Cassell's career takes storybook turn Sean Deveney --writer for Sporting News Think of this as a modern basketball fable. Let's call it, The Boy who Cried Timberwolf. You see, Sam Cassell plays basketball, and for him, it always has been a simple game. There's some running, there's some shooting, there's some picking-and-rolling. As Sam sees things, it's his job to do those things against an opponent for 48 minutes in a given night, then proceed to the next game. That's why he never quite understood what he was doing each morning in Wisconsin, where he was employed by the Bucks for four-plus years, running plays, over and over. He'd been executing the same plays for all of those years, with the same coach and, essentially, the same players. The repetition never really suited Sam. He's a league-leading fidgeter; to say he has a short attention span is like saying Ahab doesn't like whales. So, Cassell simply would sit down. Injured, tired, bored, sleepy -- pick your reason. And because Cassell got to sit, his high-priced Bucks teammates, Glenn Robinson and Ray Allen, felt they could sit, too. This did not please earnest Bucks coach George Karl, who watched as his best players put in effort-free practices. Tensions were created that would foment until the team could no longer function. Remember when Milwaukee nearly stormed into The Finals, coming within one game in 2001? Ever wonder what went wrong over the following seasons? Practice, that's what went wrong. Those Bucks have been disbanded. They're now scattered around the league, and Cassell can look back with some perspective. "Look, George Karl said I never practiced," Cassell says. "But I practiced enough to make my game solid. He can't take credit for making me a better basketball player. I knew how to make myself successful. Can't no man, no coach, general manager, owner, tell me how to make myself a better basketball player. It might have gotten to him because of the practice thing, because I did not want to do one play 50 times in a row. So I would go sit down. So be it." The darnedest thing happened to Cassell on his way out of Milwaukee, though. He found redemption, in practice of all places. Cassell wound up in what might be the perfect destination: Minnesota. There, he has been paired with Kevin Garnett, the ideal teammate for Cassell's skills and loose temperament. Garnett, the Timberwolves' superstar big man, has excavated every bit of untapped talent from Cassell's wiry, 6-3 body. Garnett approaches basketball with an intensity that allows no loafing in games, in shootarounds or in practices. It helps that Garnett has a glare that could turn back a howling troop of rapacious Huns. So, at age 34, and spurred by Garnett's example (and his glare), Cassell has discovered the joys of practice. "I think he has been capable of playing this way all along, but I think this year he has a better focus," says Bucks guard Damon Jones, one of Cassell's oldest NBA friends. "He is approaching practices -- practices! -- and games with an intensity that goes with being around a guy like Kevin Garnett, who brings his all every night. It's a trickle-down effect." The results have been undeniable. Cassell is carrying averages well ahead of his career norms: He is scoring a career-high 21.1 points, shooting a career-high 49.8 percent from the field and putting in a career-high 41.4 percent of 3-pointers. He's also averaging 7.7 assists, 1.4 more than his career average. Cassell already was in the midst of a good career, but his brief time in Minnesota has made that career better. He may not admit it, but Cassell owes this, in part, to practice. "You can't do what you have always done on your old team once you get to a new team," says Allen, now in Seattle. "There is a certain level he has to match to play with a guy like Kevin Garnett. There is no question about who the go-to guy is. It's Kevin Garnett. Sam knows that. So Sam is allowed to complement him, and just hit the clutch shots and make open jumpers." It's not exactly Aesop, but the fable of Sam Cassell shows that even a hardheaded guy who claims that can't no man tell him how to be a better basketball player can turn into a better basketball player with the help of another. Now in his 11th season, Cassell is thriving. And practicing. "I haven't had that kind of problem with Sam from Day 1," Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders says. Cassell laughs about his new-found practice habits. "Well, now, it's different," he says. "Now, with Flip, it's practice the play, OK, move on. Play 1 is done. Let's do Play 2." Much more good than bad Whatever the moral of the story is for Cassell, he is not the only one benefiting. His personal improvement is obvious, but that improvement is outweighed by the payback he is delivering for the franchise. The team's recent history has been one of good starts, bum luck and bad finishes. The Timberwolves were 30-10 two years ago before closing the season 20-22. Last year, they were 40-21 after their first March game but went 11-10 from there. Even closing games was problematic -- Garnett carried such a heavy load on both ends for the team, he usually had little left for the fourth quarter. Cassell, along with veteran swingman Latrell Sprewell, has helped change that. "I'm not afraid of taking the big shot," Cassell says. "I am used to it. I want it. I don't mind if I have to sit and answer questions about it after. If it's there, I am going to take it." Even if it's not the ideal shot. With 3 minutes to go in a game at Milwaukee last week, the