Wolves Updates 11/7

From John Hollinger/ESPN: Will Cavs’ issues affect LeBron’s future?

Let me throw out an even crazier proposition — Minnesota. The Wolves will have the cap space to make a run at LeBron, depending on a few variables — or at the very least can get there fairly easily if they know there’s a chance for a player of this caliber. (Declining an option on Ryan Gomes, for instance, is done much more easily if it allows you to replace him with the best player in the league.)

Minnesota is generally thought of as one of the NBA’s least-desirable relocation options, but let’s consider it from a winning perspective. Who would you rather play with for the next five years: Al Jefferson or Anderson Varejao? Kevin Love or Ilgauskas? Ricky Rubio or Mo Williams? Jonny Flynn or West? Ramon Sessions or Daniel Gibson? Next year’s fourth pick or next year’s 24th? It’s obvious, isn’t it?

From Jerry Zgoda/Star Tribune:

After a conversation with Rambis, Kevin Love has adjusted his expectations that he will be ready to practice two weeks from now. Love will have his fractured left wrist X-rayed again on Nov. 20. He said Wednesday he is optimistic he will get approval that day to start his return if his hand has healed sufficiently.

That would be a ahead of the original estimate of six to eight weeks. Love suffered the injury Oct. 16 in an exhibition game at Chicago.

“I got a little excited,” Love said. “Hopefully, I’ll be back in two weeks, but we’ll just have to wait and see. If it ends up three or four weeks, I don’t want it to look like anybody’s fault.”

From Charley Walters/Pioneer Press:

— Kevin Love, who turned just 21 in September, is struggling having to watch his Timberwolves teammates from behind the bench.

“Hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” he said, “not playing and seeing the things that are going well and the things that are not going so well.”

From Ray Richardson/Pioneer Press: Timberwolves’ Darrick Martin eager to work with Jonny Flynn

Martin, 38, retired after the 2007-08 season. As a point guard, he had an edge over other candidates who interviewed to be an assistant to J.B. Bickerstaff, the team’s player development coach. It also helped that Martin and Wolves coach Kurt Rambis have the same agent, Lon Rosen, who’s based in Los Angeles, Martin’s hometown.

Martin will spend a lot of time with Wolves point guards Jonny Flynn and Ramon Sessions. He hopes to make an early impact on Flynn, the Wolves’ excitable rookie. Rambis plans to start Flynn the entire season.

“The one thing I hope to get across to him is that you can’t make the same turnovers in the fourth quarter that you make in the second or third,” Martin said. “The ones in the fourth quarter can really hurt you.”

From Inside Hoops:

The Minnesota Timberwolves Limited Partnership filed a lawsuit today in Hennepin County District Court seeking resolution of a dispute with AEG, the operator of the Target Center, arising out of AEG’s failure to give its consent to the Minnesota Timberwolves’ proposal to install signs on the Second Avenue North exterior face of the Target Center.

From Arash Markazi/SI.com:

The key to the triangle working in Minnesota is the willingness of Flynn and Al Jefferson, who is slowly regaining his rhythm after missing the final 32 games of last season following surgery on his right knee, to buy into it rather than reverting back to what they are comfortable doing.

“I’m asking [Jefferson] to do things he’s never been asked to do in his entire professional career,” said Rambis. “I’m asking him to play defense and rebound more. I’m asking him to be more of a playmaker and play away from the basket some. Some of the aspects of learning what we’re doing are very foreign to him. He’s used to just running to the left block and posting up and everybody throwing him the ball.”

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Wolves Updates 11/7

Alan Draper

Alan Draper

Alan Draper