Al Jefferson? Solid young power forward but hardly a frontcourt anchor in a Western Conference where he'll face Tim Duncan, Amare Stoudemire and now Greg Oden four times a season. He is an adequate rebounder now on a team that, in spite of Garnett again leading the league, struggled on the boards. (Hint to Al: Don't look to your old teammate Mark Blount for a lot of rebounding help.) If Jefferson becomes a well-behaved Zach Randolph type, Minnesota will be thrilled.

Gerald Green can make spectacular plays but, at this stage, does not help anyone win games, even as he makes Rashad McCants expendable. Ryan Gomes is a helpful part, but no big improvement over Trenton Hassell or Craig Smith or new rookie Corey Brewer. Then there's Sebastian Telfair, whom the Wolves might want to keep as far away as possible from budding second-year guard Randy Foye.

Theo Ratliff is in the mix solely for his money ($11.6 million) that will come off the books after this season. And if one of the future picks coming to Minnesota is the one they owe Boston from the seven-player swap in January 2006, well, that's just McHale cleaning up one of his own messes.

Oh, and lest we forget, when that deal was made (in with Blount, Ricky Davis, Marcus Banks and Justin Reed, out with Wally Szczerbiak, Michael Olowokandi, Dwayne Jones and the pick), McHale claimed that Banks -- yeah, that Marcus Banks -- was the key.

That's the one aspect of this that can still get a rise out of the most beleaguered Wolves fan, the specter of McHale determining Garnett's market value. If Banks was Minnesota's point guard of the future 18 months ago and Ndudi Ebi was a better first-round choice a few years back than Josh Howard or Leandro Barbosa, selling more ex-Celtics to Wolves followers seems like peddling in-ground pools to folks up in International Falls.

Several of the deals alleged to have been on the table heading into the draft -- one from Golden State that might have featured Jason Richardson and Brandan Wright, one from Phoenix for Shawn Marion and two or three first-round picks, even the Celtics' original offer before Boston sent Jeff Green (the fifth pick) to Seattle for Allen -- had more intrigue than this one for Minnesota. The best offer of all for Garnett came and went in June 2006, when Chicago was talking about Luol Deng, Tyson Chandler and the No. 2 pick that could have been used for Brandon Roy rather than Tyrus Thomas.

To be fair, Garnett nixed the initial Celtics deals; adding Allen apparently is what softened him on the destination. Factor in an extension and it won't be long before Garnett will be proclaiming, "I'm Beantown'' the way he used to say "I'm 'Sota.''

He wasn't looking to leave, not like Wilt or Kareem or AI or any other stars who asked out and never returned equal value. Garnett wasn't even necessarily bitter over the June rumors, though he did have at that point what agent Andy Miller called Monday "an awakening'' about his future in Minnesota. Yes, it was true that 12 years of service could end -- poof! -- like one of his trademark pregame rosin clouds.

Soon Garnett will have two veteran teammates to draw the defense, take shots in the fourth quarter and police the locker room, freeing him to just ... play. In the East, the Celtics will have every reason to see themselves two, three, even four rounds deep into playoffs.

Garnett, his new team and diehard Boston fans will have McHale to thank for it all, easy enough to do with his No. 32 high above the parquet. Back at Target Center, though, they might be looking to hang something a little different from the rafters.

Steve Aschburner covered the Minnesota Timberwolves and the NBA for 13 seasons for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He served as president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association from 2005-2007.