David Kahn: Midseason Update
On Monday morning, president of basketball operations David Kahn met with local and national media members to address several topics at the halfway point of the season.Q: Do you think playing Jefferson and Gomes at the four and the three, do you think that kind of points out the need for you guys to get a big man down the line. And that the Love-Jefferson tandem, while both talented, aren’t necessarily a center, just a combination.
Kahn: Well I think in times they can be fine, but I think your point is accurate. It's clear to all of us, Kurt, myself, everybody with the organization, that we need to have another quality type of big to pair with them so that you can have a rotation with the three of them or four of them, and I think the interesting dynamic the last couple of weeks is, you can see what we are envisioning is kind of coming to life in Ryan Hollins. Now I am not here to say today that Ryan will be that person or grow into that role, because we never envisioned that. On the other hand not going to say it won't happen because he is certainly young himself and has a tremendous amount of upside. There is no doubt that if we just had those two, meaning Kevin and Al by themselves, and that’s who we were heavily relying on by themselves, we are just not long enough and athletic enough as we need to be to become an elite team in this league.
Q: Does Pekovic go towards solving that, or is he kind of in the same mold?
Kahn: Kind of in the same mold height-wise, different in that he is much more physical than either of them. I mean the guy is like an Adonis. I think he is probably 6-9, 275 and I don’t think that there is much of an ounce of fat on him. He is a great back to the basket low post scorer. But he is not that lengthy guy that I think we are envisioning. Having said that, that doesn’t mean that we have ruled the possibility of being part of our rotation or joining us. I think that is something that we are going to have to heavily discuss this summer. I saw him play last Thursday night and I was very impressed, as I thought I would be.
Q: When you look long term and as you are planning out the salary cap (5,6,or 7 years down the road) when Kevin goes to his next contract, can you afford two guys who are basically the same player?
Kahn: Well I think it begs the question, what will the system be like. As many of you have probably read, I think that we are starting a period of time that I am not aloud to even comment on, and that is this labor agreement. I think a lot depends on what the new agreement will look like. I really can't even speak to that.
Q: Do you have any idea how much cap room you will have (For this coming year)
Kahn: In all likelihood depending, on where the cap comes out, approximately 13 to 14 million.
Q: Is that enough?
Kahn: Sure, we haven’t made any determinations as to how, when, where anything about our ball club in terms of decision making this summer. I hope I have been consistent in stating that this season was really important to evaluate the players we had. Kurt and I both knew we especially needed this time to figure it out. That’s not to say there will be some "aha" moment in April or May where we figure it out. We are learning with each week and each day what we have and that will help inform us to how we proceed. The other variable is the draft. As many of you know, we could have as few as one pick, although that seems highly unlikely. I think the Utah pick seems pretty safe right now it looks like that will be coming our way. And the Charlotte pick which today we would have, but could certainly change. One injury is all it takes to change in this league. Once you see where the order falls, and the types of players that we could draft in that draft, or a combination if we were to package things. There's still a lot of time and discussion internally as to how to play this out. I am a big believer in that if you have a test, you don’t take the test early. Take the test the day of the test. And that means we have plenty of time to prepare.
Q: Do you expect to be a player July 1?
Kahn: I am not trying to dodge. I think the first step is the draft, and the type of player or players we can draft in the draft that will help inform what we do in free agency. I think a huge amount of that depends on this draft. We will be doing everything together, meaning here's who we could target and produce through free agency or have a shot to produce. And that is the kind of discussion that will have to occur over the next several months - how do we make this work in terms of the best possible outcome.
Q: You said the first step is the draft, and you have in the past thrown cold water on the idea that you will be at all active between now and February 18.
Kahn: Warm water. I think that if we do something and what I have said is no more than modest in nature, just the way the season has played out. I know we wont do something dramatic.
Q: And dramatic would be trading one of your four or five key players?
Kahn: Exactly
Q: So that pretty much says that Jefferson or guys like that who have been bandied about are kind of off the table?
Kahn: Well bandied about, and not to scold anyone in this room. It really is depressing. I read yet another one this morning where we were supposedly one of the teams that had interest in Kevin Martin. I don’t mean to say anything about Kevin Martin. I haven’t had one discussion with Sacramento. Not one. The whole season, whether it's about Kevin Martin or anyone on their roster. And yet, we live in a world where people are willing to say whatever they want to say. In Al's case, I swear on a stack of bibles, as a friend of mine says, we have not had one discussion that we initiated involving Al Jefferson. Not one. And yet, it hasn’t stopped people from saying that he has been talked about in trades. Not true.
Q: Moving forward between now and February 18 you're fairly firm that you wont move one of your big people?
Kahn: Firm as firm can be. We will not move one of the big people in the next ten days. It would a mistake of epic proportions.
