“Let me start by saying this. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t pick up the phone and listen. But that goes for all our players. There’s no one special player. Al knows that and Kevin knows that. As much as I think I hope everyone would like to be here, I would say this: Shaquille O’Neal, who I think may be one of the five best centers of all time, just last season third team all-NBA, will be playing on his fifth team next year. That’s incredible when you think about it. May I add also traded, as the esteemed Bill Simmons would say, for a bag of donuts this week. My point is I think as much as I would like to portray for all of our guys we’re here forever, we all know, myself included, maybe we’re not. You have to answer the phone, you have to listen. But we’re in no mode right now to make any trade,” Kahn said.
The source indicated, however, that the previously reported $6.6-million price tag is higher than the actual buyout. But it is still a hefty number to pay, especially because NBA teams by rule may pay only up to $500,000 to buy out an international contract. The rest would be left up to Rubio, who, as the fifth overall pick, will make $2.7 million in his first season as per the NBA’s rookie scale. The source said Rubio more than likely would immediately report to a big-market team such as the Knicks.
The Wolves maintain Rubio’s NBA rights as long as he’s playing professionally elsewhere. “If there’s a team out there that can wait, it’s us,” Kahn said. “If it means we have to wait a year, we wait a year. If we had to wait, God forbid, two years, he’d be 20 when he got here. … The last thing we need to do is become overwrought today.”
I do wonder if Kahn’s master plan was to end up with Tyreke Evans and Flynn. The mistake made: Kahn should’ve taken Stephen Curry at No. 6. There was a trade there. I understand Kahn’s thinking that Flynn is a better fit with Rubio. Fine. No matter what Kahn would say, you can’t convince me that Golden State at No. 7 would’ve picked Flynn. If Curry went sixth, Jordan Hill would’ve gone seventh. Then New York at No. 8 could’ve chosen Flynn and a trade would’ve been worked out. Curry to NY for Flynn and small forward Wilson Chandler. It doesn’t seem like Kahn maximized the value of the No. 6 pick.
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