Timberwolves forward Wally Szczerbiak believes adding Latrell Sprewell could be the final piece to Minnesota’s championship puzzle. Szczerbiak said Minnesota now has as much talent as anyone other than the Lakers.
“Shaq is always going to be a big obstacle, but other than that matchup, we stack up very favorably with anyone in the league,” Szczerbiak told The Post. “Position by position, we’ve upgraded our roster. We made our team much stronger and now we got the horses to do the job. We just have to check our egos at the door. It’s going to take a little bit of time.”
Sprewell and Szczerbiak had some fierce, trash-talking battles matched up against each other. But, the Cold Spring Harbor native said, “I hope [Sprewell] has nothing but respect for me just like I have for him. We just happened to match up and have good battles. It’s nice to go to war together. I think he’ll be ready to come to a title contender now with these guys. Hopefully it’s a place he’ll be really happy.”
Sprewell could not be reached for comment. The Knicks have left several messages and the ‘Wolves hadn’t made contact as of yesterday afternoon.
But Sprewell’s publicist, Marvet Britto said, “He’ll give 100 percent for the Minnesota organization the same way he gave it to the Knicks. It’s exciting for him to join a player of Kevin Garnett’s caliber. This is exciting for him. It’s a new start in a new city. He looks forward to joining a consistent playoff contender.”
Szczerbiak said he’ll gladly move to small forward to accommodate Sprewell at shooting guard. With Sam Cassell at point guard, Kevin Garnett at power forward and new signee Michael Olowokandi at center, Minnesota has a glut of names for the marquee.
“No question I’ll play the 3 again,” Szczerbiak said. “When you add a guy like Spree with his ability to run the floor, I love to run the floor, we have more versatility.”
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Minnesota GM Kevin McHale said the Rockets made a late play for Sprewell: “Van Gundy was trying to get him in Houston, doing everything he could to get the guy and he had him for four years.”
