It has been a long time coming, but Spanish guard Ricky Rubio has reportedly agreed to play for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2011.

Apparently, the uncertainty of the NBA labor situation prompted Rubio to lock in his guaranteed salary under the current rookie wage scale instead of waiting to see what kind of concessions the owners were able to get from the players under a new CBA.

I’m sure that GM David Kahn feels some vindication, but he should wait until Rubio pans out as a good NBA point guard before he starts patting himself on the back. Let’s not forget that he passed on Stephen Curry and Brandon Jennings to draft Rubio and Jonny Flynn.

Rubio’s prospects aren’t as bright as they were two years ago. He’s been dealing with a foot injury and has been coming off the bench for Regal Barcelona.

Kevin Love responded to the news with some disbelief, but then started thinking about running pick and rolls with Rubio.

It will be interesting to see how this affects the T-Wolves’ draft. They have the #2 overall pick and the top point guard in the draft, Kyrie Irving, may be available if the Cavs decide to take forward Derrick Williams of Arizona.

The Minnesota GM took some heat for his comments after the lottery, but it’s clear from the video (starting at about the 2:10 mark) that he was joking. Maybe it was an inappropriate joke, but it was a joke nonetheless.

He’s also asked about Ricky Rubio and whether or not he’s going to draft for need or take the best player. So sit back, relax, and spend three minutes in the presence of brilliance.

The Minnesota Timberwolves had the worst record in the NBA and the best chance to win the #1 overall pick, but ended up with the #2 pick when the Cavs leapfrogged from #8 to #1. GM David Kahn didn’t take the news gracefully. (Brian Mahoney, AP)

Wolves general manager David Kahn said he knew Minnesota was “dead” when it got down to the final three of himself, Utah executive Kevin O’Connor and Nick Gilbert.

“This league has a habit, and I am just going to say habit, of producing some pretty incredible story lines,” Kahn said. “Last year it was Abe Pollin’s widow and this year it was a 14-year-old boy and the only thing we have in common is we have both been bar mitzvahed. We were done. I told Kevin: ‘We’re toast.’ This is not happening for us and I was right.”

I bolded the interesting bit. Kahn went out of his way to point out that he was just saying “habit,” but by doing so it sure seemed he was implying that the lottery may have been fixed without going so far as actually saying it.

Then again, he might have been joking about the fact that he “knew” he was in trouble when there was a 14-year-old kid representing a team in the final three, but with his track record, he should know what to say and what not to say.

Jeff Teague’s series performance (17-4-3, 56% shooting) against the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Semis got me thinking about all the promising point guards that came out of the 2009 Draft. Take a look:

5. Ricky Rubio, T-Wolves
6. Jonny Flynn, T-Wolves
7. Stephen Curry, Warriors
10. Brandon Jennings, Bucks
17. Jrue Holiday, 76ers
18. Ty Lawson, T-Wolves (traded to Nuggets)
19. Jeff Teague, Hawks
20. Eric Maynor, Jazz (traded to Thunder)
21. Darren Collison, Hornets (traded to Pacers)
25. Rodrigue Beaubois, Thunder (traded to Mavericks)
29. Toney Douglas, Knicks

It’s pretty amazing that with the emergence of Teague in Atlanta, no fewer than six players on that list have developed into starting caliber point guards in the NBA. Four others (Douglas, Beaubois, Maynor and Flynn) are rotation players.

Here are the 2010-11 stats for each player, sorted by Efficiency Per Minute, which is I believe the best way to quickly compare a player’s production.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rotoworld has the details…

Kevin Love, who suffered a shoulder injury on Wednesday, had 18 points, 18 rebounds and zero 3-pointers for his 42nd straight double-double, and 51st before the All-Star break, setting an NBA record.

George Mikan had 50 double-doubles before the break in 1950, but Love snapped that record tonight.

For those of you who have pretty much ignored the T-Wolves this year, Love is having an outstanding season, averaging 21.1 points and 15.5 rebounds, and is shooting 43% from long range. He was named to the All-Star Game as an alternate.

The T-Wolves have their sidekick. Now they need to find a perimeter superstar who can shoot the lights out and/or create his own shot. They had two picks in the top 6 back in 2009, but passed on Stephen Curry, Brandon Jennings and DeMar DeRozan (who is averaging 16.4 ppg for the Raptors), and instead came out of the draft with Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn. Curry looks like a star, while Jennings and DeRozan have shown flashes of that kind of potential.

Now it appears that the T-Wolves may trade a first-round pick for Anthony Randolph, who can’t get off the bench for the Knicks. A mid to late first-rounder would be fair, but if the T-Wolves end up trading away their first-rounder (which project to be in the upper lottery) it will be a steep price to pay for a guy who hasn’t made much progress in neither Golden State nor New York. Don’t forget, they owe a first-rounder to the Clippers to finish the dreadful Marko Jaric trade. That pick is top 10 protected in 2011 but is unprotected starting in 2012.

