http://www.startribune.com/511/story/955860.html Randy Wittman came back to the Timberwolves this season not to hover over coach Dwane Casey as a replacement-in-waiting but to help him, in every way possible, as a member of Casey's staff. Skeptics were assured, repeatedly and earnestly, that it was so, by Vice President of Basketball Operations Kevin McHale, by team owner Glen Taylor, by Casey and by Wittman himself. The two men backed it up, too, working together to push the right buttons, avoid the wrong ones, prepare the players as best they could and search for solutions to a herky-jerky season of eureka moments and dunce setbacks. "In my heart, I felt everybody on our staff was together and working hard," Casey said Tuesday, while driving to his home in Seattle. Hours earlier, he had been fired after 1? seasons as Wolves head coach. And replaced by Wittman. So the question now is: If Wittman was doing everything in his power on Monday as an assistant to help the Wolves play better and win more, what could he possibly have up his sleeve Tuesday as the boss? "We'll find those answers in the next couple of weeks," Wittman said, sounding as if he anticipated the question. "All of us coaches are different. We all have a little different philosophy on how you would run certain things. There will be subtle changes in some things that we do, but nothing drastic." Said Wolves forward Kevin Garnett, who has known Wittman since his rookie season: "Within the pecking order, you have certain limits. Case, we all understand, was the captain of the boat. Now he's moved on. Maybe Randy can see some other things that he can include, not just on offense but in the game, period, and he can now voice those opinions. "He did that today. He let it be known right off the top, 'This is how it's going to be.' He addressed things head-on." Wittman will move one seat over tonight when the Wolves face the Portland Trail Blazers at the Rose Garden. He met with the team before a practice at the Blazers' facility in suburban Tualatin, and will get one more prep session at today's morning shootaround. Then, showtime! "I'm not going to do anything radical like taking three guys out of the lineup," said Wittman, a 1983 graduate of Indiana who played nine seasons in the NBA. "That's going to play itself out. The rotation, or if guys are going to play differently or how long. "Guys are going to react differently to me than to Dwane. Dwane and I are two different people." Said McHale: "Randy didn't overstep his bounds. He helped Case all he could. But as Randy told me, 'I would do things differently from all the coaches I ever worked for.' ... When you [are an assistant], you work with the head coach's vision." Unlike Casey, Wittman takes over the Wolves with prior NBA head coaching experience. He was hired away from Minnesota after five seasons in 1999 by the Cleveland Cavaliers, guided them for two full seasons and was fired after compiling a 62-102 record. The short version of what went wrong there: The Cavs' best player, All-Star center Zyrdunas Ilgauskas, was out because of chronic foot injuries, missing Wittman's first season entirely and playing only 616 minutes in his second. Wittman returned to the Wolves for four more seasons, then served on coach Brian Hill's staff with Orlando last season after Flip Saunders was fired deep in the 2004-05 season. Asked how he might have changed as a head coach since Cleveland, Wittman said: "Until you go through it and experience the different personalities ... the ones you've got to love and the ones you've got to kick in the butt, and understanding which ones those are. "There are a lot of things I'm going to incorporate from what I did in Cleveland, and there are going to be a lot of things left in the suitcase in the closet." Saunders, now coach of the Detroit Pistons, praised Wittman on Tuesday, in a telephone interview, for his basketball acumen. "Any time you're in a situation like he was in Cleveland and things don't work out, you learn from it," Saunders said. "Dealing with players. Reacting to situations." But then, Saunders thought Casey had grown a lot in his job since last season in his rotations and game decisions. The Wolves played the Pistons twice last week. "They were 7-2 in January and he was looking like the NBA's coach of the month, maybe," the former Wolves coach said. "Until five days ago." --

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