Your mission, should you choose to accept it...

Wolves beat writer Jerry Zgoda's clever headline for the Star Tribune on Tuesday: "From Showtime to no-show time, with a grin." The Wolves officially introduced newly hired coach Kurt Rambis to the media after an unusually lengthy hiring process, giving the man who may be best known in Minnesota for the clothesline he received from Kevin McHale during their playing days a four year contract that will be an uphill battle from day one.This year's Wolves are being touted as a "new look" team by the P.R. department (deja vu all over again from the beginning of last season), and part of that new look encompasses the style of play. Rambis and Kahn both seem committed to turning the Wolves into a running team, although the coach was quick to allay fears that poor shot selection and bevies of turnovers will accompany the more free flowing, up and down type of basketball. That sounds well and good in August, but I figure reality will set in once the season gets underway. With the number of inexperienced players on this team, combined with the fact that many of these guys have never played before, mistakes are going to happen and happen often. Both Kahn and Rambis have acknowledged this reality, and they both understand that the Wolves are at least two years away from being a playoff contender. In some ways, this kind of honesty from the front office is refreshing. Rather than try to completely sugarcoat the current state of the team and put unreasonable expectations on the ongoing experiment that is the Minnesota Timberwolves, Rambis and Kahn are accepting the reality of the situation in an attempt to empathize with a frustrated and disinterested fanbase. You'd like to think that both have the same appetite for a turnaround that remaining Wolves fans have built up since the last playoff berth, now five seasons past. So what's reasonable to expect from this year's squad? Unfortunately, the answer is next to nothing. I get the feeling that many people believe a successful season means simply matching last year's win total, a feat that will be difficult at best given the strength of the West. With all of the uncertainties going into 2009-2010 - a rookie head coach, huge roster turnover, and two of the main players (Jefferson and Brewer) coming back from injury - it's not hard to see how we could be in for a train wreck. The "winning attitude" that Rambis hopes to invoke within his new team will be tough to maintain if they wind up with 20+ losses by Christmas, as happened last year. If Rambis hopes to be here for all four years of his contract, it's critical that he establishes himself early as a coach these guys can rally around. McHale had that ability as a coach to establish a likeable relationship with his players, but he lacked the coaching acumen on the floor that Kahn hopes he now has with Rambis. Since he has no track record as an NBA coach, Rambis' most valuable attribute seems to be his pedigree as a player and assistant. Given the success of the Laker teams he played on during the '80s and the close relationships he has with Pat Riley and Phil Jackson, it's pretty safe to say Rambis knows what it takes to win, if that's a notion into which you buy. The talent level with those teams with which Rambis was associated, however, was markedly greater than that of the Wolves. You don't have to be John Wooden to know it's easier to win at a high level with Magic, Kareem and Worthy than it is with Jefferson and...fill in the blank. Assuming Jefferson fully recovers from the knee injury he suffered last year, which is no gaurantee, finding a legitimate complementary player to take the focus off of Big Al is vital to this team's progression. That's what we hoped Mike Miller could be, to a certain extent, and I need not rehash how that experiment worked out. This much is certain: even with what will hopefully be a number of savvy personnel decisions over the coming years with the cap money Kahn has freed up this offseason, Mr. Rambis will have to earn every penny his contract affords him in order to make this team a winner.