McHale: Old pal Ainge's moves make sense

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

McHale: Old pal Ainge's moves make sense
By Steve Bulpett
Thursday, October 23, 2003

Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders smiled when he saw Danny Ainge approaching
last night.

     ``I like the way you come in and shake things up right away,'' Saunders
said.

     ``Hey,'' Ainge said, ``if you're scared, go get a dog.''

     The Celtics director of operations certainly caused a stir by trading
Antoine Walker [news] and Tony Delk to Dallas for Raef LaFrentz, Jiri Welsch,
Chris Mills and a No. 1 draft pick. Back in Minnesota last night, his Wolves
counterpart and longtime friend, Kevin McHale, was laughing too.

     ``I see it didn't take long for my boy to throw something out there,''
said McHale, who used to discuss personnel moves with Ainge when the two were
Celtic teammates. ``That's my Danny.''

     Guts aside, McHale believes the moves make NBA sense. Basketball-wise,
the Timberwolves' leader thinks the trade is good, and he feels it could get
even better if Ainge uses the Celts' newfound cap flexibility properly.

     ``Finances play into everything you do now, and this trade helps them
that way,'' McHale said. ``Danny was in a situation, cap-wise, where if he
wasn't going to be able to use the mid-level exception (to sign a free agent),
then they weren't going to be able to improve much. This trade lets him do
that. It can be a tough situation when you're over the cap but your team isn't
where you want it to be.

     ``You want to have flexibility . . . This at least gives them some.''

     On dealing Walker, McHale agreed with the move. The man who once traded
away Christian Laettner (when people still thought he could play) to better
allow Kevin Garnett and others to grow understands what Ainge was up to here.

     ``I know from talking to Danny a lot that he just didn't think they had a
good mix there or the type of team he wants to have,'' McHale said. ``I know
he wants to change things up, and this is the start of it.

     ``Absolutely, I think chemistry is very important. All you have to do is
look at the most recent championship team (San Antonio). Tim Duncan is their
best player, but who's their next best player? That tells you chemistry means
a lot. I think Danny wants to see some of the younger players grow and see the
ball move a little more,'' McHale said.

     ``If you have young players, you know they're going to make mistakes. But
they're going to make them a year from now or two years from now if you don't
play them. So you might as well get it over with and see what they can do.''

     If a move had to be made with one of the Celtic stars, McHale thinks
Ainge chose the right guy. ``I know he really likes Paul Pierce [news] a
lot,'' McHale said. ``He thinks he's the type of guy you can build around. So
if you don't think you have a great combination and you think you have to make
a change, I don't think there's much of a choice between Paul Pierce and
Antoine Walker.

     ``I think the other part of it is that Danny knows he has to take a big
step forward to improve that team.''

     And McHale isn't buying this deal as a unilateral move. ``Look, I know
Danny wants to do things, but no matter what anyone says, there's no way he's
doing anything alone,'' McHale said. ``That's not Danny. I'm sure the coaching
staff had a say and ownership had a say. I'm sure there's going to be a lot
more stuff coming out about all this.''
Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx