According to KFAN

[Aleister Crowley]

Dwane Casey will likely be named the new Wolves coach within the next 72 hours

http://timberwolves.kfan.com/sports/wolves/notebook/story.aspx?content_id=ECFA6D89-50EC-4405-B1D4-5F12CA3F01CE

[ole]

yup yup, just reading about that today.

http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/dwane_casey.jpg


1979 grad, U of Kentucky...

coached at western kentucky under clem haskins, then under eddie sutton at kentucky.

currently has been an assistant at seattle for the past 10 years...associate head coach since 2000.

[The Greatest Poster Alive]

There were safer bets.

A lot of them, Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said. Folks with head coaching experience at the NBA level, fellows with a track record right there in front of them, like print on a résumé.

But would it have helped the Wolves turn the page?

That was the question. And so Taylor, along with team vice president Kevin McHale, took a risk, hoping for a reward. They hired longtime Seattle SuperSonics assistant Dwane Casey to be the seventh head coach in franchise history. They hired him not necessarily because of what he has done, or where he has been. Indeed, in part they did it despite that. They looked at where he could go. In the end, Taylor said, he looked at Casey's aptitude ... and his appetite.

"Here is a guy who wants to prove himself," Taylor said Friday. "He was hungrier than any of them."

Casey's journey back from basketball oblivion took him across the world and included more than a decade of dues-paying as an NBA assistant.

Friday, his journey took him to Target Center, where he was introduced by Taylor and McHale as the man charged with pushing the Wolves back into championship contention.

It is Casey's first head-coaching job at any level on the continent of North America. And if that sounds odd, so, too, is his long, strange career trip.

"I've come up through the trenches, I think I've paid my dues," said Casey, 48.

A 1979 graduate of Kentucky, Casey spent five seasons as an assistant to Clem Haskins at Western Kentucky. He was an assistant under Eddie Sutton at Kentucky from 1985-90 but left when he was implicated in a recruiting scandal. Casey's career rehab began with five years coaching in Japan, followed by 11 seasons as an assistant in Seattle.

"I'm excited," said McHale, who a day before had labeled reports of Casey's imminent hiring as erroneous. "I'm already looking forward to a good summer league and a good fall and a long, happy marriage."

Casey received a five-year contract, with the first three years guaranteed. The Wolves didn't go into specifics, but it is believed Casey will receive $2 million in the first year of the deal, slightly more in the second and third years. Taylor said the contract was similar to the four-year, $9 million deal Cleveland gave new coach Mike Brown.

Wolves 'not broke'

Minnesota advanced to the Western Conference finals two seasons ago before falling out of the playoffs this season, resulting in the February firing of longtime coach Flip Saunders. And yet, Casey agrees with Taylor when he says a rebuilding project is not needed.

"The Timberwolves are not broke," Casey said. "They had a hiccup last season."

Casey praised the team's current makeup while at the same time talking about a need to find a player to break down opponents on the perimeter on offense and the need on defense to defend that same perimeter.

"I just said, 'I want us to be better,' " Taylor said.

And he believed Casey was the man to do it. Yes, there was risk in hiring a first-time head coach. Taylor said he likes the upside he sees.

Casey is given much credit for Seattle's up-tempo offensive style but describes himself as a defense-first coach. He was one of 10 candidates interviewed, Taylor said. Among those he beat out for the job were San Antonio assistant P.J. Carlesimo, former Cleveland coach Paul Silas and Wolves assistants Randy Wittman, Sidney Lowe and Jerry Sichting.

Casey will bring a well-known ability to work very hard here. "He has an incredible work ethic," said Billy McKinney, the Wolves radio analyst who got to know Casey well during nine years in Seattle as Sonics VP of basketball operations. "He knows the league inside and out. He pays attention to detail. He loves his work -- that's really all he does."

As for style, Casey described himself as a man able to keep the door of communication with players open while knowing the buck stops at his desk.

"I like to use the word accountability," he said. "That's what I've always tried to do as a coach. ... It should be an easy thing to do, but sometimes it's a day-to-day task. What you try to be is consistent."

Casey talked about entering the job with an open mind. "[But] you have to adjust to the situation," he said. "It's like my grandmom said. If I told you a few times to do a certain thing, and you didn't do it, that's when you become stern, tough, whatever you want to call it."

Taylor discounted talk that Wolves star Kevin Garnett was intensely involved in the hiring process, saying Garnett indicated neither his approval nor disapproval for any candidate. Taylor said Garnett was more interested in what kind of coach the Wolves were looking for.

Casey will now begin assembling his staff, a process McHale said should be done before July's summer camp begins. Casey is expected to hire Sonics assistant Dean Demopoulos as one member of his staff. Another possibility is former Washington and Toronto assistant Brian James. It still is not clear how many, if any, of the current Wolves assistants will be retained.


http://www.startribune.com/stories/503/5463418.html



not much of a Basketball fan myself..but i figured i'd pass on this article....