I have been hearing rumors of the Wolves moving up to #2 to take Rubio. Any truth to this?
There have been some rumblings around the league that they were talking to Memphis for what would be Kevin Love for the No. 2 pick. But from what I can gather, that’s pretty bogus. The Wolves do like Rubio … but there are all sorts of problems with them trading away Love … the most obvious is that Love can’t be traded back to the team that traded him in the first place for one year. So anything like that would have to happen after the draft. And, I’m not sure that Love is a perfect fit with Marc Gasol. They need more of a long, athletic shot blocker like … Hasheem Thabeet!
Most interesting of the players who stayed in the draft is Florida guard Nick Calathes, who signed with a Greek team but could have pulled his name out hoping a year in Europe would include his draft position next year. If the Wolves keep that final first-round pick, he’s a guy they could take because he could stay in Greece for a year or two, develop and the Wolves wouldn’t have three first-round pick rookies on the team.
Just because all the coaching vacancies have been filled doesn’t mean all the coaching issues have been resolved. Minnesota’s new president, David Kahn, is evaluating McHale’s tenure on the sideline and has done well to avoid putting himself on a public timetable for an announcement.
It is not a particularly anxious moment in itself; McHale was merely the interim coach, sent down from his former role as personnel boss to replace the fired Randy Wittman. But McHale is one of the greatest homegrown stars in state history, a Hibbing kid and University of Minnesota young man. What’s under consideration is McHale’s break from the state’s NBA team.
After a string of bad head coaching hires as the Timberwolves’ general manager, ownership forced McHale to become the team’s head coach in December. His return to being a GM officially ended with the hiring of David Kahn. Although McHale has had some moderate success as the Timberwolves head coach, Kahn might look to add a lead assistant with the intent on him replacing McHale, or simply hire a new head coach outright.
Bringing in Laimbeer in any capacity would immediately fuel talk of him becoming the team’s next head coach.
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