Wittman: Expect progress ... in small doses

The day after the Timberwolves completed a 22-victory season last spring, Vice President of Basketball Operations Kevin McHale said his team could win 20 more games next season, an optimistic, ambitious notion that soon caused his coach to flinch.

Nearly six months later, the Wolves today embark on that next season with rookie Kevin Love and veteran Mike Miller on board and with free agents Ryan Gomes, Sebastian Telfair and Craig Smith retained.

Nearly six months later, Wolves coach Randy Wittman prefers not to quantify the Wolves' future with a number.

"That's Kevin, that's not me," he said at the Wolves' annual media day Monday. "I can't sit here and give you [the number of] wins. I never have. We've got to be better.

"The way we played at the end of last year, once [point guard] Randy [Foye] got back for the last 40 games or whatever it was, we've got to start right from that spot and spring forward. We can't start lower than that and work our way back. What is that going to translate into, wins-wise? More wins."

Wittman points to the Portland Trail Blazers' arc of improvement the past three seasons as the model: from 21 victories in the 2005-06 to 32 victories two years ago to an even 41-41 record last season.

Now, with young players Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge returning and Greg Oden, Rudy Fernandez and Jerryd Bayless on the way, the Blazers are considered the team of the future in a Western Conference -- where Tim Duncan in San Antonio, Steve Nash and Shaquille O'Neal in Phoenix and Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas are growing old.

"We're looking at two years from now, three years from now," Wittman said. "In these next couple years, those teams have some decisions to make. If we can position ourselves, when they're ready to retool their teams, we'll be ready to break through and take their spot."

To do so, Wittman reckons the Wolves' current assembly of young players must improve, and the team must wisely use three extra first-round draft picks it has collected and the salary-cap space it has cleared for 2010's awaited free-agent class.

"It's hard to win 15 more games than the year before," Wittman said. "I don't care if you're going from 10 to 25 or from 22 to 37 and from 40 to 55. That's hard. But we've got to make a progression."

He was asked Monday whether he believes management will stick with him long enough for him to see those days two or three years from now.

"I can't worry about that," Wittman said. "I've got to focus on getting these guys to realize what we have to do. That's it. When we talked about doing this [trading away Kevin Garnett and rebuilding with young players], the first word mentioned to me -- mentioned to me, not the other way around -- was patience. As a coach, you have to be patient. You can stay patient as long as we're making the right moves and doing the right things as a team.

"If we're getting better and we focus on the future, I think this team can get there. I really do."

A season of evaluation and a commitment to play all their young players a year ago -- when the Wolves won five of their first 39 games and 17 of their final 43 -- tested his patience.

"I had to find out, because all these guys were going into their free agency," Wittman said of a process in which the team decided to re-sign Gomes, Telfair and Smith and let players such as Gerald Green and Kirk Snyder go. "It wasn't coaching, per se. We played through a lot of ups and downs with people. We had to play guys even if they were struggling, because I had to find out who they were and if we wanted to move forward with them.

"I think it was the right thing to do. Maybe not always playing your best five guys; that wasn't easy last year. I don't think any coach will say he likes losing, but that was the process."

This season, Wittman says he will play "guys who deserve to play, which is different."

When asked what that meant, Wittman said that -- for example -- Telfair would become his starting point guard if he outplays Foye.

"We're going to play who makes this team the best," Wittman said. "Guys are going to have to prove they deserve their playing time. I don't think we'll have to go through as many growing pains as we did last year. I think I've got a good grasp of who this team is now."

Still, he must find which players will step forth to lead his team. He said he has challenged Foye, blossoming star Al Jefferson and Mike Miller -- the team's most accomplished veteran, at the age of 28 -- to exert their influence.

"I'm still looking at that, I'm still looking for leaders," Wittman said. "You can't make somebody into a leader. You've either got it or you don't. That's what we have to find out. I think all these guys have an understanding how important it is to do things the right way. When we're not doing things the way we should be doing them, somebody has to have the courage and ability to step up and say something, other than me."

Jefferson, the team's best player, on Monday vowed he will be the one to do so. He said he was too quick to criticize teammates last season and too slow to offer support and encouragement, qualities he said he will reverse this season.

"Al never touched the ball that many times in his life from an offensive standpoint, and he liked it," Wittman said. "When he didn't get the ball, he'd get upset some time. As I told him, I'm not stupid. At least, I hope I'm not. Al needs to touch the ball, but I told him he has to trust me that I'm going to get him the ball. I told him, 'The one time you might not touch the ball, you can't go off on somebody because I do need that guy, too.' "

Now that he's surrounded by such shooters as Miller, Love, Foye and Rashad McCants, Jefferson said he will be perfectly pleased to find the open man when opposing defenses collapse on him.

"That's part of growing up," Wittman said. "We've sat and looked at film and talked about things. And he's saying the right things today. Those are steps that need to be made. Is it going to happen? We're going to find out."