Continued: McHale stays mute about plans; Dallas' Carlisle hopes he stays on

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It's probably a good bet Timberwolves coach Kevin McHale won't announce his future immediately after the conclusion of Wednesday's season finale against Sacramento, like Wild coach Jacques Lemaire did Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.

McHale has been mysterious about the matter since he returned to the bench in December and is likely to remain so for days, perhaps a couple of weeks after Wednesday.

Dallas coach Rick Carlisle knows what he would like to see his former Boston Celtics teammate do.

"I hope he comes back," said Carlisle, whose team plays the Wolves tonight in Dallas.

Carlisle played with both McHale and Larry Bird for three seasons in the mid-1980s. Bird coached Indiana for three seasons, the last in 2000. McHale is in his second stint as coach. The last one lasted 31 games in the 2004-05 season.

"Larry will not ever go back to coaching," Carlisle said. "I hope Kevin does, because having legendary players around the game, teaching the game is great. Especially in this situation, where they have so many good, young players, it's a great positive for their franchise and for our game in general."

No more Foye

Wolves guard Kevin Ollie made the trip to Dallas Sunday evening, but Randy Foye did not, a pretty good indication that he played his last game this season March 27 at Cleveland.

Tonight's game will be the eighth consecutive Foye has missed because of a hip he injured when he fell on Kevin Love in practice in early March and has bothered him since then.

Ollie missed Saturday's lopsided home loss to Phoenix because of a hip-flexor injury sustained in a collision Wednesday night at Golden State. Expect him to try to play tonight.

One more year

With just two games remaining, the 47-33 Utah Jazz cannot finish with the one of the NBA's eight best records, which means it will keep its top-22 protected first-round draft pick this summer rather than transfer it to the Timberwolves.

The Wolves will get Utah's pick in 2010 if it is not one of the draft's top 15. They prefer that scenario because they already own the first-round picks of Miami and Boston this summer along with their own and didn't want four first-rounders in a draft that right now looks like one of the weakest in years.

If the season ended Sunday night, the Wolves would be in line for the draft's sixth (their own), 17th (Miami's) and 28th (Boston's) picks.

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