Wolves: The worst team ever?

With empty arena seats galore, minuscule television ratings and a season-opening 3-21 start that could threaten the National Basketball Association's all-time worst record, the Timberwolves' rebirth following last summer's trading away of superstar Kevin Garnett has proved more painful than team owner Glen Taylor ever envisioned.

"I said when we decided to do this that I needed to have patience," Taylor said. "It has taken me more patience than I anticipated."

Taylor and vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale tore up a team that missed the playoffs three consecutive years and won 32 games last season by trading the face of their franchise to the Boston Celtics for five players, four of them young prospects, and two draft picks in the biggest trade for a single player in NBA history.

The Celtics, with two stunning summertime trades, have surrounded Garnett -- who advanced past the playoffs' first round once in 12 seasons in Minnesota -- with fellow stars Paul Pierce and Ray Allen and by doing so transformed themselves from the league's laughingstock to an NBA-best 20-3 record.

The Wolves are one of nine teams in NBA history that has started a season with three or fewer victories in the first 24 games and their 3-21 start invites comparisons to the worst team in NBA history, the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers that won nine games and lost 73 times.

Their current six-game losing streak is the longest of the season entering tonight's game against Indiana at Target Center. Their three victories are four fewer than any other team in the league. They have lost seven times when leading the game after three quarters and eight times have lost a double-digit lead and the game, which coach Randy Wittman likens to a schoolchild repeatedly having his lunch money stolen until he learns to stand up for himself.

"I don't think so," McHale said when asked if he has assembled one of the worst teams in NBA history. "No question we're struggling. It's an 82-game season. It's the whole body of work for those 82 games, so we'll see. We weren't winning the other way."

The team has traded Garnett and jettisoned four other veterans since June and rebuilt around nine players who are 25 years or younger, seven of those who have been in the NBA for three seasons or less. They also traded for three additional future first-round draft picks, including one of their own that was returned from the Celtics after a mostly unsuccessful attempt to win big by surrounding Garnett with veteran players.

Denver Nuggets coach George Karl last month said he never would have traded Garnett, 31, and depended upon so much youth because "losing is the worst coach" in basketball.

"He teaches you awful habits," Karl said. "Pointing fingers and the blame game comes when you lose 75, 80 percent of your games."

The centerpiece of the Wolves' efforts is Al Jefferson, a fourth-year forward acquired from Boston in the Garnett trade whom the team signed in October to a five-year, $65 million contract extension. At age 22, he is nine years younger than Garnett, and his new contract, which kicks in next season, pays him about half of what Garnett's salary had been.

Taylor projects the team will lose between $10 million and $15 million this season. The Wolves rank 21st in the 30-team league in attendance with an average of 15,185 per game -- that's how many tickets are sold or given away, not the number of people in the arena -- and have announced two sellouts this season.

The dropoff is about 800 per game from last season, when the team ranked 24th in attendance in the NBA.

A team spokesman said the Wolves have sold slightly less than 7,000 "equivalent" full-season tickets -- either full-season ticket packages or partial-season packages that add up to a full one -- for their 19,356-person capacity Target Center.

Half of the team's first eight games on cable television's FSN North earned less than one rating point (one point is 16,784 Twin Cities households) and a little more than 3,000 metro homes tuned into Monday's game at Miami.

Taylor said the team is reaching its projections in just about every category other than number of victories.

"I think it's gone the other way," he said when asked if he was worried about fan apathy. "The fan base is as good or better than we anticipated. Countless people have said to me this team is more entertaining than our last couple of seasons. I have enjoyed this year immensely compared to the last two years. These last two years were very difficult for me."

Some Timberwolves fans have vowed on Internet message boards not to return to Target Center until Taylor fires McHale, the leader of the team's basketball operations for the entire Garnett era. Taylor said he is committed to McHale because "we're working to get this team together and I have confidence in him and know he's really committed to help these young guys along. Let's hope that we start seeing improvement."

He said that he will not judge Wittman on the number of victories, but rather the team's improvement over the season, particularly once injured young guard Randy Foye returns to good health. In his rookie season last year, Foye thrived in the game's final quarter, a troublesome time for this season's team.

"Not having one of our best players hurts, but that's our league," McHale said. "That's not an excuse, it's just reality. I really like our core group of young guys. I really do believe this group is going to finish the season strong."