National Basketball Association News

Minnesota fires Casey

Jan 23, 2007, 23:30 GMT

Minneapolis, MN - The Minnesota Timberwolves fired head coach Dwane Casey on Tuesday. Assistant coach Randy Wittman will take over the head coaching duties for the remainder of the season.

Casey was in his second season as head coach with the Timberwolves. Minnesota is 20-20 this year and in third place in the Northwest Division, seven games behind division leader Utah. The club has lost four straight, including the first two of a four-game road trip that continues on Wednesday night in Portland.

'We started the season with certain goals and expectations that have not been met,' said Timberwolves vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale. 'We've struggled with being consistent throughout the year and ultimately that's the head coach's responsibility.'

The Timberwolves went 33-49 in Casey's first year as head coach.

'I saw us treading water,' said McHale regarding why he made the change when he did. 'With 42 games to go, if we were going to make a change, we wanted Randy to have the opportunity to put his imprint on the team.'

This will be the second head coaching stint for Wittman, who came to Minnesota as an assistant for this season. He was head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers for two seasons (1999-2001) and went 62-102.

'We believe that Randy Wittman will provide out team with a different voice to get us jump-started and going in the right direction,' said McHale. 'Randy is a known quantity who has a great amount of experience in the NBA. He's been an assistant coach, a player and a head coach in the league.'

© 2007 The Sports Network