Official Minnesota Timberwolves 2012 Off-Season Thread ... Andrei Kirilenko signed for 2 years/20 mi

 
Former Augsburg College All-American Devean George, a first-round pick of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1999, said he has been invited to the Minnesota Timberwolves training camp and is being considered for a player development role with the NBA club if he doesn't make the 15-man roster.

George, a Minneapolis native, went through an individual workout today with Timberwolves trainers at the team's practice facility at Target Center.

"I want to stay home and work with the young guys here," said George, an 11-year NBA veteran. "I don't want to go overseas or look for a spot with another team (NBA)."

George, 34, said he has had talks with Timberwolves president of basketball operations David Kahn about working with the team during the 2011-12 season, which was reduced to 66 regular-season games because of the lockout.

The Timberwolves are waiting for the league to announce the schedule for all 30 teams to determine plans for training camp. The league set Friday as a tentative date for teams to open training camp.


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There will be no "wholesale movement" with the Timberwolves' roster, said David Kahn, who expressed confidence Thursday that all-star forward Kevin Love will be re-signed before the three-year veteran becomes a free agent after the abbreviated 2011-12 season.

"I expect Kevin to be a big part of our franchise for a number of years," Kahn, the Wolves' president of basketball operations, said at Target Center. He was speaking publicly for the first time since NBA owners and players reached a tentative agreement last weekend on a new labor deal.

The Timberwolves have 13 players under contract. Kahn said the stability of the team's roster will benefit Adelman and his staff. It's part of the reason he said the team will not be as active as other teams in free agency, but he said the club is "well positioned" if it pursues a veteran shooting guard or backup center. Kahn said the team's trade activity also could be minimal.

"I like a lot of the players we have, but it doesn't mean we're not going to do some tweaking," Kahn said. "Rick and I have talked. He's very excited to see what he has."

Timberwolves All-Star forward Kevin Love arrived at Target Center on Sunday morning for his first postlockout workout 25 pounds lighter than when he left following last season.

He lifted weights, did some on-court conditioning and then declared himself fit and ready for an onrushing, truncated preseason that's crucial for a number of reasons.
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Gosh, I don't know. Does a 25 lb loss really help a guy like Kevin Love? I guess if it's all fat, but can you really lose that much weight while putting on muscle? You'd think muscle gain would be much more important for Love.

I guess if his real number of fat loss is 30-35 then he probably packed on some good muscle. We'll see I guess.
 
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Love following Zgoda on Twitter






Don't know why Adeleman needs all of his old guys everywhere he goes. I read that there trying to get Kevin Martin from Houston.
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cant wait for the season to start. hopefully we'll be a better or at the least a more exciting team to watch than we were last year
 
Reports: Wolves close to four-year deal with PG J.J. Barea

The Minnesota Timberwolves are on the verge of adding what could be a key sparkplug.

According to multiple reports, free agent J.J. Barea is close to signing a four-year, $19 million deal to become Ricky Rubio's backup point guard. Barea gained notoriety with the Dallas Mavericks in last year's postseason by scoring 22 points in a sweep-clinching win over the Lakers in the Western Conference quarterfinals.

Free agent Jamal Crawford is expected to receive an offer from the Timberwolves "very soon," according to a source close to the 31-year-old shooting guard.
The Nets, Bulls, Knicks, and Pacers are also reportedly in the mix.

The source added that director of player personnel R.J. Adelman, who is heading up the effort to sign Crawford, made it clear the Wolves view him as a perfect fit.


Zgoda's take:

I don't have any indication that (Barea signing) is a precursor to another imminent move, such as trading for Kevin Martin or signing Jamal Crawford.

They don't have any more cap room to sign anybody unless they'd make other moves to clear cap space or get slightly over the cap so they get that full $5 million mid-level exception.

The Wolves have been searching for another ball-handling, play-making guard, just didn't think it'd be another point guard.

I don't think this necessarily means the Wolves have plans to trade Luke Ridnour immediately either and don't worry Wolves fans, it doesn't mean that they're planning to start Barea over Ricky Rubio.

Barea and Rubio share the same player-rep agency headed by Dan Fegan, so it was obviously was done with Ricky's knowledge.

Barea's presence gives Rubio a Spanish-speaking teammate in the locker room.

More importantly, it gives the Wolves a tough waterbug ball handler who can penetrate and dish to this collection of shooters the Wolves have assembled.

I'm guessing they must think Rubio's size in defending 2 guards will allow him and Barea to play some together.

This move will give the Wolves 16 players on the roster, which means somebody will have to go if you're assuming second-round pick Malcolm Lee signs and stays.

So either they make a 2-for-1 deal or release either Lazar Hayward or Wayne Ellington.

The Knicks also pursued Barea in recent days, but could only offer the 2-year, $5 million "room" exception.

Dallas offered Barea a one-year contract believed to be worth $8 million to return, but wouldn't commit to more than one season because it wants to keep its salary-cap options open.
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Big fan of RUBIO. I was one of the doubters who didn't think he would sign with y'all. Sorry.
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But he looks clean in that Minny jersey.
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The Knicks, Blazers, Pacers and Timberwolves are leading the pursuit of Jamal Crawford.

New York's offer is only for a two-year "room" exception starting at $2.5 million.

Portland and Indiana are only willing to offer one-year deals since they each would like to preserve their cap space for next summer.

Makes it sound like Minnesota is the most viable option/likely.

I'd be interested.
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I would love to have him since Matrell is out again
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They need to get rid of Lazar I see no reason for him here. I would like to see another big on this team that will play until Brad Miller returns.
 
Five games on Xmas then the home game the following day. Perfect way to end 2011
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So question what do you think the status is on Darko as center? I don't know if we can at all upgrade at the position. Kaman maybe?
 
Kaman was just dealt to the Hornets as a part of the Chris Paul deal, so I doubt the Timberwolves can get him in any possible scenario unless it's once his contract runs up. I don't think I really would want him on the team anyway, he's all offense/no defense... basically a lesser Kevin Love.

The Timberwolves need someone that does the opposite of Love which is defense, and we need them to do that well. Darko could potentially be that guy, but we need him to be allergic to the ball on offense. For some reason Rambis had the PGs last year dump the ball down to him too much and it paralyzed the offense. He's not an offensive threat, and he never will be... the team just has to accept that. So I believe Darko could work, but if the front office wants to go outside the organization I'd have to look at the 2012 FA's. I wish they had pursued DeAndre Jordan and Nene a bit more, but oh well.
 
Yeah I think they were trying to give Darko some confidence.

I see Adelman wanting to go small a lot during the season.
 
I'm looking out for this team. I think they can honestly make the playoffs as the 7th or 8th seed. Kahn gets a lot of flack but you compare the rosters to when he first inherited it and now and I don't know how you can really fault him other than the Millicic contract. Rubio/Johnson/Beasley/Williams/Love is a great assembly of young talent that should keep them in the playoff hunt for years to come.
EDIT: Forgot to mention the Adelman hire. That offense might just be 
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