From Steve Kyler/Hoopsworld:

Kahn said as bad as the season has looked from the outside, he’s starting to see the signs of progress he’d hoped for and is not about to mess with it.

“What was important to me this season is that we saw demonstrable progress throughout the season. Generally speaking, when you’re a young team — and we’re the youngest in the league when you look at the top 10 players — logically guys should get better. They haven’t played much, and they’re very young. You want to be better in February, March and April than you were in November, December and January. Knock on wood, so far, that’s playing out. But we’re only a week into February. I’m hopeful people will be able to point to the team’s progress as the shining light.”

Sources say others named Wednesday by USA Basketball in mix for World Championships: Al Jefferson, Rudy Gay, Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green.
The Wolves are expected to have $13 million to $14 million in salary cap room to improve the team through free agency this summer.

There have been plenty of discount Wolves tickets available this season, and the team attendance is averaging 14,502 through its 26 home games. That’s 25th in the 30-team NBA.

“You know what? I’ve been traveling with the team, and without naming names, I’ve been in a lot of arenas that are far worse (attendance) than (Target Center), if you can believe it,” Kahn said. “Far worse! I’ve actually felt, very strongly, that with the exception of a few nights, the crowd has not been bad.

“I thought it would be slimmer.”

Why are the Minnesota Timberwolves playing better these days? When you talk to players they’ll just tell you it’s doing the same thing every day and finally doing it better.

The Wolves Ramon Sessions has plans for the upcoming all-star break.

“I’m going to go back to my University of Nevada and they’re going to honor my jersey … I didn’t have a senior night, I left early so I’m going to go back there for that,” Sessions said.

From The Painted Area: Interview with FC Barcelona’s Pete Mickeal on Ricky Rubio, Fran Vazquez, More
You mentioned the young phenom Ricky Rubio. Give us a scouting report from an NBA perspective, since we all expect him to make that jump at some point. How would you assess his potential as an NBA player?
The sky’s the limit because I’ve already seen him grow. I’ve been with him now about four months, and I’ve already seen him grow, especially in controlling a team.
And as flashy as he is with his moves, his ballhandling skills or his unbelievable passes, he’s sometimes as good on defense as he is on offense. That’s his skill that might go unknown in the NBA world, but here in Europe they can already appreciate that. I don’t know if he still leads the league in steals, but this guy plays unbelievable defense on the point guard and he rebounds the ball and he’s improved his three-point shooting.