McCants reluctantly takes on role as sixth man

Of all the fallacies in sports — and there are some doozies — this is among the most oft-repeated: It doesn’t matter who starts a basketball game, but who finishes.

It might indeed be true, but with very few exceptions to gifted players, it does indeed matter.

Which brings us to the Timberwolves and their new sixth man, the seemingly reluctant Rashad McCants.

Randy Wittman in recent weeks has settled on using McCants as his designated scorer off the bench, a role for which the Wolves coach says he believes the third-year guard is well-suited because of his physical gifts and personality.

"I like it because it gives us a punch," Wittman said. "It can be a needed punch if the team is struggling a bit in the first quarter, or it can be an added punch."

Wittman likes it because the role aims McCants toward what he does best — score points in bunches — and emphasizes his offensive talents, softens his defensive liabilities and makes him the focus of the team’s offense when Al Jefferson goes to the bench.

McCants shrugs and arches his eyebrows when asked about his new role, and suggests he can do more when he starts a game rather than fill a specific role as a reserve.

"I know what I’m capable of," he said. "When I did start, I could score six or seven points in the first quarter, seven or eight points in the second quarter and throughout the game be pretty productive with points, rebounds and assists.

"But coming off the bench the second and fourth quarters, I’m pretty much in for instant offense. If I’m instant offense, I guess that’s what I’ve got to provide off the bench and I’ll try to do that. You come off the bench and you do what Coach says."

McCants has averaged 29.1 minutes, 16.3 points and shot 47.3 from the field playing that role in his past 10 games. He averaged 15.3 points per game on 44.2 percent as a starter.

Among the Wolves’ regulars, he has been the team’s best in plus-minus rating — a calculation of how the team fares while the player is in the game — in that stretch and for the season.

Veteran teammate Antoine Walker has played both roles in his career. He calls McCants’ talents perfectly suited as the team’s scoring option off the bench and likened him to sixth men Ben Gordon of Chicago and Leandro Barbosa of Phoenix.

Asked why every player seemingly wants to start, Walker said NBA players have started for every team on which they’ve ever played and are accustomed to doing so. He added "maybe it’s a little ego thing" as well.

"But when you’re trying to win and make the playoffs and win championships, you do what’s best for the team, whatever that is," Walker said. "If that’s the best role for him on this team, then he has to change his goals: be the Sixth Man of the Year. I saw Antawn Jamison do that for us in Dallas. He can still get the same amount of minutes and a lot of times you’re going up against the other team’s second-tier guys, so you get a break there."

Wittman pointed to Saturday’s 99-96 victory at the Los Angeles Clippers — the team’s second victory in as many nights on the road — as one reason he likes McCants in that sixth-man role. McCants made one of his first eight shots, then made two consecutive in the game’s final minutes.

"He’s got that confidence, that aggression to him and I think it fits," said Wittman, who put Marko Jaric back in Saturday’s starting lineup for injured Sebastian Telfair and kept McCants put in his newish role. "That’s who he is. I like what I’ve seen. I like to have that."