Owner says more will have a say with Wolves

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor admits it was a hard realization. Simply spending money wasn't reaping results. A roster he believed just needed the right tweak suddenly needed much more.

So Taylor, who has had a life of success in business, is going to do what he has always done. He is going to get more involved.

Taylor described Tuesday how things are going to change in the Wolves front office. The most important can be boiled down to two sentences:

• Taylor is going to be much more involved this offseason than in the past.

• More people are going to be involved in making decisions in the coming weeks and months.

What does this mean?

Kevin McHale, the team's vice president of basketball operations, will return with his title intact, but the dynamic at Target Center will change.

"In the past, I have pushed [decision-making] back on McHale," Taylor said. "This time we'll do it more as a team. ... I have a habit of trusting people, and trusting scenarios when I'm told things. I'm very good when I've gotten involved. But I have been successful by trusting other people, giving them the flexibility to make difficult decisions. But when it hasn't worked, I've gotten involved.

"The last couple years, what we planned to do hasn't worked, at least from my viewpoint. What we always did was look to spend the money to get a good team. We had a free agency market, then we wrote down the type of player we needed. ... This year, when I talked to [McHale], I said, 'We have to look at what we did. It doesn't appear just spending the money is solving the problem.' "

Taylor wants the Wolves' expanded front office -- which includes general manager Jim Stack and assistant GMs Fred Hoiberg and Rob Babcock -- to have more input. Taylor said McHale is fine with returning and working with more of a team approach. A team spokesman said McHale would not be available for comment.

"We'll change what we do," Taylor said. "We're going to go deeper, look at more alternatives, have a lot more meetings than in the past. I like Kevin, he has a lot of experience. ... I believe people learn from, let's just call it mistakes, or things that don't work out as planned. I value that.

"Has [McHale] been perfect? He has not. But he has experience. I wanted him on that team, if he felt comfortable being on that team -- going at it where it's not all on Kevin to make a decision."

Taylor also said:

• He intends to go forward without trading All-Star Kevin Garnett, echoing what McHale said last week.

• Coach Randy Wittman will be allowed to change his staff any way he sees fit once he has officially signed his contract.

• Chemistry will be factored in as much as athletic ability as the team makes roster adjustments.

• That potential moves will be difficult to make, given the guaranteed contracts the team is carrying. "But we are not just going to sit back," Taylor said. "We will look at all scenarios."

• Almost everyone on the roster -- with the exceptions of Garnett, guards Randy Foye and Rashad McCants and forward Craig Smith -- is fair game for potential trades.

"I'm going to push to get some changes made," Taylor said. "I can't tell you today what they are going to be. We are not in [total] control of those. We have to find another team that will deal. Maybe I'll have to take more of a risk [to get a deal done], maybe take a younger player who hasn't performed yet, that type of thing."

So what would constitute a successful 2007-08 season? Taylor would like to reserve judgment until he sees what moves can be made this summer. And yet:

"I want to get into the playoffs," he said. "Though I don't know if I'll be satisfied by [just making the playoffs] by next fall. This is what's different. We always talked about the tweak the last couple years, about the basketball experience on the floor."

This year, Taylor is looking more at the group than any single player. "It's a group of 12 guys who have a common goal who were working together," he said. "That's the area where we found we were a long ways from a tweak. I'm talking about chemistry, special chemistry. I'm talking leadership. All of those things are pretty complicated. If we can do that right, then I think I could tell you better what my expectations could be. The difference is we have to know a lot more about the player than that he shoots 43 percent."

Until then, Taylor also will work hard to convince a frustrated fan base that the team is moving in a better direction.

"Over the long run some will wait and see what we do," he said. "In the really long run, people are going to want to see the team we put on the floor next year and see results. We're not going to sit back, we're going to go out and ask people to have faith in us."

Kent Youngblood • kyoungblood@startribune.com