Q: You say you haven’t initiated them, but do you listen? (When other teams initiate discussions)
Kahn: Well sure, of course you have to. Literally as I came downstairs somebody asked about Al, another team. You have to, I wouldn’t be doing my job and I have had this conversation with Al. Al understands that’s part of my job. So you have to listen, but that is a big difference than initiating or showing interest.
Q: How did you respond?
Kahn: I said no.
Q: It was a trade offer?
Kahn: No it was more of, if you ever think of doing something please call us before you do. And I told them exactly what I said just a moment ago, we're not doing anything in the next ten days.
Q: What's your take on how this current core has picked up the triangle offense and how the pieces fit or maybe don’t fit as well with that offense.
Kahn: Well I am going to give my triangle speech. I think that it has been wildly overstated about this offense in that the number one, or paramount, objective that Kurt and I have is that I want to have a team that really runs, pushes the tempo and open court play. Then it flows into an offense that emphasizes passing, which the triangle surely does, or the elements of the triangle, which Kurt has brought. I think that’s the most beautiful basketball to watch. I think the players want to play that style of basketball and the fans want to watch that style of basketball. That is the kind of players that we will be picking, choosing, hoping to attract to this team. Players who fit into that system, I think that no matter what system we would have chosen to do this season, there would have been an inevitable adjustment period. In fact I get a kick out of it, and I hope this comes across the right way, would we have been better playing a flex offense? I don’t know, nobody ever kind of says they should be playing this kind of offense. I also said as I sat there watching the Memphis game, we played a lot of classic low post, dump the ball into Al, and everybody kind of space and let Al do his thing. That isn’t triangle basketball, that’s far from it, at least the way it's considered to be in the ideal and yet it was very effective. It was really phenomenal the way he finished the game the other night. There have been other times where what we have done, especially at crunch time, is played a lot of pick and roll, which by the way the Bulls used to do when they played the triangle. I remember watching games back in the day when for all the talk of the triangle, when it was time Chicago to win the game, they would go one-four. They would put the ball in Michael's hands at the top of the key, the other four guys would run to the corner, two on each side. Michael Jordan would do what ever he wanted so they would come and they would double him and he would either find the open man or beat two guys off the dribble and get to the basket himself. I think the triangle talk this year has been wildly overstated in the types of players we have fitting into that type of system. What we are looking to do here is A - run. And B- flow into an offense that emphasizes passing. I grew up in Portland, Oregon and Jack Ramsay had some beautiful basketball that was really predicated on a lot of triangle principles on passing and cutting, and looking on the weak side back door cuts. The play the other night that Corey Brewer ended up at the pinch post and ended up throwing a beautiful back door pass to Ryan Gomes for about a twelve-, maybe fourteen-foot jump shot. That’s beautiful basketball to watch and it was really pleasing me to see Corey, who doesn’t find himself in that position, know that that’s where he is supposed to be and throw that pass.
Q: Brewer has gone crazy.
Kahn: Its been great, hasn’t it? Very pleased. I mentioned to Glen Taylor about a month ago. I said I will know that Corey has made it with his shot when he himself doesn’t look surprised when it goes in. Because even then it would go in and you would be looking at Corey's face and he would be kind of looking like, my god it went in. That look has disappeared. He now thinks its going to go in. I think that he's had some sort of change in terms of his confidence about what he can do out there. If he can maintain that, he's going to be a very fine player in this league. He's been a very fine player for us these last five or six weeks. Very fine player, and that’s part of the reason we have been playing better. But he's still only 23 himself, I believe, and his whole career is still in front of him. It's very exciting the way he's been developing.
Q: How are you handling the season? Worst than you expected? About what you expected?
Kahn: You can talk about it all you want about how it's going to be a challenging year with a lot of losses, but until you really march through it, it's one thing to say it and another to experience it. There have been many times where after a game in particular you're kind of down, but by the next morning, as I have found, you bounce back. I do want to say something on behalf of the coaching staff and Kurt. They have done a great job this year of that in itself. The guys have come to practice this season ready to work and play no matter what happened the night before. They have done a magnificent job of keeping the spirits up in a very difficult environment because everybody knows it’s a rebuilding year where we are not expected to make the playoffs. I just can't say enough about what they have done keeping guys working hard. I am excited to say over the last couple of weekends at least that they are getting the fruits of their labor.
Q: How many college games have you seen so far, and how involved are you in that?
