Wolves: McHale foresees 20-victory improvement

A day after his team completed its first 60-loss season since he accepted the job 13 years ago, Timberwolves vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale on Thursday said he is committed to his job until the franchise returns to the playoffs headed toward a championship, a development he claimed is not as far away as you might think.

McHale said he thinks the Wolves -- a team that won five of its first 39 games after being completely remade after last summer's Kevin Garnett trade -- can follow their 22-60 season by winning as many as 20 more games next season in a league that he says has few great teams. That is, if the Wolves stay healthy. Guard Randy Foye missed this season's first three months, an absence McHale deemed significant in his team's slow start.

That leap would make them a .500 team.

"I think we should next year," he said. "I don't think we're that far away, to be truthful. I think we can be a lot more competitive. ... I do like our young guys, our core group moving forward. I think there's really people here to build around."

Wolves coach Randy Wittman wasn't quite so bold.

"Let's see who we move forward with," Wittman said, referring to a summer in which five Timberwolves will become restricted free agents. "We'll have a better understanding then. I always find it hard to correlate; how do you put a number on it? We've got to be better. I think we will be better.

"How many teams in the course of history have made 20-game jumps? If it was easy, a lot more teams would be doing it. That's a lot of games. I'm not saying we can't do it. But let's see what our team is, what kind of draft pick we get, who we're able to re-sign and who we might be able to sign."

The Wolves have the option to match any contract offers Ryan Gomes, Sebastian Telfair, Craig Smith, Kirk Snyder and Chris Richard receive this summer, and McHale said he has already prioritized that list because it's unlikely the team will be able to re-sign all five. He called Gomes "definitely a guy we'd like to bring back." When asked specifically if he'd extend qualifying offers -- a procedure that keeps the team's right to match -- to Telfair and Snyder by June 30, McHale said he'd wait to see who and how the team drafts on June 26.

Other notable moments from McHale's 40-minute news conference:

• He was asked if he would accept a championship ring from the Boston Celtics for handing them a title if they win it all this spring with Garnett on their side.

"I've already got three from them," he said. "They say 'Boston Celtics' and they sit at home in my safe. ... Ray Allen had a pretty good year for them. Maybe they'll give Seattle a ring, too. Hell, no. I'm glad for Danny [Ainge], I'm glad for the Celts, I'm glad for KG. But I'm worried about the Minnesota Timberwolves."

• On whether Wittman will return to coach next season: "Yeah, I don't see any change coming, unless you know something I don't know."

• On the team's 13.7 or 13.8 percent chance -- depending on today's blind draw with Memphis that will decide which team is slotted with the third overall draft pick and which team fourth -- at winning the May draft lottery: "The lottery, if you're waiting on that, that's like going into the bingo parlor and putting your finger on B12 hoping that it hits."

• On why he keeps on keeping on at a job most Wolves fans hope he'd leave: "I love basketball. I'll be on my deathbed and I'll love basketball. I don't do it for any other reason than I absolutely love basketball. ... I want this team to be in really good shape. I want this team to be competitive, going for the playoffs and trying to put a championship-caliber team together that can make a run and keep it together."