We're going to talk about the Minnesota Timberwolves now, so it's probably best to be sitting down. They just got a second-round pick who during the last college season was mentioned as a potential lottery pick and who just before the draft was projected to go somewhere in the mid-to-late teens, before his stock went downhill so fast that it should have required standing in line, a height measurement and a splash into water at the end. They just invested the mid-level exception on the guy who helped get them into this mess in the first place, meaning it's still not time to put the Joe Smith saga in the past. They just re-acquired a 43-year-old power forward-turned-power player.

	Kevin McHale is back in the front office -- with a lot of work ahead of him.

It's all so dizzying. Except that last part. Nothing is so sound.

Kevin McHale isn't the biggest name for the franchise -- he's not even the top Kevin who has dabbled at power forward -- but he's No. 1 for stability, and that's what the Timberwolves need now more than anything. Who cares what roster moves he has made so far. He has made the most important move -- back into his office as vice president of basketball operations, or into the throne room or wherever it is that state heroes go.

Kevin Garnett gives them a chance, Kevin McHale gives them a presence. The great irony, of course, is that McHale is so much of their credibility while also being so much of the Smith fiasco that will hinder his own work in the front office. But does anyone doubt for 24 seconds the cache he still holds?

He is as Minnesota as anything from the snowmobiles of winter to the Humidity Festival of these months. He spent his youth in Hibbing and his college career at the U, as the Golden Gophers have long been known locally, apparently because no one wanted the burden of expectation on athletes to also include writing out the entire name of the university if a tutor was not immediately available to help them. Around the NBA as a whole, McHale comes with the credibility of a playing career in Boston that took him to the Hall of Fame and the standing as an executive that early on included drafting Garnett at No. 5, a bold move back then for a high school product.

Face it, as much as the guy has had his fingerprints on the smoking gun, his name still holds more water than about half of those 10,000 lakes. He took that forced sabbatical -- owner Glen Taylor, who negotiated the under-the-table and under-handed Smith deal still has more R&R coming -- and came back as one of the best offseason acquisitions in the league.

It's not unlike Vince Carter staying in Toronto: There is a statement about stability, beyond the tangible implications. McHale came back with his usual dose of perspective, saying what he learned was that his wife wants him to have a job and that being away was "probably" a punishment; but if spending a season away from basketball for the first time since was grade school was tough, it was nothing compared to being back. He returned to a team that is capped out, doesn't have a first-round pick in three of the next four drafts and can't get out of the first round of the playoffs (though at least there's the upbeat news that his good friend and coach, Flip Saunders, had declined lucrative advances from other teams and decided to stay in Minnesota after getting a new contract).

And, he returned to a team that can't have any realistic hope of putting the Smith mess behind it anytime soon, after using the $4.5-million exception to sign Smith for six years as a free agent and add depth to the front line. This apparently came with the blessings of David Stern, who either feels the franchise has suffered enough from the past sanctions or that the real punishment will be in allowing the Timberwolves to sink six years and $34 million into a player who just averaged 12.3 points and 7.1 rebounds in 28.1 minutes and shot 40.3 percent in Detroit. The Pistons had no problem letting him go, disappointed only that they did not get something back in a sign-and-trade.

If Woods turns out to have even a solid career as a center/power forward who right now mostly needs to get stronger, no one will be surprised because of his talent. But likewise, draft night showed that teams have major concerns whether he will last long enough to so much as become a bench contributor, like most others picked in the middle or end of the second round.

There was no first-round pick this time either, the first installment on the draft penalties. When the Timberwolves got Loren Woods in the second round, there were as many questions as statements of excitement about getting a player with such potential so late. From Minnesota's standpoint, it was something of a no brainer if they wanted to go big. The options at that stage were limited -- Ousmane Cisse (an undersized power forward who was also coming off a knee injury that could reduce his explosive leaping ability), Ken Johnson, Alvin Jones (his work ethic has been questioned), etc.

It isn't a gift falling into their lap, the way some are making it seem. The biggest indicator about how the rest of the league felt about Woods' health, and not just with the much-discussed back injury, is not that the Arizona center slipped all the way out of the first round so he wouldn't get the automatic three-year contract, but that 16 players went before him in the second round, when there is no guaranteed money. Thirteen teams -- Chicago, Seattle and New York had two picks in that time -- didn't even want to take a flier on someone just under 7 foot 2, spent four years in Division I, was an honorable mention All-American and had an impressive NCAA tournament as a senior.

If Woods turns out to have even a solid career as a center/power forward, who right now mostly needs to get stronger, no one will be surprised because of his talent. But likewise, draft night showed that teams have major concerns whether he will last long enough to so much as become a bench contributor, like most others picked in the middle or end of the second round.

The back problems are the obvious red flag. Woods may have recovered from two back surgeries to finish 15th in the country in blocks and get 22 points, 11 rebounds and four rejections in the 2001 title game against Duke, but he also flunked pre-draft physicals from NBA teams. What wasn't as publicized, but still well known to the pros, was that Woods had been dealing with emotional issues in college, first at Wake Forest and then after transferring to Arizona. That was likely also a factor on draft night.

When Woods' agent, Matt Muehlebach, sensed concerns about his client, he put out a statement from Arizona doctors about the back. The night before and the day of the draft, he was constantly on the phone with teams, trying to stem the tide. It did no good. Not even Woods being honest about the off-court issues seemed to help when the time came.

"We were very candid about it," Muehlebach said. "He was very aware of (the concerns). We went into the interviews with teams and he was very open about it. Now if they don't believe him..."

Summer league in Orlando didn't offer much clarification. Eyes were on Woods after his draft night tumble and talk that he was too soft to be the same kind of inside defensive presence in the NBA as he was in college, then the player known for showing his emotions got kicked out of the second game with two technicals and people started to talk that he couldn't control his aggression. He couldn't win.

The first technical was for arguing with a referee and the second, for the ejection with 8:23 remaining in the fourth quarter, was after tangling with Brendan Haywood, then with the Magic and since traded to Washington. Maybe there was a message -- Orlando wanted to get a big man out of the draft, but passed on Woods to take Steven Hunter at No. 15 after two seasons of little impact at DePaul and traded with Cleveland after the Cavaliers took Haywood at 20.

The good news for the lanky Woods, who has drawn comparisons to Marcus Camby, is that now he can get tutored by one of the greatest power forwards ever, an optimistic note for a player greatly in need of some these days. Not to mention for an entire organization in the same situation.
Scott Howard-Cooper covers the NBA for the Sacramento Bee and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.