Timberwolves Notes: Rumors and more rumors…

As we inch closer to the four-week mark from the NBA Draft, we’re just beginning to sift through the rumors surrounding what the Timberwolves might do in the transactions department this summer.

The final weeks of the NBA playoffs tend to bring a slow trickle of non-playoff team news, and rightly so. But Wolves fans have a special understanding for just how lonely and dead mid-May through mid-June can feel for the fans of lottery-bound teams.

And sure enough, we’re scraping for any small scrap of news, and there is a small smattering of items worth discussing at the start of the week.

First, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports that new Sacramento Kings head coach Dave Joerger is targeting current Timberwolves assistant coach Bryan Gates for his new staff.

Gates has only spent one season with the Wolves, coming to Minnesota after a number of years in New Orleans as a player development coach. By all accounts, he is an extremely hard worker and the players really enjoy his presence.

According to many of the local reports coming out of the Twin Cities, it’s still up in the air a bit whether or not the likes of Gates, Ryan Saunders, or David Adelman might be back on the bench as assistants alongside Tom Thibodeau. Sidney Lowe was already relieved of his duties, but there seemed to be a chance that the younger coaches might stay in town.

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If I had to guess (and this is indeed only a guess), it would seem as though Thibs is trying to hire former coworker Andy Greer away from Toronto but can’t do it quite yet due to the playoffs, and he’s also waiting to see if he can pry Ed Pinckney away from Denver and perhaps even Ron Adams from Golden State in a much tougher long shot.

If any of those fall through, Thibodeau and general manager Scott Layden would not doubt like to have some additional options at their disposal, which could be why there hasn’t been much in the way of closure as of yet.

Elsewhere, Darren Wolfson engaged in a lengthy Twitter conversation that touched on a number of subjects, including potential draft, trade, and free agent possibilities. You can read the whole conversation if you have a few moments, but here’s the high points in a summary form:

• Luol Deng “think the world of Thibs” and it seems as though Wolfson almost expects him to end up in Minnesota next year if the Heat do not retain him.
• Former Providence point guard Kris Dunn “would LOVE” to be in Minnesota. Also, if the Wolves draft him it doesn’t automatically mean that Rubio is gone. They could coexist, at least for awhile.
• Kenneth Faried and Serge Ibaka are two potential trade targets but there are also “probably” some more names we haven’t heard yet.
• Some teams that we’ve heard are interested in Ricky Rubio remain interested, such as Sacramento, Dallas, Philadelphia, and others. Also, Wolfson thinks the Wolves would get “less than Middleton”, meaning the Bucks’ Khris Middleton, who Milt Newton reportedly asked for at this February’s deadline. Doogie chalks this up to “different bosses” and alludes to a different regime having different demands.

We’ll have more on this in the coming days. In the meantime, enjoy a pair of suddenly exteremely exciting Conference Finals series. OKC hosts Golden State on Wednesday night with a 2-1 lead and a chance to take a commanding lead before flying back West.

Next: On FiveThirtyEight On Karl-Anthony Towns

The Raptors swept a pair of games at home and now head back to Cleveland in a series knotted up at two games apiece.