After a while, even an owner as oblivious as Glen Taylor will get the right idea.

You have an idea about Glen Taylor, I'm sure. He's the Timberwolves owner who doesn't like to be spurned (who does?), and took to various alternative papers and city mags to discuss just why his Timberwolves never went over the top. It had to be something some agent did. Something Kevin Garnett pushed for. Oh, I know. It was Flip Saunders. Mostly Flip's fault.

It couldn't be that, for years, the Timberwolves had a top-heavy team that wasn't good enough to ever make it to the second round, mainly because they were beaten by better teams every time out. That they were good enough to make the playoffs, but not bad enough to ever garner a high lottery pick to turn things around. And when the team had lottery picks in 1996 and 1999, they made the safe and proper picks that everyone rightfully applauded.

You can kind of see where I'm going with this. And where Glen's going with this. Kevin McHale is going to coach the rest of the year, and he'll probably move on after the season at Taylor's behest.

The Timberwolves have screwed some things over throughout the years, but it always seems like there's more blame to go around than there are things to blame people over. Yes, Kevin McHale has been pretty lousy at times over the last decade, but he's also put himself in a position to be lousy by making some pretty solid moves of his own.

I've been pretty wary of McHale since he started with the Timberwolves in an executive position, mainly because it came less than a year after he wrote this rip-job of the NBA for Sports Illustrated. I know that he talked about not missing the drudgery of playing in the league more than the league itself, and he made some salient points in the column, but he didn't exactly come across as someone willing to put the time into what is an exacting and exhausting job.

But he's been at it for over 14 years now, until this week, when he gave up his executive position to coach the team he put together. And though McHale isn't much of a coach, it should be on him to try and turn this mess around.

Because he hired Randy Wittman. And he stuck with him entering this season knowing full well just how goofy some of Wittman's rotation choices have been throughout the years, and with two different teams.

The national TV guys made noise this week about how the Timberwolves "haven't been the same" since they traded KG, but that's because they haven't paid attention to the team since Minnesota traded KG, and don't know that this was about as good a move as a team could make with an aging superstar making over $20 million a year.

But that's what happens when you don't pay attention. You'll see it in the comments section below, "shouldn't have traded KG." Because that's what the Wolves need, now. A 32-year old power forward instead of a 23-year old power forward.

I supposed you'd like me to get to a point, eventually. Let me try one:

McHale's been awful for this team at times, mostly awful, but he's also made some very sound moves, and a lot of his failures seemed like the right move at the time. This doesn't mean he deserves to stay on with the Timberwolves past this season (Fred Hoiberg will likely take on his own coach, and McHale will gleefully take on his own couch), but this doesn't mean McHale's been an abject failure.

For one, we wouldn't even be talking about Kevin McHale as an NBA executive had he not taken a chance on Kevin Garnett back in 1995. This was the first player to jump straight to pro basketball from high school in decades, and the success rate for such a jump varied from the comical (Darryl Dawkins) to the sublime (Moses Malone) to quite forgettable (Bill Willoughby, and I'm not joking here, I had to look his name up because I drew a blank there for 30 seconds).

He jumped on Garnett, and a little while later, he jumped on Flip Saunders as coach. And those were two big risks. At my parents' house right now is a rolled up piece of Chicago Tribune from 1996, used to wrap Christmas lights around, with a Sam Smith column excoriating McHale for drafting an obvious flop and hiring his old Minnesota buddy to run the show. Just killing him for it.

But McHale soldiered on. And he made mistakes. He got the Stephon Marbury trade (the first one) right, but his selection of Paul Davis in 1997 showed his utter uselessness when it came to finding non-lottery talent. A decade's worth of chances, and not a winner in the bunch.

Then, with Marbury moping in March of 1999, he chucked Stephon to the Nets instead of holding his feet to the fire, acting as if Stephon was going to jump as a free agent that summer for more money. He wasn't. Only the Chicago Bulls had cap space that summer, they were saving it for 2000, and Marbury probably wouldn't have played for Chicago anyway. He could make the most money with Minnesota, even if it wasn't on KG's level.

And though McHale did well in grabbing a near-All-Star in Terrell Brandon and a lottery pick for Marbury, that summer's draft could have gone better. Not a lot better, but better. He took Wally Szczerbiak instead of Shawn Marion or Andre Miller or Rip Hamilton, and Will Avery over Ron Artest or Andrei Kirilenko. The problem with ripping McHale for these moves comes with the fact that a lot of teams passed on Artest and Kirilenko. It doesn't make it right, but the Wolves needed a shooter like Wally and someone who could eventually take over for Brandon.

The problem was that Avery stunk, which I didn't see coming at the time, and Wally is kind of a (rhymes with the second word in the phrase "rhythm stick"). Szczerbiak went to Puerto Rico with KG that summer to play for the US National Men's team, and reminded anyone who would listen that he was less than a year younger than KG, despite Garnett's longish NBA history. Not the best start.

And that was it. With the Joe Smith nonsense (who puts that in writing, McHale?) making it so Kevin didn't have a chance to blow any more of those first round picks in the low 20s that the Timberwolves were due to earn, that was the team's big chance to make a move. And they made an OK one. And they were an OK team that lost to better teams every spring in the first round. Doesn't make KG a choker. Doesn't make Saunders a bad coach. Just makes them a 45-win team that lost to 55-win teams year after year.

McHale's next chance to do something with an asset came in 2003, and he knocked it out of the park. Traded Terrell Brandon's expiring deal and Joe Smith's expiring game to several outlets, bringing in Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell. Cassell had a year for the ages in 2003-04, Sprewell was a solid minutes sponge, and KG was in his prime.

The result? A team that would have probably made the Finals that year had Cassell not gone down with an injury in the playoffs, forcing Darrick Martin, Fred Hoiberg, and Kevin Garnett to back the ball across half court at times during the Western Conference Finals.

Should have probably picked up a backup, Kevin.

The next moves were lousy. Traded Cassell and picks for the right to overpay Marko Jaric. Offered Sprewell an outrageously-bad contract (three years, $21 million) that Spre (luckily for Minnesota) didn't sign. Traded a player with slim trade value in Wally for two players with no trade value in Mark Blount and Ricky Davis. Davis' contract expired before Wally's, but it was half the size of Szczerbiak's (a big trading chip right now, and one that helped bring Ray Allen to Boston), and McHale then had to make move after move to try and pare down the largesse of Davis and Blount's deals.

And then he traded Garnett for a 21-year old power forward who responded with a 21 and 11 year, got some draft picks, cash, cap space, and a whole host of solid young rotation talent.

Both teams should have been deliriously happy with the deal, and yet McHale took all sorts of grief for it. Jokes about McHale helping his old team (Boston) run by his old buddy (Danny Ainge). Forgetting, of course, that Kevin Garnett is going to be lazing on a beach in Malibu in five years, and Al Jefferson is going to be on the All-Star team.

He also hired Randy Wittman, and in the end, that may have done him in. Wittman is incredibly inconsistent, alternating fits of fury with all sorts of excuse-mongering and player pampering. His rotations are strange, he seems to lose players, there's not a lot development, and there hasn't been a lot of winning. Other than that, a steady hand.

So, 1500 words to tell you this: McHale's been bad, at times. But he's also done quite a bit for this team, this franchise, and that city. And though we're going to spend the next five months giving him stick for appearing helpless coaching the team he's put together, understand that this team has draft picks, impending cap space, and a roster full of young contributors. Rashad McCants and Randy Foye may have been wasted draft picks, but you know what? They're gone in a year or two, if Hoiberg does it right. 

Rip him if you must, and you must, but don't make it a black and white affair.