, who admittedly zeros in on the post more than any other spot. Earlier this week, for example, an extracurricular tutoring session featured McHale working alone with four Wolves big men: Michael Olowokandi, Eddie Griffin, John Thomas and Ervin Johnson. The effects of any post-practice post practice remain to be seen, especially on the enigmatic and often confounding Olowokandi and Griffin. But at least McHale has their attention. "When Mac talks, he talks with a boldness, and you sit there and you listen," Wolves forward Kevin Garnett said. "If he talks for two hours, you might fall asleep, but you sit there and you listen. With Eddie, Kandi, myself, Ervin, J.T., he teaches. All of us sit there and just listen, because it's positive and it's knowledge." The effect spreads beyond the Wolves' front line. McHale teaches big, so to speak, up and down the roster. He considers it a "cardinal sin" to take a shot without two players crashing the offensive glass. The results have been encouraging: 33 offensive rebounds in two games under McHale, including at least three players with three or more offensive boards in each outing. "From his perspective as a big guy who played the game, I think he can be critical," Olowokandi said. "And that criticism you can definitely trust to be very valid. Maybe you listen a little more." McHale also has tried to install more postoriented offense ? front-line players diving into the lane, taking up space, drawing the defense. "If you're a big man, you've got to take responsibility," McHale said. "You've got to go every single time. You've got to meet people, you've got to hit people, you've got to control the paint. Average height in America is 6-foot, 5-11? Hey, you're special when you're 7-foot."</font></div> Link
I can seriously tell he is focused in on the big men. In the past two victories, Olowakandi has played like a true man. He is blocking shots, rebounding, and overall playing physical. I think all this is a result of McHale being behind the reigns. We will start to see better overall production from the whole team. McHale wants the offense to be run through the big men, which means the ball is thrown to them right away. With the good distributors we usually have on the floor, there will usually be an open shot. Garnett is going to get doubled, and things will just start to blossom. I am not minding McHale one bit.
