Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor plans to hire a basketball personnel decision-maker to replace former vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale and predicts it will be "sooner rather than later" in the time between next week's regular-season finish and the June 25 draft.
After studying the front-office operations of several top NBA teams, Taylor said he has decided upon a "more traditional" structure in which final decisions will be made by one person rather than the current committee of general manager Jim Stack and assistant general managers Fred Hoiberg, Rob Babcock and Zarko Durisic. He said he has interviewed and psychologically tested candidates both inside and outside the organization after asking other NBA teams for permission to talk to a number of people he would not specify. He said he has one more candidate to interview.
He said he hasn't decided if the new hire will inherit McHale's old job title or be given a different one.
"We're well into this thing," he said. "I'm meeting people who I only knew their names before."
He also reiterated that McHale -- demoted from his front-office job in December when Taylor fired Randy Wittman -- will decide whether he returns as coach. That decision could determine who Taylor will, or can, hire for the front-office job.
He said he plans to sit down with McHale probably within two weeks after the April 15 season's end and said he still expects McHale to coach next season.
"That's not based on anything Kevin has told me, that's just my intuition," Taylor said. "He has not told me anything one way or the other. If I'm a guessing man, I'd still say (he returns) because he appears to be enjoying it. All these decisions will wait until the end of the year."
WOLVES 87, CLIPPERS 77: The Timberwolves' 10-point victory became as much about the players who were missing Tuesday evening as those participating. Zach Randolph, Marcus Camby, Chris Kaman, Al Thornton, Ricky Davis, Randy Foye, Rodney Carney, Al Jefferson and Corey Brewer weren't on the Staples Center court.
And, of course, neither was Blake Griffin.
The Oklahoma sophomore and consensus college National Player of the Year announced Tuesday afternoon he will leave school and enter this June's NBA draft.
Hours later, the Clippers chugged to their sixth consecutive loss and a 15.6 percent chance of winning May's draft lottery and the right to choose Griffin No. 1 overall.
The Wolves, meanwhile, won for the second time -- both on the road -- in three games with only a week remaining in a season long ago determined in every way but the team's final odds for the league's annual May game of chance.
If the season had ended Tuesday night, the Wolves would own a 6.3 percent of winning the No. 1 pick and be mathematically slotted to pick sixth in a draft that now simply is considered Griffin and everybody else.
They led the Clippers by double digits for most of the second half on a night when Ryan Gomes scored 24 points and Craig Smith added 16 off the bench in his first game back from a calf injury.
The Wolves outrebounded the Clippers 62-34.