Timberwolves were protecting an 8-point lead. Cassell scooted around the right side, looking for an opening, as the shot clock wound down. He drew a double-team and, for a moment, had Garnett open for a 15-foot jumper. But Cassell kept dribbling, then took an off-balance, fallaway jumper that clanged out. Timberwolves assistant coach Sidney Lowe, his brow furrowed, looked at his fellow coaches and shrugged. "With Sam," Saunders says, "you've got to take the bad with the good." The bad shot aside, Cassell wound up doing plenty of good in that fourth quarter -- he scored 13 points and fired a rifle pass to Mark Madsen for a critical layup with less than 2 minutes remaining. That has been typical. For the season, Cassell has scored more than 10 fourth quarter points 14 times, and he has shot 54.3 percent from the floor in the fourth quarter in the last 45 games. "One thing you always know about Sam Cassell," says Rockets guard Steve Francis, "he is always going to take the big shot when you need it. Just makes that team that much tougher." Minnesota is a team that has gotten tougher as the season has gone on, bouncing back from a 9-8 start to position itself among the league's elite. The Timberwolves overhauled the roster after last season's playoff ouster -- the franchise's seventh straight in the first round -- with only Garnett, Wally Szczerbiak, Troy Hudson and Gary Trent returning. The season seemed destined to be marred by injuries to Hudson, Szczerbiak and center Michael Olowokandi, but the Timberwolves got surprising contributions from bit players such as Fred Hoiberg, Trenton Hassell, Ervin Johnson and Madsen, as well as outstanding production from Garnett and Sprewell. But as the point guard, Sudden Sam has been Steady Sam. He has been healthy, at least he missed a game last week because of a minor ankle problem. He's still prone to some bad shots, but he is no longer battling with Allen and Robinson over who should be playing the lead role. Now, too, he has a legitimate big man for the first time since he played with Hakeem Olajuwon in Houston from 1993-96. Garnett's intensity has given Cassell a boost, but so has Garnett's style of play -- the two mesh like steak and potatoes. Cassell excels at the pick-and-roll because of his speed, his talent for finishing at the rim and his ability to scotch the whole thing by pulling up and nailing a midrange jumper. Defenders who worry too much about Cassell, though, are liable to leave Garnett open for 16-foot jumpers or passes to the low post. "(Cassell) is, arguably, the best in the league at that midrange shot," says Bucks coach Terry Porter, a longtime rival of Cassell's as a player. "You know, one, two dribbles then shoot. He is probably the best in the league at that. And when you put him into pick-and-rolls with K.G., how do you defend them?" Cassell, naturally, has an answer for that. "You can't," he says. "If things are rolling, we are all together, everybody on the team is doing what he is supposed to be doing, then I don't think you can defend us." History lessons Cassell considers himself a bit of an NBA historian. At the All-Star Game -- amazingly, his first such honor -- Cassell freely compared himself to Rod Strickland, another well-known point guard who never has made an All-Star team. But he rattled off other overlooked greats: Derek Harper, Eddie Johnson -- even Gus Williams. "I know the history of this league," Cassell says, flashing his toothy smile. Surely, then, Cassell is aware of the plight of the Timberwolves, who never have advanced to the playoffs' second round. Frustrated after losing a tough series to the Lakers last postseason, Minnesota owner Glen Taylor handed his checkbook over to general manager Kevin McHale last summer and committed to about $70 million in salary this season, which will cost Taylor about another $15 million if the league's luxury tax kicks in. The Timberwolves still need time to work in players who are coming off injuries, but the performance of the reserves proves that McHale spent Taylor's money wisely. It shows the franchise is serious about ending its first-round futility. That's what made Cassell, a two-time champion with Houston, a perfect fit. He experienced how good chemistry can push a team to play better than its parts when he was with the Rockets. He felt the disappointment of bad chemistry ruining a good team in Milwaukee. "Nobody in this locker room is worrying about the past," Cassell says. "I am not worrying about the first round and all of that. We want a championship. We want June. "This team made a commitment to win. And we all know Kevin Garnett is the key to this team. It comes from him. We are together, man. There is no animosity on this ballclub. That is what we did not have in Milwaukee. We don't have to fight over shots here. We understand who is going to get the majority of the shots -- Kevin. Spree and myself, and Wally, everyone understands that. And that wins championships." More and more, that looks possible for this Timberwolves team. A little practice, a lot of improvement and a championship for Sam Cassell. That just might bring this fable to a happy ending. ____________________________ Cassell is a true PG, I think. Compared with other PG in NBA, he's neither tall nor strong. But he plays in a simple&smart way to take advantage of his own strongpoint, avoiding his shortcoming. Also he's a guy with the best skills in the league at the midrange shot. I'm always thinking S.Cassell is the right JVG-mode guy if he hadn't left Rockets. It was pity we let him slip then...
