Hey all — I had a chance to speak with Wolves boss David Kahn earlier today for a Q&A to run at a later date. While there was nothing earth-shattering to come from it, there were a few newsy tidbits from the conversation that Jerry Zgoda hoped I could post. So, here goes:

*Kahn said he hasn’t had recent contact this week with Ricky Rubio’s agent, Dan Fegan, as Fegan has tended to matters for a couple other clients in the past couple days. Kahn said the two were in frequent contact last week and that he “has a firm understanding of where we were.” As for how long the Rubio situation will take to play out, Kahn said: “I don’t think it will last forever, but I don’t have a feel for a timetable,” though he added something could happen in the next couple of weeks.

*The free agent signing period started today, and Kahn said the Wolves will be a “late player” in that realm. What does that mean? “When the market starts to settle, and we see who’s still out there, there might be some opportunities to find players who pencil out as being effective and won’t cost us the ability to make a big move next summer.” Nothing surprising there, since 2010 is when the Wolves figure to make more noise with more cap space.

*Kahn was speaking by phone from an airport, and he indicated his travel was coaching search-related.

That’s about it, unless you are interested in Kahn’s response to a question about a cage-match-style fight for GM supremacy against new Wild boss Chuck Fletcher. For that, you’ll have to read the paper.

There’s a chance Ricky Rubio sometime this summer will break the news about his own future, just like Kevin Love did with the Kevin McHale dismissal last month.

Rubio’s latest Twitter feed, made from Spain a few hours ago, said he’s back from a visit with buddy Rudy Fernandez, had a great day at the beach today and now needs a good night’s rest because “we have to make decisions.”

You can follow him at twitter.com/rickyrubio9 or his official web site — www.rickyrubio9.com — updates his Twitter feeds.

They’re all, of course, en Espanol.

Rubio’s ACB Spanish league has picked its top 10 plays of the years, and two of them are his.

Check out the fancy passing on Nos. 5 and 1 at http://acbtv.acb.com/video/1966

My colleague Dennis Brackin tracked down Quincy Lewis, Jim Boeheim and a few others who have seen Ricky Rubio up close and wrote a profile on him for tomorrow’s front page of the paper.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/49771562.html

That short report in a Spanish newspaper strikes me as merely posturing in what looks like a protracted dance between the Timberwolves and Rubio’s camp. Sounds like he’s negotiating his Badalona team for a better buyout number by saying he’ll come back for two more seasons rather a news-making decision. He’s already signed for those two seasons anyway. Remember this is a guy who just a week ago was saying he wanted more than anything to play in the NBA.

David Kahn said by text message late this afternoon and early evening that he doesn’t know if the report is accurate and said he doubted whether it was a significant development in what he has predicted could be a “turbulent” summer because of the RRM (Ricky Rubio Matter).

As mentioned by posters here, it will be interesting to see if Kahn and the Wolves make a play for unhappy Portland guard Rudy Fernandez — a true shooting guard and Rubio’s former Joventut Badalona teammate who is none too thrilled the Blazers are trying to sign Hedo Turkoglu — in an attempt to woo the draft’s No. 5 pick and make him feel more at home in Minnesota.

OK, I’m back out…

Man, I can’t keep up with these threads….more than 300 comments in less than a day. You’re right, you do have the fever. I’ll try to get here every now and then to start a new topic during my time away, just so there’s not a 2,000-comment thread. We’ll also probably have other reporters update it from time to time as there is news.

Here’s a “Wolves Insider” I wrote for today’s paper touching on free agency, the Rubio/Flynn situation, etc.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/49559477.html

Wolves point guard Bobby Brown, as expected, has exercised the $736,420 option for next season and, in theory, will be back next season.

That now gives the Wolves four point guards, with Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn drafted together last week and Sebastian Telfair already under contract.

Undrafted out of Cal State-Fullerton, Brown signed a two-year deal with Sacramento last summer after impressing in the Vegas Summer League, then was traded to the Wolves at the trading deadline in the swap that sent Rashad McCants and Calvin Booth to the Kings for Brown and Shelden Williams.

Williams becomes an unrestricted free agent at midnight tonight and, with a new baby delivered by wife Candace Parker this spring, will be looking for work.

Brown will be on the Wolves’ Vegas Summer League roster that also will include Flynn, Wayne Ellington, NDSU guard Ben Woodside, newly acquried Oleksiy Pecherov and  Flynn’s Syracuse teammate, Paul Harris.