Kahn: I have seen about six or seven games in person and I am going to see another six of seven in the next few weeks. I will spend a lot of time during the tournament trying to isolate and see guys a second time, and see some NIT games if needed. So I hope in terms of the top 25 or 30, I will have seen everyone at least once in person and maybe a few people two times. I would like to take Kurt out for a day or two to see a couple of guys in particular. He used to do this when he was with the Lakers before he became an assistant coach. I know he likes to see games as opposed to just guys coming in for workouts. Unfortunately, there is a season and he may not be able to do that.
Q: Would that be for the tournament?
Kahn: Yeah I think there's a couple days that we have off where it might be able to work out.
Q: Trade possibilities for Rubio?
Kahn: When? Now? No way.
Q: Are people calling?
Kahn: Yes, we have gotten calls on him of course, but there is no way I would do anything with him now. Absolutely not. He's still young and I still think he can be one of the better point guards to play in the game.
Q: In the NBA?
Kahn: Yes, absolutely
Q: What is Darrick Martin's true position?
Kahn: Darrick is a full-fledged member of this staff. He is in every coaches meeting. Darrick has been chiefly responsible for being out on the court working out with a lot of the young players and especially the young guards. Jonny in particular, already he has developed a very strong relationship with Jonny Flynn. I have been really happy with Darrick. Just a solid guy. We were very fortunate to pick him up.
Q: Did you anticipate about this level of participation for Ramon Sessions? Did you sign him more because he was a good value in terms of his contract?
Kahn: I thought he'd play more. I did think he'd play some two. I also think he was a very important thing we had to do. You can't go into a season with just a rookie point guard by himself. It's easy to say now, but no one had seen Jonny play an NBA game yet. It remains to be seen how much more he may yet play. I don’t know if anyone really thought Wayne Ellington would be able to play as many minutes as he was able to play as a late first (round pick). A lot of time he (Sessions) is not out there playing the two, its because Wayne is. Of course we thought it was a good signing. We thought that the contract was such that it was fair for Ramon and fair for us, so that if in the event that we had to trade him, and we were very open with him when we did this, that it was something we felt we could market down the road if need be.
Q: Why haven’t Jonny and Ramon played more together?
Kahn: Ramon's obvious proficiency is not shooting, and I think its because Kurt likes the idea of having Ramon behind Jonny as a way to influence to behavior.
Q: How good is your big guy in Europe (Pekovic)? Can he step in and play regularly?
Kahn: He is, there's no question about it. I think he is 24 so he is not quite as young as some of the other kids over there. He's a man, there is no question he could play today, right now, this minute. No question. He's the best European big man right now. There is nobody better.
Q: Do you think you will get him?
Kahn: Well he's ours. So the question is do we want to do a deal to bring him over here. The primary focus of my trip last week was about that. We haven’t started talking about that meaning contract, I thought the first step was I wanted to see him live in person, which I hadn’t had a chance to do and I wanted to visit with him. I really liked him as a kid. He's a soldier. He will run through the wall for the coach. He's very disciplined and passionate about winning. I really enjoyed my time with him. There is no question he belongs in this league.
Q: Why don’t you bring him in?
Kahn: First of all, we have to get through this season because he is under contract with his Greek team. The question will be between the draft, free agency and other trades that we may do. We need to be talking very seriously about bringing him over to join our team. What I don’t want to do is bring someone over for our team and give them false hope that there is a lot of minutes. I don’t know how many minutes we'll have and lot of it depends on how Ryan Hollins perhaps finishes the year. I would love to have him, but the question is do we have enough room for him. I think we do but I just want to be very straight with him. I don’t want to misrepresent to him what the opportunity is here and I can't define it yet.
Q: When can you start talking contract with him? Is there a buy out?
Kahn: He has a buy out. The way I understand the rules I think we could talk to him today, but it would have to be something of course that happens after July 10.
Q: Whose game does he remind you of?
Kahn: A little bit Al, but more of a straight forward with his back to the basket. Al does a little more with trickery or fakes. This kid doesn’t do that, he just clears space and seals. A little like Al, to be fair, he's not explosive, he's got lateral quickness but he's not a jumper. He can run well.
Q: Defense?
Kahn: I didn’t really have a good feel (while watching him). Because of his size, he's not going to get pushed around. This kid is built. He's really muscular.
Q: How feasible would finding that center you need through free agency or trade?
Kahn: You certainly can make an argument with your whole team, but especially your big people that it might be nice to have an embarrassment of riches at those positions.
Q: How far do you think you are from being a playoff team?
Kahn: Two to three years. Two after this, in playoff contention, and in three or four years I hope that we'd be one of the best teams in this league. I think that is something we have to work towards.
Q: Is Ryan Gomes proving himself to you?
Kahn: I think he has. I think there is no question he is a fine NBA player, a rotation player. I think the question is whether he's a starter. Even on a really good team, Ryan Gomes is somebody that can be a valuable member of such a team. He's got a lot of skill, a lot of different parts of his game and he's a great teammate. He's really been one of the most important people we have had in the locker room.
