From what's been in the paper, however, it's pretty clear he isn't going to sugarcoat anything. He is painfully aware the team needs an awful lot of work. It also was interesting to read that, to this point, he has had virtually no contact with the current players.

When he does pick up the telephone he might be surprised at what he discovers. Forward Ryan Gomes, for example, doesn't sugarcoat anything, either. He, too, is aware that some things have to change for the Wolves to get into the playoffs.

"Playing in the West, it takes 50 wins to get in," Gomes said. "We've won 24 and 22 games the last two years. That's half of what we need to get in. Over 164 games we've won 46. We have to get better. The only way we are going to do that is to take it on ourselves."

That's a commendable attitude. He isn't sitting around waiting for something to happen. Instead, he's working harder during the offseason as he tries to improve his play.

"You want to take something positive from it," he said of last season. "We won two more games than we did the year before. That's not a real positive way to look at it. We had one good month. We need to have that every night from every guy. Not from one guy one night, another guy the next night and two the next night. We can't not focus out there. We have to have all things in place.

"We have to value the Basketball, value each possession. We can't be, 'we'll get it back in the third' or 'we'll get it back in the fourth.' "

He also noted that the Wolves were near the bottom of the league in both offensive and defensive efficiency. As a result, he's pushing himself. And despite the uncertainty surrounding the coaching situation, Gomes continues to follow his last set of direct orders from Kevin McHale and company.

"I wouldn't say nervous," he replied when asked about the coaching state of affairs. "As players we still have to go and improve ourselves. We still have to work on those things the coaches told us to work on in the offseason."

Gomes has been back and forth from Minnesota to his home in Connecticut. He comes here to concentrate on Basketball. In the evenings, he's been watching the NBA playoffs, trying to learn something. Anything. And he finds himself imagining what it would be like to participate in those playoffs.

"My first team in Boston, we didn't get there," he said. "Now I've been here two years. We know not too many of our players have had playoff exposure.

"Even though I've heard different guys say they don't watch them if they're not in them, it's just a case of me looking at some of those names I've played against and trying to learn something. Maybe I can steal a couple of their moves," he added with a laugh.

Out of Providence College, Gomes, 6 feet 7 and 26 years old, has played in every Wolves game in his two years in Minnesota. Acquired in the Kevin Garnett trade, Gomes averaged a career-high 13.3 points per game last season.

During the course of our phone conversation we both agreed that point guard Ricky Rubio, from Spain, would be a good fit for the team. The problem is that he'll probably be gone by the time Minnesota picks in the draft, unless Kahn can do some maneuvering.

I asked Gomes if he called teammate Kevin Love to let him know what a lousy job he did representing the team at the lottery.

"That's why it's a lottery," Gomes said. "That's why someone who buys one lottery ticket can win when someone else buys 25."

Gomes and Kahn are a lot alike in that they both realize serious improvement is a must. I know what Gomes is doing about it. It remains to be seen what Kahn will do about it.

Tom Powers can be reached at tpowers@pioneerpress.com