Sid Hartman: They couldn't win with Boston; they won't win here

This past season, the Boston Celtics won 24 games, the second-worst record in the NBA. Only the Memphis Grizzles won fewer.

In 2005-06, the Celtics won 33 games and finished third in the Eastern Division's Atlantic Division.

Now that the Kevin Garnett trade has been officially announced, and with Troy Hudson's contract being bought out, the Wolves have 16 players on their roster. Seven of those players came from a perennial losing Celtics team.

The former Celtics now on the Wolves include Ricky Davis and Mark Blount, who came here in the January 2006 trade for Wally Szczerbiak, and the five who have been acquired now -- Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Sebastian Telfair and Theo Ratliff.

Two other players who came from Boston in the Szczerbiak deal, Justin Reed (traded to Houston) and Marcus Banks (signed as a free agent with Phoenix), are no longer with the Wolves, otherwise there might be nine former losing Celtics on the roster.

These players couldn't win in Boston, where they played alongside a superstar in Paul Pierce, much like the Wolves couldn't win the past few years despite having a superstar in Garnett.

You wonder what makes owner Glen Taylor and VP Kevin McHale believe they can win here with the nucleus that makes up the Wolves now. The five players acquired from Boston on Tuesday join a team made up of Davis, Blount, Randy Foye, Marko Jaric, Trenton Hassell, Juwan Howard, Mark Madsen, Rashad McCants, Craig Smith and rookies Corey Brewer and Chris Richard.

Some deals will have to be made, or a free agent or two who can play need to be added, otherwise this Wolves team will not match last year's 32 victories.

Forced trade

There is no doubt that in the end, Garnett forced a trade because he was convinced Taylor wanted to get rid of him by shopping him all over this offseason.

Garnett and McHale have been on odds for some time. Garnett has gone public with his dissatisfaction over the ability of the Wolves ownership and front office to make the team competitive.

Garnett made that pretty clear with some of his statements Tuesday, praising the Celtics organization and talking about how uncomfortable he was losing a lot of games in the past few years.

The McHale-Garnett problems started when coach Flip Saunders was fired in February 2005, and Garnett's relationship with Taylor didn't get any better when there was all the publicity on the Internet and in the newspapers about Garnett being shopped around prior to the NBA draft this past June.

McHale has played such a big part in Garnett becoming a superstar, and it was sad at the end that they weren't communicating.

In the end, Taylor was forced to trade Garnett even though I don't think he wanted to.

There was an interesting statement Garnett made at the Boston news conference about always being loyal to somebody when that person was loyal to him. He appeared uncomfortable and nervous and said he didn't want to leave Minnesota. He also said he will always have a home in Minnesota.

Some positives

Sure, there are some positives to the trade.

The Wolves could not win with Garnett. His salary was so high that it was impossible to add any real talent without paying a high luxury tax.

And then there was the danger of Garnett opting out on his contract and becoming a free agent following the 2007-08 season.

The biggest plus outside of getting Jefferson, a future superstar, is the fact that the Wolves got two first-round draft choices -- the one they owed the Celtics from the Szczerbiak trade, plus Boston's 2009 first-round pick, which might not be very good now that Garnett has joined Ray Allen and Pierce.

Watching the news conference on television and listened to Allen, you could look back to the 1996 draft; had the Wolves kept Allen, the No. 5 pick, and not traded him on draft night to Milwaukee for No. 4 selection Stephon Marbury, Saunders might still be coaching the Wolves, Garnett would still be here and the team might have won a title or two.

One person I feel sorry for is coach Randy Wittman. He never got a good chance to show his real ability with Cleveland and was fired.

Now, after the two fire sales with the Celtics, Wittman will be facing a very difficult job unless Taylor decides to go over the luxury tax and add a couple of players who can make this team a winner right away.

In the past decade, Minnesota has received a lot of national publicity about sports stars such as Garnett, Randy Moss, Daunte Culpepper and Torii Hunter. Now the first three are gone, and Hunter soon will be next.

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. and on Podcast twice a week at www.startribune.com/sidcast. shartman@startribune.com