Q: Does his (Gomes) contract create some problems when trying to keep him around?
Kahn: We will have to think about all these things together and see how this plays out with him. We need to also add some people. We have to if we are going to become a great team.
Q: Number of turn over you will have for next year's opening day in terms of players?
Kahn: Based on the draft picks and free agency that there will be at least four new faces. There has to be.
Q: How good is this draft?
Kahn: I think it's turning out to be a really good draft. It seems like every week there is someone new emerging. I also think it’s a pretty good draft for what we are looking for - big or a wing. I think that there are a lot of them.
Q: Will you draft for position or best player available?
Kahn: I think that when you're drafting at that top spot you have to do best player available and then just try to figure it out. I would hate for us at this early of a stage in our development to feel locked in. I think maybe later in the draft, as we did last year with Wayne Ellington, then you can kind of go by position.
Q: On possible assets this team will have?
Kahn: Yes, no matter what, we will. I hope we are starting to accumulate talent that will hopefully be with us on a long-term basis, but if not it will provide other opportunities for us down the road. I don’t think you can hurt yourself if you take somebody who allows you some flexibility to make further moves down the road.
Q: Best player even if the guy is a power forward?
Kahn: Yes, but I think this year that won't be the case.
Q: Are you disappointed Rubio is not scoring much?
Kahn: No, I am enjoying a lot the fact that nobody has made a connection with Brandon Jennings' statistics in Europe a year ago and what he's accomplishing. The European game is completely different at the pro level than ours. First of all there is only 40 minutes, not 48. Second of all they don’t run as much as we do. There are not as many possessions. Third, he's only playing, like most European players, about 20 minutes of the 40. He's got a team that has three point guards that have been starters in their careers. His assist, rebounding and even point numbers per minute played are quiet good. He's not going to come into our league and become a huge scorer, I would be surprised by that. I don’t think that’s who he is. Its not apple to apples. Ricky Rubio is going to be a very fine player in this league, no question about it.
Q: What are you going to learn in the last 30 games of the year that you don’t know through the first 50?
Kahn: First of all if we can sustain the play we have had in the last two weekends. I don’t know who we are yet. We are still a team that is very young with its best days ahead and is probably still not as talented as it needs to be. Wayne Ellington, that’s a variable that needs to be monitored. Jonny Flynn's improvement needs to be monitored. I think Al Jefferson has been much better the last six weeks than he was prior to then. Kevin Love has been very good. Anybody who thinks Jonny Flynn and that we will know at the end of the season exactly what he'll be, its still going to be way too early. He turned 21 last weekend and this is his first season in the league. At that position in particular it takes three to four years for guys to really establish who they are. Unfortunately, how we are positioned with the draft and free agency, we are going to have to make in some cases some educated guesses.
Q: Do you think a pure free agent is going to want to come here and play with a losing team?
Kahn: Yes, provided that we finish the season with the sense that we won't be losers for much longer. If we finish the season with a feeling of desperation and hopelessness, I agree it would be very hard to do. What is important is that we finish the year with a sense of hope, optimism about the way we finished or the types of players we have. The stability I think we can also sell. Between the ownership, myself, and coaching staff, nobody's leaving. We have to make sure it feels hopeful as opposed to hopeless.
Q: Do you feel you have to make moves around draft time to make it more enticing?
Kahn: I think the draft could influence someone's decision making process, no doubt about it.
Q: Any sense if this draft will be deeper than last years?
Kahn: I think it will be, I really do. Last year felt to me that there was a significant drop off at about seven or eight. Then it dropped again at about fifteen. I can count easily fifteen players today that are really exciting and enticing.
Q: Is this being sold as a one-player draft?
Kahn: Oh yeah, but I think that there has been a shift in that already in the last two to three weeks. There have been some other names that have been kind of popping up.
Q: Are there a lot of good players in Europe?
Kahn: Absolutely, there always are. There will be some good players that are either coming out early or are draft eligible. Absolutely.
Q: Any regrets about letting Ty Lawson go?
Kahn: No. Not a regret because that really wouldn’t have worked. I think he's going to be a very fine player though. They were very fortunate that he was there at eighteen. If somebody had done one thing a different way he wouldn’t have been there.
Q: Can you speak on the diversity of this team and being visible to the community?
Kahn: I think that throughout the entire community our team has done a tremendous job this year reaching out, making appearances and giving back. Whether it’s the African American community or any other community I do believe that everybody within the Timberwolves organization is mindful that we not only need to do our part on the court, but if you're going to be in this place in this time and society people expect more of you and they expect to see you at places where it matters, and especially as it pertains to kids.
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