The complete roster

22 Corey Brewer, F (6-9 188), Florida, 2nd year
1 Bobby Brown, G (6-2 175),  Cal State Fullerton, 1
23 Pat Carroll, G/F (6-5 190), St. Joseph’s R
19 Wayne Ellington, G (6-4 200), North Carolina R
11 Jonny Flynn, G (6-0 185), Syracuse R
17 Devin Green, G (6-7 212), Hampton 1
12 Paul Harris, G/F, (6-4 230) Syracuse R

15 Gerald Henderson, G (6-4 215), Duke R
51 Steven Hill, C (7-0 248) Arkansas 1
31 Rob Kurz, F (6-9 232) Notre Dame 1
4 Oleksiy Pecherov, F (7-0 234) Ukraine 2
20 Garrett Siler, C (6-11 305) Augusta State R
7 Ben Woodside, G (5-11 185) North Dakota State R

As you’ll notice, GERALD HENDERSON is listed on the roster. Little technicality here: He was drafted 12th by Charlotte.

Is there some big trade they haven’t told us about?

Nope.

The Bobcats have nixed their summer-league team this year in a cost-cutting move, so Larry Brown (who’s buddies with David Kahn) is placing players on other team’s summer-league rosters.

Since the Wolves are lacking shooting guards, Henderson will end up playing on the Wolves’ team.

Expect Corey to practice with the team and then maybe play a game or two, but no more than that, just to try his knee out.

To address the little birdie and Charley Walters’ “report” that Ricky Rubio was in town — or due in town — yesterday to meet with David Kahn…

Honestly, I don’t know.

I’ve worked to confirm it, which unfortunately as a beat writer is a necessity, but haven’t been able to.

David Kahn promised “transparency” when he took the job but eventually said “Sorry, we have no comment” when I texted him numerous times to ask if has, or will soon meet, with Rubio and his father.

That he says no comment rather than deny it leads me to believe there’s something there, which isn’t surprising that the two sides would begin some kind of conversation face to face soon.

Rubio’s agent,  Dan Fegan, has not returned repeated phone messages, except, I suspect, to hang up on me when he called from a posh New York City hotel this morning not knowing exactly whose call he was returning from his cell phone.

Well-placed people inside the Wolves say they don’t know whether Rubio slipped into town or whether Kahn will try to meet with him and/or Fegan when Kahn hits the road this week to begin his coaching search.

The New York Post reported Rubio, perhaps as early as Monday, is expected to receive offers to play for teams in Turkey and Madrid next season.

If he does sign elsewhere for big money, the Wolves still hold his rights. And unless he breaks his neck or struggles, he’ll just continue to gain value as the Wolves sit and wait.

Either team could pay considerably more to his buyout than the $500,000 that NBA rules allow the Wolves to pay.

So until it becomes clearer and the two sides become forthright, here’s some notes and thoughts on other subjects regarding the RRM (Ricky Rubio Matter) and word that’s coming in from sources around the league now that the draft is behind us:

* I can’t see Rubio and Jonny Flynn playing together because I don’t think Fegan will ever allow it.

He’s aiming for that big second contract to compensate for the buyout millions Rubio is going to have to pay his Spanish team and he won’t allow the chance that Flynn outplays his client and diminishes his value when that second contract comes around.

* Kahn fielded offers to Al Jefferson on draft day — including one from New Jersey that offered Devin Harris, Yi Jianlian and the No. 11 in some sort of package — but don’t think they were considered all the seriously.

*Kevin Love’s name didn’t come up much, if at all, in trade talks other Memphis trying to get him and the No. 5 or 6 for the No. 2.

* The Wolves did turn down that Knicks’ offer of No. 8 and Wilson Chandler for the No. 5, which Donnie Walsh would have used to take Rubio and not Stephen Curry.

*The Wolves took Henk Norel from the Netherlands with a second-round pick as much for the fact that he’s Rubio’s teammate at DKV Joventut and is a friendly face as they did for his potential.

*Kahn is expected to hit the road next week to start his coaching interview search rather than stay in Minneapolis and let coaches come to him.

It’ll be interesting to see how many coaches are scratching their heads over the Wolves’ draft and wondering if they want any part of this thing.

But it only takes one who doesn’t, and it sure looks like that guy will be Mark Jackson, with Bill Laimbeer — who I hear Kahn spoke with he was saying he didn’t have a coaching list and wasn’t going to have one until after the draft — likely as an assistant.

