Love had three screws inserted into his left hand to repair a fracture during Tuesday’s surgery in New York and has remained there for an important checkup scheduled for today.
The Minnesota Timberwolves announced that team owner Glen Taylor has been re-elected Chairman of the NBA Board of Governors. Taylor was originally elected as Chairman on Oct. 23, 2008.
* The Wolves got active offensive play out of both Pecherov, who looks like he’s finding a bit of a groove now that he’s been back he has been back for five games from that broken wrist, and Ryan Hollins. Pecherov looks like he could be an interesting outside-inside mix with Big Al, but about three inches taller than KLove. It’ll be interesting to see how hard David Kahn thinks about picking up that $2.4 million contract option for 2010-11 he has to make on Pecherov by Halloween night.
Brewer shot 38 percent and averaged 5.9 points in those first two seasons. After Thursday’s 122-114 victory at Detroit, he is shooting 39 percent but leading the Wolves in scoring with a 15.2 point average, because, of course, in some measure to the absence of Jefferson and Love.
You can expect Wolves basketball boss David Kahn to exercise Brewer’s $3.1 million option for the 2010-11 season by the Halloween night deadline.
I just signed a one year contract to be an assistant coach with the Utah Flash, located in Orem Utah…..and I’m excited to start coaching! One week ago I went to a Timberwolves game and it was surreal to be up in the stands watching my old teammates and friends, Al Jefferson, Kevin Love, Gomes, Cardinal and the entire crew! I had the chance to go to NBA training camp and a firm offer in Greece, but the NBA opportunity was a long shot to make the team, and as much as I would love to go to Greece, the timing wasn’t quite right.
If all goes according to plan: Ricky Rubio stays overseas … Love breaks his hand … Kurt Rambis admits that Jonny Flynn and Ramon Sessions can’t play together in the backcourt … wow, this is some plan. But there are signs of progress. When you get rid of seven players from a team that won 24 games, how could it get worse? With Flynn running the point and Jefferson healthy again, the Wolves looked like they were headed in the right direction on paper. Then Jefferson suffered a setback with a sore Achilles and Love was shelved for at least six weeks.
What could go wrong: The Wolves need something to go right before we start wondering what could go wrong. A good start would be if Rambis found a way to maximize the backcourt production among Flynn, Sasha Pavlovic and Sessions. But it’s a tricky proposition for a first-year coach trying to establish relationships.
Laimbeer joked with the Timberwolves’ 6-foot-10, 280-pound Nathan Jawai during warm-ups.
“That’s our new guy,” Laimbeer said. “Nathan … and the last name is a good question. Jawai, or something like that. … He’s a big dude. I didn’t think he could shoot. I saw him today around shootaround and saw him going through the motions and was like, ‘OK, I didn’t know he could jump.’”
Laimbeer said Timberwolves first-year coach Kurt Rambis is “just like me.”
“He’s demanding, sarcastic,” he said. “He’s exacting. He wants everything done perfectly.” Good person to work for.”
“He’s a great coach,” forward Brian Cardinal said. “What he does for us is he shows us how the game is to be played and how to be tough. He has a passion for it.”
That said, there seems to be some dispute whether Laimbeer brings up the past too often. Al Jefferson lit the match, saying Laimbeer brings up his playing career more than any other coach.
“Not true. Al was joking with a writer,” Laimbeer said.
Minutes later, Cardinal was asked if players knew about Laimbeer’s days as a player.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “And if they don’t he will tell them.”
“What did you say?” Laimbeer screamed, laughing. “He is just trying to stir stuff up.”
He moved one step closer to making that happen when Rambis added him to his coaching staff.
“It’s a lot of work; there’s no question about it,” Laimbeer said of being an NBA assistant coach. “It’s been very enlightening. I’ve learned a lot.”
