Will Kevin McHale return as coach, and will it be his decision?

Who will owner Glen Taylor hire to replace McHale as the team's chief decision maker?

And will the answer to one of those questions come first?

The Wolves enter yet one more pivotal offseason with no basketball boss and no certain head coach, but with three first-round picks -- theirs, Miami's and Boston's -- in the June draft.

"A lot of uncertainty, I don't know what will happen," Wolves rookie Kevin Love said. "We don't know who's going to be making the front-office decisions. We don't know who the coaches are going to be. We don't know who will be on the team. Sometimes I'm a little high-strung, so that does make me a little anxious just to see."

McHale has refused to discuss his thoughts or plans about his future beyond this season since he moved from the front office to the bench to replace fired Randy Wittman in December.

He did so again one final time after a season-ending home loss to Sacramento, both to his players in the locker room afterward and to media members after that.

Wolves forward Ryan Gomes said he has "no sense at all" concerning what McHale will decide to do.

"My opinion is I don't think he knows yet. I don't know what he's going to do. We hope to have him back," Gomes said. "We do like him. We like what he's done. If we had him since training camp, it might have been a different story. Still, it comes down to players."

After the season's final game, somebody asked McHale if he owes it to anybody to return next season.

"I really like those guys and if I owe to anybody, I owe it to the players," he said. "If I don't come back, I'll miss the guys because they really are a quality group of guys, as nice a group of young men as you'll ever find. They come in. They're resilient. They fight back."

McHale was asked if he allowed himself to look around the arena just in case this was the last time on an NBA bench.

"I just wanted to see us win," he said. "If it is, it is. If it's not, it's not. All things come to an end. Life is a fun journey. You try to do the best job you can and move on from there."

SEASON HIGHLIGHT: January. After a 2-14 December left them 6-25, the Wolves started the month a startling 10-2 and ended it with losses to Detroit and the L.A. Lakers. A single month offered hope that the Wolves had turned the proverbial corner, and it won Kevin McHale the Western Conference Coach of the Month award.

TURNING POINT: Al Jefferson's season-ending knee injury late in a game on Feb. 8 in New Orleans. Just when it looked like McHale had guided a dramatic turnaround, the Wolves lost the player around whom their new coach had organized everything. Jefferson landed awkwardly and hopped across the floor clutching his right knee, which he discovered the next morning had a torn anterior cruciate ligament. The Wolves went 7-26 the rest of the way without him.