Barring some sort of language barrier or misquote, “a senior member of Rubio’s camp” seems to have confirmed to the New York Times what we all pretty much knew — Ricky Rubio does not want to play for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Timberwolves continue to push him toward the N.B.A. as soon as possible, contending privately that they have a commitment from him for next season. But Rubio’s camp does not appear to be convinced.

“The bottom line is, why would he want to play in Minnesota?” a senior member of Rubio’s camp said this month. “He’ll continue to say all the diplomatic things, and Minnesota needs to keep his value up for trade purposes, but the family’s preference is to be on the East Coast, specifically New York, Miami or Boston. He wouldn’t be troubled if he has to stay another year.”

But the Timberwolves have leverage. They hold his exclusive draft rights, meaning they are the only N.B.A. team with whom he can negotiate. Their latest strategy in trying to persuade Rubio to sign may center on the possible N.B.A. lockout of players after the collective bargaining agreement expires June 30. The terms of the new agreement will probably be significantly less favorable for rookies.

New York, Miami or Boston…hmmm. Well, Boston is probably out because Rajon Rondo is already there, and he’s one of the best point guards in the NBA. It’s not like Rubio’s recent play has been so awe-inspiring that the C’s would give up on a bird in the hand like Rondo. Some are even wondering if Rubio’s development has stalled.

Miami would be an interesting landing spot from a how-are-they-going-to-make-this-work standpoint, but Rubio is not a good fit. LeBron and Dwyane Wade handle the ball so much that it would be a waste of Rubio’s playmaking talents. LeBron and Wade need to play with a point guard who can space the floor with good three-point shooting, and that’s not Rubio’s game. At all.

The Knicks are a possibility, and Rubio’s freewheeling, pass-first style would be fun to watch in Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo system, but Raymond Felton is averaging 17.5 points and 8.7 assists, and is a better scorer than Rubio at this point. Felton is only under contract for one more season, so if the Knicks see Rubio as a better point guard of the future, they have a few assets that might appeal to the Timberwolves.

The article goes on to discuss how the new CBA might not be as favorable to rookies, and that might encourage Rubio to sign before June 30. But right now it looks like he’s willing to play in Spain for another season and try to force the T-Wolves to trade his rights to an East Coast team.

It’s amazing — T-Wolves GM David Kahn took three point guards (Rubio, Jonny Flynn, Ty Lawson) in what was considered to be a great draft for that position and still doesn’t have his PG of the future. He passed on Brandon Jennings and Stephen Curry to take Rubio and Flynn, and ended up trading Lawson away (for a draft pick that turned into a trade for Martell Webster). Darren Collison was also available when the T-Wolves took Lawson.

In an SI.com article, Kevin Love didn’t shoot down the possibility that he would change teams in the near future.

Love sees all of this, has absorbed it, processed it. Which is why he is complimentary of the Timberwolves’ progress — “I can see a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “I couldn’t see it last year” — but he stops short of saying he plans to be in Minnesota for the long term. Love is eligible to sign a contract extension this summer but admits he does think about free agency, about having some control over his future.

“We’ll see what happens with what David Kahn and the front office want to do,” Love said. “If it’s right, it’s right. If it’s not, it’s not. I could end up somewhere else. I just want to play for a team that wants to win at this point. At this point, I just want to win now.”

Wherever Love goes, he won’t come cheap. The five-year, $60 million extensions signed by Joakim Noah and Al Horford last year will likely be Love’s starting point in negotiations. And his deal could be bigger. When asked what kind of contract Love could be in line for this summer, one league executive’s answer was succinct: Max.

Some internet outlets have jumped on these quotes and started talking trade, but it sounds to me like Love is talking about his extension and keeping his options open before he signs his next contract. He’ll be with the T-Wolves for at least two more seasons, and by then he should have a good idea whether or not the Ricky Rubio dream will ever pan out for GM David Kahn.

Love is averaging 21.0 points and 15.6 rebounds on 46% shooting, which is just so-so accuracy for a power forward. But when you consider his range (43% from 3PT, 1.3 made threes per game), it’s more than acceptable. He’s #2 in PER (24.04) amongst power forwards, second only to Dirk Nowitzki, and has the third-highest rebound rate in the league after Reggie Evans and Marcus Camby, who aren’t asked to do much else other than clean the glass.

Love is putting up gaudy numbers on a bad team, so is he really worth a max contract? Yeah, probably. When you have a guy who can score 20-plus a game and dominate the glass, and stretch the defense with his three-point range, you have to lock him up. I don’t know that Love will ever be the best player on a championship-caliber team — his defense is adequate at best (opponent’s eFG% is a healthy 49.7%, and the T-Wolves give up 4.5 more points per 100 possessions when he’s on the court) — but he’s certainly capable of being one of the best sidekicks in the league. The trick for Minnesota will be to find another star or two before Love has to make a decision about his future.

Ken Berger wrote a piece about the state of the T-Wolves that focuses on Kahn and his plan for the remainder of the season. (In short, he’s evaluating the roster.)

