“Whatever it takes to win, whatever he can handle at this point, conditioning-wise,” Rambis said before the game. “We’re just going to add a few more minutes and keep pushing him like that. We just have to be sure we’re seeing what extended minutes do to him and how he feels the next day. We don’t want to stress him too much that we send him backwards.”
$53.6 million salary cap: $12.5 million of cap space
$50 million salary cap: $8.9 million of cap space
What it means: Wolves fans aren’t going to exhale until they know that Ricky Rubio’s signature is on a signed NBA contract, which isn’t expected before the 2011-12 season at the earliest. Wolves fans would also be rightly skeptical of anyone who dared to suggest that their starting-over franchise will be a free-agent player in 2010. But cap room, remember, can be used in trades, too. The combination of the cap space for deals, Minnesota’s emerging frontcourt tandem of Al Jefferson and Kevin Love and the knowledge that Rubio, Jonny Flynn and Ramon Sessions all rank as attractive trade assets adds up to some legit post-KG hope…
If there were such a thing as a quick weight-gain plan, Timberwolves center Al Jefferson would have signed up for it.
Jefferson was thinking about the 30 pounds he lost in the offseason before his inside battle Friday night against Cleveland’s Shaquille O’Neal at Target Center.
“I wish I could have those 30 pounds back for tonight,” Jefferson said. “I’ll just have to fight with every muscle in my body to keep him from where he wants to be.”
“He has had moments in ballgames where he’s been very good for us,” Rambis said. “I’m challenging him to step up and play defense much better than he ever has in the past, and I’m asking him to execute our offense and do things that he’s probably never been asked to do before. So I’m challenging him in those areas. But I expect his athleticism, his size and his shooting capabilities to really help us out as we move on as a ball club.”