Wolves boss David Kahn has restructured his team’s front office, promoting Fred Hoiberg from assistant general manager to vice president of basketball operations and moving other personnel around his department.
Hoiberg will oversee day-to-day basketball operations and will report directly to Kahn. General Manager Jim Stack will become a regional scout based out of his home in Chicago in a beefed-up regional scouting operation designed to prepare the Wolves for next summer’s awaited free-agency period.

Jerry Sichting moves from assistant coach to director of pro player personnel. Rob Babcock moves from assistant GM to director of scouting/administration and Zarko Durisic becomes the director of college and European player personnel. Former assistant coach Dean Cooper becomes a regional scout.

Hoiberg will oversee the department’s daily operations and report directly to Kahn.

While he ascends, general manager Jim Stack has returned home to Chicago and will become a regional scout along with former assistant coach Dean Cooper.

Kahn elected to move personnel around to different jobs rather than send employees with contracts home to collect their money.


Jefferson says he is not going to concern himself with the pieces around him now. He is the franchise centerpiece, the guy the Timberwolves got for Garnett, and he realizes that means he is most responsible for winning and losing.

And he knows exactly what that means — he’s got to improve on the defensive end. Rambis is just one in a long line of coaches who have emphasized that point to Jefferson. “But I feel like I have been trying to do that for the last three years,” Jefferson said. “I know I have to get better on the defensive end to be considered one of the best. But I have been getting better.”

That’s where the knee injury could actually help. Jefferson is lighter and more agile, better able to get up and down the court. And all the time he spent watching from the bench helped him better understand his defensive role.
It appears the Timberwolves won’t be signing 6-foot-11 second-round draft pick Henk Norel, who this season will play for Wolves top draft pick Ricky Rubio’s former team, DKV Joventut in Barcelona, Spain.
In 2003-04, when the Garnett-led Timberwolves made their lone Western Conference finals appearance, 17,638 filled the Target Center nightly. Last season, an average of 14,512 caught a glimpse of Al Jefferson, Kevin Love, and a bunch of no-names stumble through the Northwest Division. Minnesota was 27th in the league in attendance.

“I think what was kind of obvious to me after I was here for a few weeks, the team here, unfortunately I felt, had almost become irrelevant, which is worse than being bad,’’ said first-year general manager David Kahn. “The only thing worse than being bad is when people actually stop thinking about you, and I think that through the draft, our free agent signings, and even the pursuit of Ricky Rubio, and the hiring of Kurt Rambis, [these] events I hope rekindle the interest of the fan base, which at one point here was significant.’’