What's Next for Kevin Garnett After Feel-Good Homecoming with Timberwolves?
Much of Kevin Garnett's return to the Minnesota Timberwolves is ceremonial.
He's no longer a heavy-minute on-court producer. He can't change entire games through force of will or athleticism anymore. Though he looks physically identical to the man who left the Wolves in 2007 and, for that matter, strikingly similar to the 18-year-old kid who first showed up in 1995, the KG of today is different than the KG of yesterday.
His play was passionate in his return, a 97-77 win over the visiting Washington Wizards, though his production fell far short of stat-stuffing days gone by: five points, eight rebounds, two assists and two blocks.
Fortunately, in the early stages of a promising rebuild, the Wolves don't expect Garnett to be the missing piece in a playoff push. They need him to instruct and inspire, conjure nostalgia and coddle the next wave of talent all at once.
He certainly did all that, whipping the Target Center crowd into a frenzy by his presence alone, then providing an emotional boost that helped the young Wolves surge back from an early 18-3 hole. He barked from the bench and calmly offered strategic tips to teammates on the floor.
He even turned in an early crowd-pleasing highlight:
In some ways, all Garnett has to do down the stretch is spread goodwill, sell tickets and enjoy the knowledge that he's making a frigid basketball town feel warm and fuzzy inside. Mission accomplished there.
In others, his work has only just begun.
Drink It In
Job No. 1 for Garnett will be to enjoy the send-off.
No, he hasn't definitively said this will be his final season as a player. But we should expect his home fans (and nostalgic supporters of other teams, many of whom Garnett has spent a career punishing) to treat these next few weeks like a victory lap.
Some athletes announce their retirement a year early, which allows for all manner of ceremonial shows of appreciation. They get gifts and watch scoreboard tributes and hear their contemporaries say nice things about them.
KG has never been one for pomp and circumstance, and he may not even be sure his playing days are through after this year. But coming back to Minnesota now, at this stage of his career, with the end of his contract looming this summer, is as close to an "I'm almost done" as we were ever going to get from him.
Maybe Garnett's not wired to appreciate goodwill and glad-handing. Maybe he's too competitive, too consumed with the desire to win, to appreciate what's coming.
But he should suppress those instincts if he can, even if it's just long enough to soak up the gratitude he'll get from fans.
Teach Mean
These are the politest Wolves on Earth. Garnett can fix that.
The sport-as-war metaphor is tired and overwrought, but if there's anyone who still believes basketball can be thought of as combat, it's probably KG. He's always regarded his opponents with barely concealed malice, which is really just an offshoot of his legendary competitiveness.
Sometimes, Garnett's play has bordered on dirty. It would be best if he didn't instruct the impressionable Timber Pups on how to bite and/or head butt their foes.
Minnesota could use some mean, though. Ricky Rubio knows it, per Zachary Bennett:
"Ricky says he hopes Garnett teaches him "the bad side." Ricky says he's "too nice."
— Zachary Bennett (@ZacharyBD) February 24, 2015"
Garnett's instruction won't just be confined to the finer points of how to growl at opponents. He'll also set an example for how to treat teammates—something he's already started, according to Rubio, via Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press:
Unless he's been frequenting World's Strongest Man competitions, it's been a long time since Nikola Pekovic wasn't the most intimidating presence in a 100-mile radius. Garnett changes that, and the lessons in aggression he can teach the Timberwolves will be invaluable going forward.
Prepare the Superstar
Andrew Wiggins, physically, is a prototype of basketball perfection (6'8", 199 lbs). He's long, coordinated, quick and skillful. Just look at the two-way highlight he put together against James Harden, the league's leading scorer, and ask yourself how many players (let alone 20-year-old rookies) could pull this off:
Harden wasn't involved in this one, but Wiggins shone all the same. He had a measured 19 points on 13 shots.
There aren't limits to Wiggins' physical talent. There are only possibilities.
Mentally, the Rookie of the Year front-runner may very well have the hard-wired competitive drive necessary for greatness. Because of the Timberwolves' pressure-free locus at the bottom of the West and the general lack of teamwide expectations, we simply can't be sure.
Wiggins hasn't had an opportunity to play in a game that matters yet, so it's hard to know how he'll approach contests with real stakes down the line.
If there's a stone-cold basketball killer lurking inside Wiggins, you can bet Garnett will show him how to let it out. And that'll be a big step—maybe the biggest step—in Wiggins' push toward superstardom.
Mason Plumlee, whom Garnett mentored with the Brooklyn Nets, is not a superstar-in-waiting. But KG took him under his wing nonetheless.
"If you can catch a guy within the first two years, you can establish who he’s going to be," Garnett said, via BrooklynNets.com. “That’s pretty much his foundation for how he’s going to be in the league. So I try to give him a firm foundation of respecting the game, understanding the game, the ones that came before you and the work ethic."
Based on Plumlee's comments, Garnett got through to him easily.
"He’s always trying to instill his habits to me," Plumlee said. “That’s something I want to take away from him. To be at his age and to recognize you still have to put the time in, it just shows you have to really love it. And I do love it, but I’m understanding what kind of work you have to put in."
Few budding stars enjoy the luxury of an in-house guru. Wiggins has one in Garnett, and we should expect the lessons of leadership, focus and fight to pay major dividends down the road.
If you're looking for the main reason (sentimental ones excluded) for the Timberwolves' willingness to bring Garnett back, he's wearing No. 22. And, encouragingly, KG sat right next to him whenever the two were on the sidelines against Washington.
Coaching
Garnett had better polish up those after-timeout sets for his post-playing career as a coach. You know, really spend some time with a dry-erase board, contemplating the nuances of "screen the screener." I mean, it stands to reason that a guy who's been through every conceivable NBA battle would be the perfect leader of basketball men, right?
Coach KG. Coach Big Ticket. Coach Da Kid. I like how those sound.
So much for that.
Make Some Connections
You don't have to do much sleuthing to figure out Garnett's endgame.
"Longer term, Garnett's return seems to fit with a vague plan he mentioned last fall, that he someday might take an ownership stake in the franchise," wrote Steve Aschburner of NBA.com. "Embracing him back now starts that process, too, while lending some of Garnett's cachet as a champion, running relentlessly hot, to an organization desperate once more for street cred."
By the end of this season, Garnett will have made an NBA record $327,000,000 in total salary as a player, per Basketball-Reference.com. Even if he still has every penny, he won't be able to afford the Timberwolves on his own; teams, even the cheap ones, cost twice that much these days.
That means he'll need to assure the right deep-pocketed people that he's serious about taking a stab at ownership. Given his legendary status in Minnesota, that shouldn't be difficult.
Making friends with and/or calling in favors from wealthy investors may not seem immediately important for him, but if KG is serious about really helping the Wolves, about turning them into something bigger than they currently are, this is his most important task.
Judging by the standing ovations he received before and after Minnesota's blowout win, as well as the deafening chants of "KG, KG, KG!" that followed him off the floor after the buzzer, he's off to a good networking start.
And if the Wolves' inspired win means anything, he's already made progress on his other to-do items.
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