Ben Woodside, Albert Lea’s own, said he wasn’t disappointed when he didn’t get drafted Thursday night because he never expected it and becoming a free agent allowed his agents to find him the best situation on a summer-league team.

That opportunity will come with the Wolves, a team lacking guards who have signed him to play with Jonny Flynn and Wayne Ellington, among others, in Vegas next month. (Don’t hold your breathe on Ricky Rubio).

“It’s a great situation to play alongside great players, to compete against great players,” he said. “I’m just excited for the opportunity. I’ve landed in a great situation. I’m ready to start right away.”

He made the 90-minute ride from Albert Lea when he was a kid. Now, with about just four guards on the roster, there is a chance the guy who put up 37 points against Kansas in that NCAA tourney game at the Metrodome could next fall call Target Center his office.

“I was a big fan, coming up to see K.G. and Marbury,” he said.

Marbury? That was a long time ago.

“I was just a little guy,” he said.

You could say he still is, at about 5-11.

“I just want to show everybody what I can do,” he said. “A kid from Albert Lea, I don’t think many people expected it.”

Asked about the outside chance that he could play in the same backcourt with Ricky Rubio in Vegas, Woodside said, “I don’t care who’s next to me. You get here (NBA camps) and they’re all great players.”

David Kahn introduced Jonny Flynn and Wayne Ellington at Target Center this afternoon, a day most notable for who was not there than who was.

Ricky Rubio was not present and Kahn spent the opening segment of the news conference and a good amount of time afterward saying he will not pressure Rubio, who must reached agreement on a hefty buyout with his Spanish team and who appears none too keen on playing in Minnesota, and is willing to wait a year, even two for the 18-year-old point guard to come to the NBA.

“We want to be supportive and helpful because I do believe the contractual issue is a little thorny,” Kahn said. “If it means we have to wait a year, we wait a year. If we had to wait, God forbid, two years, he’d be 20 when he got here. That’s pretty young. The last thing we need to do is become overwrought today. The way I look at it, this was a gift. I didn’t see any plausible scenario this would occur.”

Other things:

* Kahn said he’s prepared for a “turbulent” summer regarding Rubio but said he is convinced everything will work out in the long run.

* He said he received calls from three NBA executives Friday inquiring about Rubio’s availability and didn’t rule out trading anybody said some day, but said he had no intention of doing that now. Knicks boss Donnie Walsh, Kahn’s mentor, said in a New York news conference that he will call Kahn about Rubio.

* Rubio is unlikely to play for the Wolves Vegas Summer League, which gathers  July 9 for practices and games. Flynn and Ellington both are expected to participate.

* Kahn likely will begin interviewing coaching candidates next week and he said he’ll conduct it in a most private manner. He expects it to take most of July. He said Friday he still did not have a list, and invited me to search his pockets to find one. Still, Mark Jackson looks like far and away the favorite.

* Rubio remarked Thursday night how Minnesota is “too cold.” Flynn, who played at Syracuse and is from Niagara Falls, NY, isn’t shivering in fear of Minnesota winters.

“I like to say wintertime here is like Hawaii compared to Niagara Falls,” Flynn said. “Maybe I can give Wayne some winter fashion tips on how to dress.”

* Ellington when asked if he was surprised to hear his name called out to the Timberwolves with the 28th pick and if he had expected him to take a fourth point guard with their fourth and final first round pick: “There weren’t many point guards left on the board.”

Here’s a “Wolves Insider” I wrote for Saturday’s paper with my theory on Kahn’s thinking with the dueling point guards picks:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/49287637.html

David Kahn and the Wolves asked me to pass this along and post it here on the blog.

Dear Timberwolves Fans and Supporters:

It’s been five weeks since I arrived in Minneapolis and I hope you can feel what I feel: change.

I especially want to talk about last night’s draft and explain why we made the decisions we did.

First, from a philosophical standpoint, I believe that teams should select players in the top 10 of the NBA Draft who have the chance — and I underline the word chance — to be special later in their careers.  You do not use the fifth and sixth picks to select rotation players, but only players that figure to be starters, if not out-and-out stars.

So, we were committed to taking two players who fit that description, and we were less concerned about the positions they played, assuming they were not power forwards.

There were several two-person options we would have been comfortable with at those selections.

