[kuphal_99Participant]

I think this is a nice article about Kahn and the Wolves. Do I think he is the greatest GM in the NBA, no. But is he getting ripped far too often and harshly, yes. You cannot argue that the Wolves haven’t improved their length, athleticism, cap situation, and quantity of draft picks with him at the helm. While they will only win 24 games this year, this team is light years ahead of where McHale left it.

When David Kahn took over as the general manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves he knew the road ahead would not be easy. The franchise had struggled ever since trading Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics, meaning Kahn and his team had plenty of work to do. They took the conservative approach, spending some time to get to know the team they had in place before making massive changes.

“It takes longer than people think,” Kahn tells HOOPSWORLD of the rebuilding process. “What I mean by that is we live in a very instantaneous-minded culture, where people want things now. It’s hard to do things immediately. I felt we had to spend a year last year learning the ball club, Kurt and I especially, seeing who we had and what their strengths and weaknesses were before we started doing things willy-nillly. We made some moves, but waited for significant ones until this offseason. It takes time; nothing happens overnight. I know that’s trite to say but it’s true. We’re trying to do things as quickly as possible, but not do things hastily and do things that could come back to hurt us.”

This offseason Kahn has begun aggressively reworking the roster, moving big man Al Jefferson to the Utah Jazz and acquiring Michael Beasley from the Miami HEAT. Beasley is somewhat of a question mark at this stage of his career, having failed to live up to the expectations associated with a second overall draft pick, but Kahn is confident Beasley can realize his potential in Minnesota.

“I don’t think Michael Beasley necessarily needed a change of scenery; I think he was traded because of this one-in-a-million chance of having these three guys LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh play together; otherwise, I don’t think he would have been traded. I think the two years he played in the league, when you consider the fact that he would have been a sophomore and junior at Kansas State, weren’t all that bad. I do think that Michael felt in Miami, because of the way the team is built with Wade as the centerpiece, that there may be more he could do on the floor than he’s shown thus far. I think we’ll give him that opportunity with the way we play, which is more up-tempo and a more egalitarian type of offense. We’re excited to have him. Frankly, the way we obtained him was so easy in terms of so little risk that it was something that was too obvious for us not to do.”

The other key addition for the Timberwolves will be European big man Nikola Pekovic. Together with Beasley, Darko Milicic and Kevin Love, Pekovic is expected to form a formidable front court rotation for the Timberwolves.

“Technically we haven’t signed him so I really shouldn’t speak about it, but let’s pretend for a moment that he’s been signed. Nikola is an NBA-ready player from Europe, a big man who plays a true American big man’s game. It’s very odd, he doesn’t play at all like a European center. He likes to play in the post, he likes to establish position and he really knows how to seal people down there and get his shot off. He’s a tough guy and we didn’t really have enough toughness on our team, we felt, so this is a good addition for us, as well. It did make the idea of trading Al a little more palatable now that you know Beasley is there with Pekovic, Milicic, and Love. We may need to add one more big into the mix.”

There will be additional tweaks to the roster, such as the addition of Luke Ridnour and the likely trade of Ramon Sessions, but the next big move for the Timberwolves would seem to be the pending addition of point guard Ricky Rubio.

“We anticipate him coming next year,” explains Kahn. “He told Kurt Rambis and I as much, that that’s what he anticipates, as well, when we last visited with him face-to-face in June. He does have a buyout clause in his contract with Barcelona and I see no reason why he won’t be with us. I think it’ll be great to have him. He’ll be grand old age of 20 when he arrives a year from now, he’s now 19 years old. There’s still a lot of basketball left in Ricky.”

The Timberwolves have been mired in mediocrity for quite a while, but with David Kahn at the helm things are quickly turning around. The young core they’re putting together looks set to help the team return to respectability in the very near future.

[goneParticipant]

I think it takes 5-6yrs to see how this team turned out post-KG we are on year 3 I think

[paint intruderParticipant]

If you look at the roster it looks some-how decent, but I can’t understand his way of drafting.

And didn’t he compare Darko to Chris Webber?
That one made me question his mind.

But for his defense I’ve got to say that the addition of Beasly really is a low give up/high reward move, since they got him for a second rounder.

[Jonboy136Participant]

Those of us, the remaining minnesota faithful, thank you for finally saying what many of us have been saying for a month…leave the guy alone, let him work. Watch as Kahn has created a legit NBA roster from what was essentially a D-League team last year. We have more depth and talent at every position now, more cap space than most could have imagined, and multiple future draft picks. What’s to hate?

[tonyl33Participant]

Even with Al on the roster next year, how many more wins can they have with or without Al? Realistically, their still not going to make the playoff, why not do Al and everyone else a favor by trading him away so that guys like, Darko, Love and Beasley will have a chance to show what they are worth.

[GrandfiNalley101Participant]

I agree with Kahn getting a bad rap to a degree. The Wolves are rebuilding and have a decent talent base now. I think the criticism comes from the his draft picks and what he does with his chips. Ty Lawson could have been very effective there last year. I like Johnny Flynn but Lawson was the 19th pick I believe and he may end up being more effective for the pick differential. He could have had Steph Curry or Brandon Jennings along with Rubio. They believe Ricky is a star we will see. This year he could have had Cousins instead of Wes Johnson but stated that Cousins wouldn’t fit with Love and Jefferson. With Jefferson no longer being around and all the other 3’s he drafted and traded for makes him look silly. The draft is hit and miss like I have said earlier I like Flynn and Johnson was high on everyone’s draft board so they have pieces to keep improving also don’t forget they are very young and they play in a loaded Western Conference. They need to run and I don’t know if they can board good enough to be a successful running team. Give them a couple of years they have plenty of chips!!!!

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