Timberwolves General Manager Kevin McHale thinks that the Minnesota Timberwolves aren’t far away from being a championship contender. And I might be a little more inclined to agree with him, if the team had a general manager. But they don’t. That position remains vacant. They have admirably filled the position of Retired Power Forward Who Does Nothing But Hurt The Franchise And Anyone Who Cares About It, though.

So McHale has evidently promised the Wolves owner that he won’t be trading Kevin Garnett… which just infuriates me. We, as basketball fans, deserve to see Kevin Garnett in the playoffs on a regular basis, and for more than just 4 or 5 games. Now, certainly, there are arguments to be had on just how great KG is or isn’t, about if he’s a leader, or great in the clutch, etc… but it just can’t be argued that he’s not in the Top 5 in the NBA on pure skills alone. He deserves a team around him. And we deserve to see what that might be like.

I feel very strongly about this. Kevin McHale has had his chance. He has proved himself incapable of building a decent roster for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He got it right for exactly one year and the Wolves advanced to the Conference Finals. A year after that, things were back to normal, i.e., hopeless. He’s been with the Wolves for 11 years. He’s had one or two years that could be termed successful. I’m not saying he should be fired… but you know, if some rich prick teenager gets to drive his father’s Jaguar, and every time he drives it, he either wrecks it, gets it towed, or pours sugar in the gas tank, eventually, his father will take the Jaguar away. Kevin McHale should be forced to relinquish his jaguar. Kevin Garnett should be liberated.

Nash: Have you seen Marion’s jumpshot? It looks like he’s trying to shove a canteloupe into Manute Bol’s ass.
Bell: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Marion: I don’t think that’s so goddamn funny.

Gigantic win for the Suns last night… they needed that one, and Raja Bell was pretty big for them. He wasn’t expected to play, but he gave it a go, and you could see how they missed him. I thought the biggest thing was that Leandro Barbosa was back to playing his normal game, instead of having to fill the Raja Bell role. Bell could hang out on the perimeter, which opens up more space inside for penetration and things of that nature.

And defensively, he’s big for them, too. He really makes the whole team better defensively. He draws offensive fouls (with an extensive arsenal of flops, grabs, dives, and holds, I might add), and the Suns don’t need to double team as much when he’s out there. The Mavs had a poor shooting night (42% to Phoenix’s 54%), but they didn’t have a lot of great looks, either. Phoenix was all over the court defensively. It didn’t seem like the Mavs had a lot of shots anywhere near the tin… and Dirk Nowitzki in particular had a really off night. They can’t win if Dirk shoots like that again.

A great big Game 5 is Thursday night in Dallas.