ESPN named the Minnesota Timberwolves as this season’s Team Turmoil.

But Benjamin Polk says that things aren’t so bad:

It’s fashionable at the moment to ridicule Kahn as an abrasive, unqualified hack. It’s clear the man has had some awfully low moments this summer and that he and Rambis haven’t yet found that transcendent player who will give meaning to their long-suffering franchise. And it’s equally clear that the Wolves are going to lose a lot of games this season.

But if you scan this lineup — Kevin Love, Nikola Pekovic, Wes Johnson, Martell Webster, Corey Brewer, even Darko Milicic and Michael Beasley — you’ll find a lot of young, smart, athletic, hungry players. These are players who want to learn, who want to run, who want to move the ball and play defense. Aren’t these just the type of players who would seem to fit well into Rambis’ up-tempo-and-triangle offense? And when you consider the Wolves have roughly $10 million in cap space, doesn’t the picture look a lot less ridiculous than this chaotic offseason might have suggested?

Am I just being naïve? Is it wrong for Wolves fans to hold on to even these tiny shreds of optimism? Let me tell you a story.

For the three years beginning with their six-game Western Conference finals loss to the Lakers in 2004 and ending with the Kevin Garnett trade of 2007, the Wolves slowly melted down. With very few exceptions (KG among them), the team became a nightmare of ball-hogging, extravagant contract demands, intentionally careless defense and mediocre effort. As the front office hemorrhaged draft picks, this collection of aging jump-shooters and corrosive personalities contributed to the firing of both Flip Saunders and Dwane Casey and helped hasten the KG era’s sad, pathetic end. What I’m saying is: We’ve seen turmoil and this isn’t it.

I don’t know that arguing your currently mismanaged team isn’t as bad as your previously mismanaged team really gets you anywhere. Things are bad in Minnesota, and they’re probably worse than they were in KG’s final years because at least at that point fans had a superstar to rally around.

As for Kahn, the guy is a joke right now, and seriously needs one of these moves — be it Ricky Rubio, Wes Johnson, the acquisition of Michael Beasley or the re-upping of Darko Milicic (yes, this guy is depending on Darko Freaking Milicic) — to give him some credibility in the world of NBA general managers.

No disrespect to Johnson, but if you know you’re going to move Al Jefferson, why pass up a talent like DeMarcus Cousins? He’s a true center and would have been a solid fit alongside Kevin Love on the front line. Throw in the fact that Kahn passed on Stephen Curry and Brandon Jennings twice in last year’s draft (while trading away arguably the next-best PG in the draft, Ty Lawson) and this T-Wolves roster could look a lot better.

And it’s not like Kahn has kept a low profile. While sitting in with color commentator Chris Webber during one of the summer league games, he compared Milicic’s passing ability favorably to Vlade Divac and suggested that Webber’s career path was somewhat similar. When C-Webb understandably took umbrage, Kahn went on the radio a few days later and called him a schmuck. Let’s just say that the guy doesn’t seem too savvy.

Maybe Ricky Rubio will eventually come and save the day, or Beasley will suddenly fulfill his considerable potential, but until that happens, Kahn is going to have a big fat bull’s eye painted on his chest.

Last week, T-Wolves GM David Kahn compared Darko Milicic to Chris Webber, and even called Milicic the ‘best passing big man’ that he’s ever seen.

Webber took umbrage to the comparison to Darko and Kahn had this to say to the Star Tribune:

“He’s kind of a schmuck, isn’t he? Methinks that he spent a lot of time on NBA TV with a former Timberwolves person and he seemed to come into the interview with an agenda. Tough questions are fine, but I felt like he was a little defensive about some of the things.”

Kahn also discussed Michael Beasley’s history in Miami:

“He’s a very young and immature kid who smoked too much marijuana and has told me that he’s not smoking anymore,” Kahn said, “and I told him that I would trust him as long as that was the case.”

I feel bad for T-Wolves fans, especially after so many years of Kevin McHale, but this cat is nothing if not entertaining.

It looks like the Cavs are interested in Ramon Sessions and according to reports, he is available for trade, especially since T-Wolves GM David Kahn signed another Bucks’ backup point guard to a long-term contract. With Sessions, Jonny Flynn and Luke Ridnour on the roster, and Ricky Rubio theoretically on his way next season, Sessions appears to be the odd man out.

And the guy can play. I have a long documented love affair with Sessions’ upside and even though he got limited run last season in a backup role (in an offense that doesn’t suit his skills), he had a 16.00+ PER in each of his first two seasons and is just 24 years-old.

In his second year for the Bucks he averaged 12-3-6 in 28 minutes a game. In 38 games as a starter that year, he posted 15-4-8 and shot 45% from the field.

There are several teams looking for a point guard, and I don’t know why they aren’t looking at Sessions. If I were running the Pacers, Bobcats, Cavs, Knicks, Raptors, Pistons, Hawks or the Grizzlies, I’d tell my assistant to get Kahn on the phone. Pronto.