Timberwolves point guard Marko Jaric's frustration bubbled over, the former starter saying coach Dwane Casey hamstrung him with a lack of playing time that helped lead to his demotion.
"I feel like when he wanted somebody else to give the role to, he made me kind of give up the role ?" Jaric said before Friday night's 94-80 loss to Utah at Target Center.
Jaric's comments came after he was informed of Casey's assertion that the veteran was given a fair chance to maintain the starting job.
Jaric didn't play in either of the previous two games after being demoted following a 109-77 loss last Saturday at Golden State. He started the first 46 games of the season but was averaging just 20.5 minutes a game in the first eight games since a multi-player trade with Boston on Jan. 26, not including Friday's meeting with the Jazz.
Jaric played seven minutes Friday night and did not score.
"When he wanted to give me a chance to play the point guard, I played the point guard position," Jaric said. "As soon as he thought that I'm not supposed to be the point guard for the team, he wanted to kind of prove to himself that I'm not supposed to play. I went from playing 30 minutes a game to 10 minutes a game. I couldn't even do anything in those 10 minutes a game."