EXCLUSIVE ?

[DubaLakers]

By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune

Last update: February 1, 2009 - 1:36 PM
Two games within 40 hours this weekend will give the Timberwolves a reminder of what was, what is and what might have been.

Their 11 a.m. tipoff today sends coach Kevin McHale and players Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes and Sebastian Telfair back to Boston and, of course, reunites the Wolves with the greatest player who ever wore their uniform: Kevin Garnett. (Update: Garnett is not playing today - he's at home due to the flu.)


Friday's home loss showcased Andrew Bynum, the Los Angeles Lakers' precocious 7-1 center whom Randy Foye calls the longest player he has ever faced and a fellow who just "snatches" balls out of thin air.

McHale two summers ago concluded that the time had come to trade Garnett, because team owner Glen Taylor was unwilling to pay Garnett the three-year, $60 million contract extension he sought. He contemplated young, available prospects who might develop into a "franchise" player like the one he intended to trade as well as a package of other young players and draft picks, and discussed with Boston a deal involving Jefferson and with Los Angeles one involving Bynum.

He settled on Jefferson in a six-player, two-pick deal. He considered the ingenious low-post scorer who went straight to the NBA from a tiny Mississippi high school more of a sure-bet offensive player than the younger, rawer Bynum, who also made the leap straight from schoolboy stardom.

Garnett helped decide things, too. According to an excellent source, he finally targeted Boston as the only team for which he would play after it acquired Ray Allen to go with longtime Celtic Paul Pierce, even though he owned a home in Malibu, Calif.

"We liked Bynum, we talked about that quite a bit," McHale said. "In my opinion, I just thought Al was an anchor offensively. I thought Bynum was more of a defensive player. I wanted to play through the low post, and Al's just a unique scorer down there."

In Jefferson, the Wolves received one of only three current NBA players -- Orlando's Dwight Howard and San Antonio's Tim Duncan are the others -- who average 20 points and 10 rebounds a game and a seemingly certain perennial All-Star once his team breaks the .500 winning-percentage ceiling. They also added Telfair and Gomes from the trade to their rotation, released Gerald Green and banked for salary-cap space Theo Ratliff's expired $11.6 million contract. They couldn't, however, pry young guard Rajon Rondo free from the Celtics.

With Jefferson clearly leading the way almost every night, the Wolves reversed a 4-23 season start by winning 12 times in 16 games. Their 10-4 January -- which followed a 2-14 December -- makes the franchise's future look much different than it did when the Wolves and Celtics last played in November.

"I do look back on it now -- everything to me was fair," Foye said about the biggest trade for a single player in NBA history.

"[Garnett] won the championship, they gave him the opportunity to win the championship. Al became the new-era K.G. for us. We're on our way now. ... This team could do some special things for years to come."

Jefferson turned 24 nearly a month ago. At 6-9, he is an undersize center who might already be the game's best low-post scorer. He also is a player whose offense is vastly more nurtured than his defense.

Bynum, the youngest player ever taken in the NBA draft, turned 21 in October. He missed 47 regular-season games and the playoffs last season because of a knee injury, and this season he appears to be blossoming in front of everybody's eyes with each passing game on a team where Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol clearly are its stars. In his past five games, he averaged 26.2 points, 13.8 rebounds and 3.2 blocks.

Somebody asked Lakers coach Phil Jackson before Friday's game if the Wolves made the right choice. In their head-to-head meeting Friday, Jefferson had 34 points, 13 rebounds, four blocks. Bynum had 27, 15 and two.

"Well, Al probably was a little more experienced and mature than Andrew," Jackson said. "As far as upside, that's still to be determined. They both could be around this league for 10, 15 years."

Also yet to be determined, Jackson said, is the Wolves' rebuilding progress. He said much will depend on the decisions they make this summer regarding their current nucleus of young players, three first-round draft picks they've stockpiled and salary-cap space they've cleared for the next two summers.

"They are still small and this conference is big, so that's probably a factor," Jackson said. "And their guard core is relatively small. They certainly have talented young players. There's no doubt about that. It's all about chemistry from here on out."

It's also all about patience and process.

"As we said when we did it, it was going to be a growing process," McHale said. "I see some good signs of growth. ... I've told our guys, the way we make the playoffs is by having winning months, not winning days, not winning weeks. We need to be a better team at the end of February than we were the end of January, and a better team at the end of March than we were in February."

[That Nicka]

All teams made the right decision. Jefferson was much better than Bynum at the time of the trade, and the Lakers would have been depleted had KG come here... I think Bynum will be better than Jefferson in 2 years time and we ended up with Pau also so I dont think any of the three teams are complaining about what they ended up with

[DubaLakers]

There was always speculation, but this was a lot more definitive, which is the reason I posted it.

[That Nicka]

Lakers and TWolves had talks... We knew about it at this site, but at the end of the day Minny decided to go with the Celtics offer because they thought Jefferson was more proven

[hermes]

if they had to do it over, the same thing would have been done

they wanted the low post scorer and AL is better than Bynum at that