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Game previews:
There was a common perception among Timberwolves coaches and players about Darko Milicic after his first full day of practice with the team: The guy can actually play.
Three months have passed since Milicic, acquired Wednesday in a trade with the New York Knicks, appeared in an NBA game. The 7-foot native of Serbia struggled with his conditioning Saturday but showed enough potential to help the Wolves (13-43) once he gets in shape.
“He was scoring on all of us in the post,” Wolves forward Kevin Love said of Milicic. “When he didn’t score a couple of times, he got upset. That’s the kind of thing you like to see.”
Q You referenced David Kahn. He’s not averse to making trades. Do you like how up front he is with you in terms of where things stand?
A Yeah, that’s one of the best things I like about him. He’s an honest guy. I really believe he would tell me and be honest about it. It’s a business. Everybody in the league, except for maybe one or two people, could be traded. David Kahn was brought here to do a job. … But I know for a fact that he’s an honest guy, and if something was going down I’d be the first to know.
“Glad I’m not going to Chicago.” — Al Jefferson — still with the Wolves after Thursday’s trade deadline — speaking after the Bulls proposed some time ago swapping Tyrus Thomas and Luol Deng for him.
In a January interrupted by illness, Timberwolves forward Kevin Love played 30 or more minutes in nine of 14 games and delivered double-double games in all but three of those 14.
In February, he has reached that 30-minute mark once in seven games and has three double-doubles.
So … what’s the deal?
Wolves coach Kurt Rambis calls the disparity mainly a matter of circumstance, a combination of factors that include nights such as Friday’s loss to Chicago when Love hasn’t played well and others like Tuesday in Detroit when a blowout loss caused Rambis to save Love’s legs for the next night’s game at Washington.
So, Nate Jawai. I guess I should talk about him. It was clear when he checked into the game through the rest of the first half that he was rusty. He missed several layups and turned the ball over a few times. He played a bit better in the second half, though. Timberwolves exec Fred Hoiberg was in attendance, and at halftime mentioned that Jawai has decent agility for a man of his, er, carriage. That’s true, but Jawai also looked pretty flat-footed on defense and doesn’t have the best hands in the world – he grabbed just three rebounds in about 30 minutes, partly because he bobbled away at least that many more.
Owner Glen Taylor, whose Timberwolves are expected to have nearly $14 million in salary cap room available to sign free agents this summer, expects his team to compete for top talent.
“Money always seems to be the main thing,” Taylor said. “Other things may have to do with the coach. Some players like a coach’s style, so we have to find a player who believes in our coaches and (thinks) they’ll be a better player under our coaches than they presently are.”
Taylor said his patience for rebuilding the team “has been better than I thought. I was hoping we would be making more progress than we have, but after talking to (the coaches), I have a lot of confidence in what they’re doing. I know they also wish we were moving ahead a little faster.”
The only member of Kevin McHale’s Timberwolves front-office staff who remains with the team on more than a one-year deal is scout Dean Cooper, who is under contract for two years. He is a former assistant coach under Randy Wittman. All others are in the final year of their contracts, and it will be up to Wolves President David Kahn to determine whether they are retained. This group includes Fred Hoiberg, Jim Stack, Rob Babcock, Zarko Durisic and Jerry Sichting. The person most likely to remain is Hoiberg, vice president of basketball operations.
