Kandi Works on Defense

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">After the Timberwolves' 102-91 loss in Denver two weeks ago, coach Dwane Casey was able to get Michael Olowokandi to see the light. Now, perhaps, that light can be found at the end of the tunnel.

Casey's messages to the center were pretty simple. In order to be on the court, you have to be willing to run. To get the ball on offense, you have to do the job on defense. Perhaps most important: The most important things you do will not show up in the scoring column.

More than ever before, Casey defined a role and Olowokandi has been filling it.

"I don't have control over everything that is out there, but I do have control over what I do," Olowokandi said. "If I can play defense, run up and down the floor, stop shots, make shots more difficult -- just be a defensive presence? That makes a big difference."

Let's call it a role reversal for a player who admitted Monday that scoring used to be his primary standard of measuring his play. Olowokandi said he might have moped a bit in the past if he wasn't getting playing time, touching the ball on offense or scoring.

"We had that meeting after the Denver game, and we showed him where he wasn't sprinting the floor, wasn't getting back, wasn't involved. That's what we need. We've got to have that from him."

And, Casey insists, that's where Olowokandi's current success is coming from. "He's building his rhythm on the defensive end," Casey said. "By blocking shots, by running the floor, getting guys off that deep post position."

Olowokandi is well aware of that. Of course, the 7-footer also reiterates his belief that, in his first two seasons with the Wolves, his mind was willing but his body wasn't. Olowokandi was plagued by knee injuries beginning in his final season with the Los Angeles Clippers (2002-03) through last season. The problem was eventually traced to his foot and -- Olowokandi insists -- finally corrected.

But there is no question that, though Olowokandi might be finding his rhythm on defense, his statistics also have benefited. Earning more minutes, Olowokandi has scored in double figures in three consecutive games, marking only the third time he has done that for the Timberwolves. It did not happen last season.

In the past three games, Olowokandi has averaged nearly 30 minutes, 14 points, 6.7 rebounds and two blocks per game.

One thing Olowokandi does not like is the suggestion that his play this season is because his contract expires at the end of the season.

"Nothing to do with it," he said. "I didn't want to come here, the past couple years, and play badly, or play to the boos ... to be ridiculed on national TV. I have a sense of pride. To think I would have foregone the past couple of years? That is ridiculous. I have the doctors over the past three summers to prove how hard I have dug away to get to the bottom of what was wrong and try to get it right. ... For me it's been about trying to get healthy."</div>

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I think Kandi is working for another long term deal.