It wasn’t until late Thursday afternoon that I thought there was a chance Ricky Rubio might be available for us at No. 5.  I had actually been told by somebody who I deeply respect in the NBA that Ricky would be selected third by Oklahoma City.  But we were prepared for all options nonetheless.

Ricky has one of the most tenacious, most capable agents in our sport, Dan Fegan.  He cares deeply about his clients.  I explained to Dan late afternoon that we were singularly motivated to build an NBA championship-contending team in Minnesota — that it might take a few years, of course — but that nobody here cared about anything other than competing for an NBA title.  That we have only one life to live, and that we must spend our lives trying, as Pat Riley once taught me, to leave footprints.

I purposely selected Ricky with the fifth pick, not the sixth, to help with his buyout situation.  Ricky and his family have taken a very bold step to enter the NBA despite having two years remaining on his contract with his Spanish team.  I know that they would have preferred that we try to move to the second or third pick to take him, and I respect their wishes, but my belief was that we need during these next 15 months to acquire multiple pieces to make this a championship-contending team over the next three-to-four years.  The price for moving to No. 2 or 3 was far too steep.

Ricky is a proven professional who played against the USA in the Gold Medal game in the Beijing Olympics.  He is a virtuoso, a rare player who may well be unique.  I have long believed that he has the chance to become one of basketball’s brightest stars.   You’ve seen the highlights — he is like an orchestra conductor with the basketball.

He will be our starting point guard here the moment he walks through our front door.  We may have to wait a year, or even two, but he is worth the wait.  We must be patient.  This is a big step for he and his family.

With the sixth pick, we selected Jonny Flynn.  I truly believe that Jonny is as much a scorer as a playmaker and will thrive playing off of Ricky.  I also believe that, together, we will have one of the most dynamic defensive backcourts in the NBA over time.  You will love Jonny Flynn.  He, too, will be special.

And I also believe that there is a tendency in the NBA for all of us (myself included) to become too formulaic in our thinking.  If you think of the Detroit Pistons backcourt during their championship run, with Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars and Vinnie Johnson, or the Celtics with their backcourt of Danny Ainge and Dennis Johnson (and before Ainge there was Gerald Henderson), or the Lakers with Jerry West and Gail Goodrich, or the Knicks with Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe, there are many instances of championship success that is not so paint-by-the-numbers.

It can and will work.

At the 18th pick, we did not believe we could identify a player who would be worthy of that rookie scale slot and become part of our core nucleus, so in an attempt to further stockpile assets, we traded it for a future first-round pick with only modest lottery protection.  This will prove to be valuable.  We also traded one of our two second-round picks for a 2010 second-round pick.

Finally, we selected Wayne Ellington with the 28th pick, one of the stars off the North Carolina National Championship team.  Wayne is a 6-foot-5 shooter who has improved dramatically this season.  He will help us soon.  And, last but not least, we used our remaining second-round pick to take Henk Norel, a teammate of Ricky’s in Spain, who is long and athletic.  Norel has one year remaining on his contract.

What excites me most about this team is the following:

Al Jefferson, at 24, is the oldest player of our four future building blocks.  Kevin Love is 20.  Jonny Flynn is 20.  Ricky is 18.  Wayne Ellington is 21.  And let’s not forget Corey Brewer is 23, Ryan Gomes is 26 and Sebastian Telfair just turned 24.

We will need a special coach who understands that we are very much in the development stage and need to be shaped and molded.  I have already talked to Al Jefferson and Kevin Love about the qualities they would like to see in their new coach — what kind of person we should be seeking — and will also consult with our new players.  Players respect structure and discipline.  They want to know where they stand.  And they want to know the coach has their back.  I am eager to hear from Ricky, Jonny, Wayne and some of our existing players as we prepare our list.

These are fun times, I hope, to be a Timberwolves fan as we continue on this journey.  There will be bumps and bruises along the way, but I believe we are pointed in the right direction.

As always, thank you for your interest and passion.  It makes our jobs easier.

David Kahn

Jonny Flynn and Wayne Ellington will be there.

Ricky Rubio is not scheduled to be.

What does it mean?

Not sure yet,  but given his reluctant reaction when he was drafted by the Wolves last night…

A Wolves spokesman said there’s “no conspiracy here” and said Rubio’s agent, Dan Fegan, decided not to have his client come to town because of the uncertainty over Rubio’s unresolved contract buyout with his Spanish team.

He said Rubio is not balking at playing for the Wolves.

David Kahn will address matters this afternoon at 3 p.m.