Empty the Bench

Oh, Kevin McHale, you are a shrewd one. The beleaguered Minnesota Timberwolves GM pulled off another head-scratcher yesterday, trading away SG/SF Ricky Davis and PF/C Mark Blount to the Miami Heat in exchange for PF/Blob Antoine Walker, PF/C Michael Doleac, PF Wayne Simien, and a conditional first-round pick.

Other than dumping salary and freeing up minutes for the Timberwolves’ youngsters, the only thing McHale accomplished here was bailing out the Heat. After a miserable offseason which saw Miami rebuffed in every attempt to upgrade their roster, they land a legitimate scorer on the wing in Davis and a sharp-shooting big man in Blount. Pat Riley and Walker never saw eye-to-eye because of Walker’s inability to keep himself in shape and play disciplined basketball, so it’s also addition by subtraction there as well.

It’s unclear what role, if any, Walker will play for the rebuilding Timberwolves this season. Hopefully he’ll be bought out or benched, because it doesn’t make any sense to give shots and minutes to a 31-year-old forward who plays selfish basketball when Minnesota should be spending the year working on team chemistry, evaluating talent, and developing forwards Corey Brewer, Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes, Al Jefferson, Chris Richards and Craig Smith. Wayne Simien has talent, but he’s unlikely to develop into much more than a role player. Hopefully this deal was another move designed to clear cap space to make a run at free agents during the next two offseasons. We shall see.