Timberwolves Make 5 Draft Trades Official
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- The Minnesota Timberwolves were awfully busy on draft night. So busy, in fact, that it took the NBA until Friday afternoon to approve all the wheeling and dealing that was done by president of basketball operations David Kahn.
The deals that were officially announced:
--The Wolves traded point guard Jonny Flynn, a future second-round pick and the 20th pick -- Donatas Motiejunas -- to Houston for center Brad Miller, the draft rights to No. 23 pick Nikola Mirotic and No. 38 Chandler Parsons and a future first-round pick.
--Traded Mirotic to the Chicago Bulls for the draft rights to No. 28 Norris Cole and No. 43 Malcolm Lee and cash.
--Traded Cole to the Miami Heat for No. 31 Bojan Bogdanovic, a future second-round pick and cash.
--Traded Bogdanovic to New Jersey for a future second-round pick and cash.
--Traded Parsons back to Houston for cash.
The Timberwolves also traded with Portland for the 57th pick, Tanguy Ngombo of Qatar, but said the deal was still pending and contingent upon a trade the Trail Blazers made earlier in the draft.
All in all, it was a dizzying night for the Wolves after taking Arizona forward Derrick Williams with the No. 2 pick.
Unloading Flynn, who was taken with the No. 6 pick in 2009, was one of the team's top priorities of the offseason. Flynn was taken one spot behind Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio, who stayed in Spain for the last two years but will play for the Timberwolves next season.
Flynn struggled to adapt to coach Kurt Rambis's complex offense and missed the first half of last season because of a hip injury, never appearing to find his footing in Minnesota. With Rubio coming over, the Wolves had to move Flynn to make room.
They acquired Miller, a veteran center who could help the team after he recovers from microfracture knee surgery, which is expected to keep him out for another six months.
In moving out of the 20th spot and, eventually, down into the second round, Kahn was trying to avoid bringing another rookie into the youngest roster in the league and having to pay another guaranteed contract.
Come July 1, the Wolves will have 13 players -- including Williams -- under contract on the roster with the desire to add another veteran or two to the team.
It also brought some cash -- perhaps as much as $3 million -- into the team, while Kahn considers firing coach Kurt Rambis, who has two years and $4 million left on his contract. But Kahn said on Thursday night that the moves had nothing to do with bringing money in to pay a coach.
"We have a painfully young team. I think there's a chance, again, we could be the youngest team in the league again," Kahn said. "That's tough. It's hard. It's hard on the organization. It's hard on the coaching staff. It's hard on the players themselves sometimes.
"So I had great reticence to continue to add rookie after rookie after rookie to a team that frankly needs a few veterans."
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