Kevin McHale this morning (in a sparsely attended media gathering given the 24 minutes’ notice; my colleague Patrick Reusse hustled over to Target Center because I was stuck in the dentist’s chair) confirmed details of the trade with Philadelphia: That first-round pick from Utah by way of the Sixers is top 22 protected in 2009, top 17 in 2010, top 15 in 2011 and the top 16 in 2012 and 2013.

The Sixers also gave the Wolves some cash money and a 2010 second-round choice the Wolves threw into the deal gets paid only if the Wolves are selecting 55 through 60 that year. That means they’d have to be one of the league’s six best teams just two seasons hence.

Third-year swingman Rodney Carney will play for the Wolves summer league team that begins play in Las Vegas on Monday. Randy Foye will be practice with the team this weekend to get acquainted to his new teammates Carney and Kevin Love, but won’t play in games.

Craig Smith was going to go practice, but with negotiations to re-sign the restricted free agent at a standstill, he won’t be there.

Wouldn’t be surprising if other Wolves (Rashad McCants, Al Jefferson, etc.) showed up for a little Vegas fun and a look-see. Mike Miller will be with the Olympic team (he’s an alternate) for training in Vegas just as the summer league is ending.

Asked what he considered the best part of the trade, McHale said: “Rodney Carney. He’s a first-rounder. We liked him out of Memphis. He’s one of those high-wire act guys. He can really run the wing. And we have a great outlet passer now in Kevin Love.
“As I told Rodney, ‘There’s a lot of competition here. You can either earn playing time, and earn time on the bench.’ ”

McHale said he expects veteran center Calvin Booth to be at training camp and said the team remains active in trade discussions.
“I don’t think we’re done,’’ he said.

In a way, he sounded like he almost missed Marko Jaric and said he’d like to add a combo-guard type who play some point, some off guard, some small forward. “One of those 1-2-3 guys, they’re very handy,” McHale said.

The Wolves have only one point guard - Randy Foye - at the moment. Sebastian Telfair, the other top point guard from last season, is a free agent.
“We like Sebastian a lot,’’ McHale said. “We’ve been talking with Andy Miller, his agent. Same old story. They want more than we can give them, and we’re offering less than they want.’’

Interesting to see if Carney’s presence gives the Wolves any more leverage in their negotiations with Ryan Gomes.

Funny, McHale made it sound like the Wolves’ 22-victory season last year makes it less imperative to re-sign their free agents rather than more so.

“Bottom line is, we won 22 games,” he said. “There’s less pressure on us to sign those guys. If we won 62 games, then we probably need to sign them.”

As for the Kevin Love signing, sounds like the Wolves will take a contract out to Vegas and have him sign it there when he joins the team, which begins practicing on Friday.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 1:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.