Click here for the forum’s thread for tonight’s game at Philadelphia
Game previews:
Ellington will endure a busy and quite possibly an emotional week. Tuesday night marks the first NBA appearance for Ellington in his hometown of Philadelphia. He will then spend a night in Chapel Hill during the All-Star break as North Carolina plans on hanging his collegiate jersey in the rafters.
Racine native Caron Butler of the Washington Wizards also continues to be the subject of considerable trade chatter. A bunch of teams covet Butler’s services, among them the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves.
Any deal sending Martin to the Mavericks would likely have to involve a third team. Additionally, sources say Minnesota has considered adding Martin to its backcourt. It’s not known, however, whether Timberwolves general manager David Kahn would trade either member of his formidable frontcourt – Al Jefferson or Kevin Love.
From Sam Smith/Bulls.com:
Another guy definitely not being traded is Al Jefferson. Yet, you constantly hear the Timberwolves feeling they cannot keep Jefferson and Kevin Love.
The notion is they need a big, defensive center to play with one and they’ve even had some success lately with Ryan Hollins. But what if they had Joakim Noah? Everything I’ve heard around the Bulls is no way they would deal Rose or Noah, and I believe that. But say Minnesota would trade Jefferson. I’ve heard they’ve had Luol Deng on a list of players they have interest in and they’ve been asking around the NBA on Deng.
The notion is they need a big, defensive center to play with one and they’ve even had some success lately with Ryan Hollins. But what if they had Joakim Noah? Everything I’ve heard around the Bulls is no way they would deal Rose or Noah, and I believe that. But say Minnesota would trade Jefferson. I’ve heard they’ve had Luol Deng on a list of players they have interest in and they’ve been asking around the NBA on Deng.
From Benjamin Polk/City Pages: Timberwolves chase the glory
From Kurt Helin/ProBasketballTalk: Timberwolves not making big changes
Via Lang Whitaker, a commercial for Spanish company Regal featuring Ricky Rubio (VIDEO)
From TrueHoop:
In beating the Grizzlies on Saturday, the Timberwolves had something amazing happen: Ryan Gomes scored 20 first-half points. Then Corey Brewer had 15 in the third quarter, and Al Jefferson had 16 in the fourth quarter. “All these teams that play isolation basketball,” says David Thorpe, “I wish they’d see the value in using a system like Minnesota does, where they can move the ball to where it’s most effective.”
Wolves boss David Kahn reiterated Monday he won’t deal any of his top players — “Firm as firm can be,” he said. “It’d be a mistake of epic proportions.” — by the Feb. 18 trade deadline. ¶ But can two similarly sized players with disparate games defend the basket well enough to play together side by side for years to come? ¶ Five NBA head coaches offer their opinions…